Toheroa – a national treasure

“Manaakitanga is an important part of Maori culture, essentially it’s about looking after people,” Michael says. In the early days local Maori had to adapt to the seasons for food, while toheroa could be harvested all year round.

“In some of the histories, early settlers said they couldn’t have survived without food from the local tribe. That’s manaakitanga.”

That’s the philosophy Michael operates the current permit system for collecting toheroa on. Michael is a Tangata Kaitiaki – someone authorised to issue Customary Authority for the collection of toheroa.

“Basically the authorisations are for us [Ngāi Tahu], but it’s better to manage it like this, to give authorisations to the local community because they are going to have a special occasion.”

“We think it is better to do this than have pressure for an open day like in 1993,” Michael says. That was the last time there was an open day. It was attended by 20,000 people who were allowed to harvest five toheroa each. “It is said some people went out twice, which meant over 100,000 toheroa were harvested that day, the majority ending up in the dump because people didn’t know what to do with them.”

Michael says they’re a national treasure. “There are only about four places in the country where they grow. They require a wide, flat beach for the wave energy to run off. The spat comes in on the tide, right up to the dunes. When they’re tiny like that they live just under the surface – they can be dug out easily by waves or crushed by vehicles.”