Why are there (almost) no Maori Restaurants? Maori food as cuisine, commodity and ingredient
Susannah Wieck
Sponsored and Supervised by Dr Carolyn Morris, School of Sociology and Anthropology
Abstract
New Zealand has a multitude of eateries that serve a wide
variety of international foods: Indian, Thai, Chinese, Korean,
Mexican, Italian, Greek, Spanish are to name but a few.
Whilst content to consume international flavour and cuisine,
the New Zealand public — tourist ventures of hangi
and a ‘cultural experience’ aside — appears
to show scant interest in the commoditisation of Maori food,
and marketing and consuming it as an established cuisine
My results showed that there are a handful of Maori restaurants
in New Zealand. In addition, there are a number of restaurants
that use Maori foods in their dishes, and yet are not marketed
as ‘Maori’ but rather, as servers of ‘modern
kiwi cuisine,’ or ‘New Zealand cuisine.’ My
results also indicated an increase in the availability and
circulation of Maori foods as commodities; for example,
the commercialisation of Maori herbs by the company Kinaki
Wild Herbs. There is no short answer as to why there is
a lack of Maori restaurants, but my findings suggest marketing
methods of labelling as an important facet in support of
this assumption. The nature of this project was to scope
and collate data that will serve as a foundation for future
research on this topic.