ONE OF THE whānau

Hospitality and communal dining are central to Māori culture, and on New Zealand’s North Island, Nadine Toe Toe and her whānau (family) welcome guests with open arms

- JEAN TENG

My shoes squelch in mud as we stand on a grassy bank, waiting for Himioa, or Himi as he’s better known, to coax the hinaki out of the lake. The hinaki — a cylindrical, woven rope pot — slinks unhappily from the water, empty. It was laid last night in the hope of trapping a freshwater eel.

“I expected this,” Himi says, laughing. “The moon has been too bright for them.”

Native longfin eel, or ‘tuna’ as they’re known by Maori, are a traditional source of food, though numbers have dwindled in New Zealand's Lake Aniwhenua and Rangitaiki River due to dams disrupting their migration and breeding patterns. Himi Nuku is involved in a conservation effort to preserve the fish for future generations, manually transporting them from one end of the river to the other so they can reach the sea. It’s vital work, and personal: his iwi (tribe), NgÄti Manawa, are known as the Eel People. Each time they fish, they take only enough for one meal, but if there’s a special occasion — such as a tangihanga, a funeral rite — calling for larger numbers, special permission from the rest of the tribe is sought.