Traditional knowledge or Matauranga Maori in New Zealand is a key element of the intergenerational relationship with food systems for Maori society. But this knowledge is at risk of being further eroded for many reasons, in particular the impact of contemporary knowledge, new crops and crop needs and the pressure of environmental change such as climate change. This applies across all of the South Pacific region but there are nuances aligned to crops such as kumara or sweetpotato which are familiar throughout Polynesia. Tahuri Whenua is the national Maori horticultural collective in Aotearoa/New Zealand and one of their objectives is to collate traditional knowledge aligned to crops and food systems and make it accessible to future generations, in particular those who do not have access to it. Many of our pakeke (adults) and rangatahi (youth) have not been raised with this knowledge, especially those living away from their whenua or ancestral lands. The Collective has published several publications to support the education and practises of tradition aligned to our food systems. There is now an urgency to build on this space with the loss of our elders and impact of new issues such as climate change or biological risk to crop management. The process of sourcing and collating this knowledge is bound by cultural practises and protocols which are important for determining what can be taken into a public forum and what is retained by cultural managers. This is overseen by a kaumatua group or council of elders within the collective.