Our story

Food is memory. It is identity, ceremony, and belonging. The Indigenous Global Chefs Collective was born from a simple but powerful belief: that Indigenous food knowledge deserves to be honoured, practised, and shared with the world.

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The beginning

Where it began

The story of IGCC starts around a shared table in Hawaiʻi. A group of Hawaiian and Aotearoa New Zealand chefs — united by their love of food and their deep connection to Indigenous culture — began imagining what it would look like to bring their kai together on a world stage. What if they stopped cooking in isolation and started cooking as one collective?

The idea crystallised around a shared opportunity: the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education (WIPCE) 2025, to be held in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. WIPCE gathers Indigenous leaders, educators, and communities from across the globe — and the chefs saw it as the perfect stage to showcase what Indigenous culinary excellence could look like when nations came together.

What started as a conversation between two nations became a collective spanning Aotearoa New Zealand, Hawaiʻi, Australia, Samoa, Niue, and North America — each bringing their own ancestral knowledge, their own ingredients, their own stories to the table.

Where ancestral knowledge meets contemporary craft

IGCC chefs united by culture, purpose, and a shared table

The Indigenous Global Chefs Collective — united by culture, purpose, and a shared vision - Photo Credit Sam Kemp

WIPCE 2025

The first shared table

At WIPCE 2025, IGCC made its debut. Invited by Professors Damon Salesa and Meihana Durie of AUT, the collective hosted an exclusive dinner for conference delegates — an exquisite, multi-nation menu that drew on ancestral ingredients and traditional techniques, presented with world-class culinary craft.

The day after the dinner, the chefs gathered somewhere quieter. At Velskov native forest farm in the Waitākere Ranges, they foraged together for native plants, cooked together in a relaxed environment, and simply spent time together — a group of Indigenous chefs from across the world, standing in the same forest, learning from one another.

Then came Te Ataahua o Te Kai — a session hosted at Ōrakei Marae for WIPCE attendees. The collective showcased Indigenous culinary excellence through sustainable, traditional, and Indigenous ingredients, and opened the floor to kōrero around food sovereignty.

Foraging native plants in the Waitākere Ranges

Foraging in the Waitākere Ranges

Indigenous ingredients, contemporary plating - Pala ka hala, momona ka wana, Chef Kealoha Domingo, Hawaii

Te Ataahua o Te Kai at Ōrakei Marae - Mole with squash and sunflower seed cracker, Chef Crystal Wahpepah, Kickapoo Nation

"It was a glimpse of what IGCC could become: a space where food and culture, conversation and community, all belong at the same table."

Why this matters

A culture worth protecting

Indigenous food cultures are under pressure. Traditional knowledge is disappearing from homes, schools, and communities. Indigenous chefs are underrepresented in the culinary industry. Young people often lack visible pathways into food, agriculture, and cultural leadership.

IGCC exists to change that. Through events, mentorship, education, and cross-cultural exchange, we work to revitalise Indigenous food knowledge and create real opportunities for the next generation.

The chefs within our collective prove every day that Indigenous culinary mastery and contemporary excellence are not in opposition — they are powerfully complementary.

Our foundation

What we believe

Indigenous food knowledge is sacred, intergenerational, and collectively held.

Each nation retains cultural authority and intellectual ownership over its heritage.

When Indigenous food thrives, communities thrive.

The best way to protect something is to celebrate it — loudly, proudly, and together.

Traditional flavours elevated through world-class technique - Hapuka Hinu-kōhue, Chef Kia Kanuta, Aotearoa - Photo Credit Sam Kemp

There is a place for you here.

IGCC is a growing network of Indigenous chefs, producers, knowledge keepers, and communities from across the world.

Get involved Meet the collective