Sidestep: The Kumara

The Polynesian Kumara we know came from South America. It even has its name because of the Quechuan name 'kumara'.

1. Taroamahoe. Oldest known species; claimed by Arawa to be the original variety brought to Aotearoa by Whaka-o-te-Rangi. Small, dry tuber with few “eyes”; could be eaten raw, dried or steam-cooked. Hard to cultivate owing to care needed in storage during winter and difficulty in handling when planting out. Taroamakoe, pehu and rekamaroa were all prepared in the same way by dividing the tuber into three pieces after the young shoots were hardened off enough to move. Care had to be taken that they were not dislodged from their “eye” sockets in the process of transferring from hot-bed to plot.

Shallow pits previously warmed by fire were hollowed out, lined with dry fern, then layers of tubers, more fern, and finally earth and left three weeks or more. Then the soil was carefully loosened and tubers divided into two or three pieces before carrying to planting grounds.

(2) Pehu: is also claimed as an original and has practically disappeared, although it was grown extensively at Torere at one time, it was more compact in growth and had a hard, smooth surface skin and smaller leaves than any of the other known varieties. (Taukuira Mita states it might be still found growing at Torere.)

(3) Hutihuti: This is claimed to be an original by the Arawa also, and differs only in size from the taroamahoe. It was said to be a favourite food of travellers when eaten on the march after being sun-dried. It also supplied the almost only known drink to the old-time Maori, kao, which was made by mixing the dry powdered root with water. Until 1942-43 it was, with the rekamaroa, a fairly familiar sight in every home kumara plot. Another reason why hutihuti has not been propagated latterly is that it has outgrown its popularity as a food and is much more tedious to prepare for cooking. (I have seen the older generation of kuia (women) spend hours scraping a basketful of hutihuti just for one meal in the home. Straight from the ground it compared more than favourably with the large Island Red or even the more fleshy rekamaroa when cooked, and used to be a favourite dish with boiled fish-heads or any fish meal, to the older generation.)

(4) Rekamaroa: This seems to have been the most easily cultivated and the most popular variety of the four named species, probably because of its larger size and fleshy contents, and the fact that it propagated more easily than the other three. Invariably also, the root crop per plant gave a better yield in a good season, averaging three to five tubers per plant. It was more easily handled when planting out, being as hardy as the Island Red, but like this commercial variety, a poor keeper. There seems to be some doubt as to whether this is really an original kumara, but it was certainly known to the old-time Maori long before the advent of the Pakeha.

The kumara, or sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., a member of the plant family Convolvulaceae, is cultivated for its edible swollen roots. The most important of the small array of Maori cultigens in pre-European times, it is the only one to become established in the modern New Zealand diet and is grown commercially in the Auckland Province.

Maori traditions have placed the origin of the New Zealand kumara at the legendary Hawaiiki, and the time of introduction in the fourteenth century A.D. The advent of the kumara, representing the beginnings of agriculture, has been used as one of the points of separation between the two important developmental phases of Maori culture, the Archaic or Moahunter, and the Classic.

Analyses of recent data from botanical, agricultural, and linguistic sources indicate the following pertinencies. The kumara is of American origin. A wild species of Ipomoea found in Mexico, on cytogenetic investigation, has proved to be more closely related to the kumara than any other species so far studied. Further, the range of variation displayed by a South American collection of varieties exceeds that found within a collection representative of Polynesian and Melanesian islands and South-East Asia. Again, the distribution in the Pacific is not the product of a single introduction and subsequent diffusion. Independent studies, one on the variation of vernacular names applied to the plant in the western Pacific, the other on plant variation already referred to, indicate that a likely explanation for distribution is a three-stream introduction from America; the first, in prehistoric times to Polynesia, followed by two early historic introductions – by the Portuguese to the East Indies, diffusing to Melanesia, and by the Spanish from their American colonies to the Philippines, from whence the plant reached mainland Asia. The possibility that the Portuguese introduction was made by a circuitous route from the Caribbean through Africa and the Indian Ocean cannot be dismissed.

Genetics have finally nailed one of the great South Pacific mysteries – where did pre-historic Polynesians get kumara from. Research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows what many Polynesians always believed – the ancient voyagers went to South America and got it, long before Europeans even reached the South Pacific. The kumara, or sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), was domesticated in Peru about 8000 years ago and slowly spread through South America.

But how it got the 5000km to Polynesia has been the source of endless argument, including the famed, but ultimately wrong 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition in which Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl tried to show native Americans took kumara to Polynesia. According to Science Now, archaeologists and linguists have accumulated evidence supporting the hypothesis that pre-modern Polynesian sailors went to South America and picked up sweet potato. If this is true, then it is just as likely that South Americans came west but the same scientists supporting Polynesians. going east would disagree as it doesn't fit the settlement narrative. They say South Americans couldn't sail west successfully. How then did the Polynesian get back home? (!)

Running DNA tests have proven difficult because European traders exported varieties of sweet potato from Mexico and the Caribbean to the Pacific, and those breeds mixed with the older Polynesian varieties. Of course this is utter bullshit because there are many South American styles, weapons, names, birds and foods that are found in the Pacific.... and the FUSHIA. Proponents of the Polynesia to South America route only push that, and that without any evidence including ocean currents) because the possibility of it being the other way around would ruffle their long suffering theories to fit the chosen narrative.

The author of Science Now, while proposing this as fact generally, has admitted that genetic analysis alone doesn't prove that premodern Polynesians made contact with South America, it strongly supports the existing archaeological and linguistic evidence pointing to that conclusion.

Kiwi scientists say they're not convinced by a new study that casts doubt on the theory tying kumara in Polynesia to early contact with South America. The upshot here is that even the experts cannot agree. Correct, because there is not enough evidence to support their theory based on the Kumara.

However, we propose evidence of SA contact with Polynesia and Aotearoa via Easter Island, via multiple methods of evidence...

1. The Kumara

2. The Fushia

3. The Mapuche clava

4. The Pukeko

5. Various names

6. Beads in Ecuador showing the same bird as on Easter Island

7. South American Pampas grass.... identical to Toetoe (except it flowers 6 months after toetoe)