Whāngārā Farms joins Te Hononga Hapori Harakeke, The Harakeke Community Alliance

Whāngārā Farms is delighted to share that we have joined Te Hononga Hapori Harakeke, The Harakeke Community Alliance of Aotearoa. 

Te Hononga Hapori Harakeke (HHH), The Harakeke Community Alliance, is a network of Māori landowners, farmers, businesses, environmental kaitiaki, local government sector experts and organisations who have joined together to form a sustainable and taiao-focused Harakeke Industry.  

In recent years, there has been a steady resurgence in interest as other species have gone out of favour, and the properties of flax have been recognised once again for shelter, margins of wetlands and waterways, nutrient absorption, and as a resource for fibre, neutraceuticals and novel products. Harakeke as a taonga species, will provide for numerous opportunities towards the wellbeing of all, especially for whenua Māori such as Whāngārā Farms where we have land that could be utilised and repurposed, and also where we are seeking land transition ecology. For Whāngārā Farms, joining the Alliance fulfils a yearning to return to and instill traditional indigenous knowledge, resources and rongoā with a plan to restore the whenua throughout our Partnership blocks. 

Whāngārā Farms will also be working collaboratively with other Māori Incorporations and entities to trial growing methods with a view to explore: building climate resiliency; selective harvesting and cropping; raw material supply for existing product production and also product production in our own right as a Māori Incorporation, and; carbon sequestration.  

Also a part of the HHH Alliance is KiwiFibre, a key organisation who are activating the use of regenerative fibres, such as harakeke, to design solutions to help national and global industries to make a change in our taiao and economy. 

Whāngārā Farms are looking forward to integrating the indigenous wisdom of harakeke with modern agricultural systems. As part of a wider and future-focused Masterplan that the organisation is working towards, joining the HHH supports an overarching aim to support the business to thrive economically, whilst providing intergenerational opportunities centred on our values, our people and our taiao.