Taro is a staple food of Polynesia. It has been extensively cultivated for its large, spherical, underground tubers, rich in starch. It grows on open hillsides and when harvest time comes the various family clans leave the villages early in the morning, carrying baskets and knives. The villagers split up into groups. The men do the heavy work, such as pulling the taro out of the ground and lopping off its root and putting it into the baskets. Some of the stems of the plants are specially chosen and re-planted for future crops. The women cut the grass and leave it laid out to dry and become fertilizer for the soil.

During important feasts the job of cooking is left to the men of the tribe. The men prepare the ovens which consist of flat stones heated until they are red-hot. The food is cooked on these hot stones according to a traditional order of the menu: suckling pigs, vegetables, fish, turtles and bread-fruit cut into four. The most expert of the cooks prepare the poi, a thin paste of taro starch wrapped in banana leaves. All the food is wrapped in leaves, served in wooden bowls or platters and eaten with the fingers.

The whole oven is covered in leaves and matting to keep the heat in.