What is Kumara famous for?
Kumara is now part of the West Coast Wilderness Trail, which is a popular tourist attraction for cyclists. The Kumara Racing Club (established 1887) is still going strong and hosts the Kumara Races on the second Saturday in January which is the largest event in the town.
What is Kumara in Maori?
The Polynesian ancestors of Māori brought kūmara (sweet potato) with them as a food plant when they arrived in New Zealand in the 13th century.
What is Kumara in New Zealand?
Kumara is a town on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is located 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Greymouth, close to the western end of State Highway 73, which leads across Arthur’s Pass to Christchurch. The Taramakau River flows past to the north.
Where did Kumara come from?
The kumara, or sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), was domesticated in Peru about 8000 years ago and slowly spread through South America.
How do you pronounce kumara in Māori?
1. Locals pronounce Kumara with the stress on the middle syllable, not the first as we do with the maori pronunciation of the root vegetable, making it KU-MAR-A. 2. ‘Kumara’ is believed to be a corruption of the Maori words “Kohe Mara” meaning the blossom of tataramoa (bush lawyer).
What did Māori eat?
Along with root vegetables, they also introduced Kiore (the Polynesian rat) and Kurī (the Polynesian dog), both valuable sources of meat. Māori hunted a wide range of birds (such as mutton birds and moa), collected seafood and gathered native ferns, vines, palms, fungi, berries, fruit and seeds.
How did kumara get to Polynesia?
The prevailing explanation is that Polynesian voyagers had sailed to South America and brought the sweet potato back to the islands on their return. Archaeological and genetic data seemed to support this conclusion, although scientists have questioned some of this evidence over the years.
Is sweet potato and kumara the same?
Kumara is often referred to as a sweet potato, but it belongs to the morning glory (convolvulaceae) family, and not, like potato, to the nightshade one (solanaceae). And it is not a yam! (Yams belong to the lily or dioscoreaceae family.) The modern kumara plant is a climbing vine, with tubers.
How is R pronounced in Maori?
When it is followed by an ‘i’ or ‘u’, it includes a slight sibilant sound, but not nearly as much as an English ‘t’. R Pronounced as a soft ‘rolled’ r.
Is Kumara in English word?
nounplural noun kumara A sweet potato. ‘The climate in the area is warmer than in places further south and it is not possible to grow kumara further south.
Why are Māori unhealthy?
Their palate tends to favour the fast foods of today. Health Sponsorship Council research shows that there is significant consumption of convenient, fast, fatty food such as KFC. This high fat diet is a major contributor to obesity, heart and kidney disease among Maori.
What does Kai mean to Māori?
The Māori word for food is kai.
Why is kumara important to New Zealand?
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 …
Did sweet potatoes come from Africa?
Sweet potatoes are native to South America and were introduced to Africa in the 1600s via Portuguese trade routes.
What do Americans call kumara?
Sweet potatoes are also known as kumara (or kumera) in New Zealand, batatas or boniatos in South America, umala by Samoans, and ‘uala by Native Hawaiians.
Is kumara same as yam?
Why do all Māori words end in a vowel?
Māori (as with other Polynesian languages) is sometimes labelled as a 5 vowel language, this is a little misleading as the Māori vowel system is complex and there are many aspects which are not yet fully understood. Māori is an open syllable language (i.e., all syllables end in a vowel).
What language is Kumara?
The name may come from the Māori language Kohe mara, which is the blossom of the tātarāmoa, or bush lawyer. The Coast to Coast annual multisport race starts at Kumara.
What is the plural of Kumara?
Noun. kumara (plural kumaras or kumara) (New Zealand) A sweet potato.