MY GARDEN, MY LIFE
Today’s Pull up a Stump is about how connected we are to the environment. The environment sustains us; it is everything. As my own community and my Aboriginal friends say, it is “Mother Earth” which provides for everything that has evolved around us. My home garden has now become a paradise where I grow pawpaw, bananas, tapioca, mandarin trees, chillies, ginger, lemongrass, bush lemon, taro and sweet potato, all which sustain me.
I love my garden. I nurture plants from my kitchen and replant them.
In the cool of the evening I love to sit in my garden and watch the birds it has attracted ( honeyeaters, magpies, cockies, sparrows and those damn fruit bats!).
I regard this space as a great means of enhancing wellbeing. It is a sensory thing, a recognition of fulfilment for me; that is, all dimensions of wellbeing.
It sustains my livelihood and connections with the natural environment and is a stimulus for conversation with my neighbours.
Passers- by will stop and ask if they can have a pawpaw, for example.
Or they will barter for plantain bananas or something which I give them. They then bring me back a beautifully cooked meal.
People tell me how they love seeing things grow; they see a connection between all living things. It is good for their mental health as well as my own.
The garden teaches people the understanding of traditional foods. It gets them in touch with the seasons, rainy and dry.
Everyone wants to make tapioca biscuits or cake and tapioca is seasonal. It is planted in the wet and can survive the dry weather here in Townsville.
Quite often the Torres Strait Islander community people will ask for banana leaves for their cup murris. They wrap the meat in the leaves and cook it underground. It retains the moisture and makes the meat tender and gives a beautiful earthy taste.
I was given a great respect for the environment by my grandparents.
Even in PNG where I grew up we had respect not only for the environment but for people. Some of that is lost today. When the environment is mistreated it reflects a social breakdown. But kids of today don’t have the same opportunity as I had. I gardened at school where I was firstly responsible for collecting manure and tending the garden.
We ate the foods grown and we were healthy and strong. People as a society have lost this touch.
The environment is often ignored and young people are shut off from their surroundings.
I have seen how a garden can reengage young people in their education as well as help them get in touch with themselves; they work hand- in- hand. I strongly believe in teaching young people how to garden and to use the foods that come from it.
I advocate a return to gardening as a tool for recovering our children, especially those who are disengaged or disenfranchised. Return them to the environment.
City councils should make space for gardens where the community can grow their foods. Even apartment blocks should have a space.
Town planners should consider this in their designs and ensure the ground is suitable. We need a mentally healthy city and gardens will do this.