Growing great ideas for her community
It has taken a pandemic for Kiwis to realise we need to start growing our own food, Michelle Wi reckons. She is the driving force behind a King Country garden that feeds a community and grows better people, as Lawrence Gullery finds out.
Eight rows of riwai (potatoes), 263 kumara and about 24 pumpkins are waiting in the late summer sun to be harvested at a community garden in Te Kuiti.
Standing among its rows is Michelle Wi, who has taken the once-barren piece of land on the ‘‘dark side of town’’ and turned it into a thriving, growing project under the banner Maniapoto Maara Kai Roopuu.
Wi, of Nga¯ ti Rora descent, calls it the ‘‘MKR Garden’’ and although it has a Ma¯ ori name she insists it is for everyone, Ma¯ ori, Pa¯ keha¯ , no matter what race, culture or colour you might be.
In this garden, she is not only growing food for the people, she is growing better people too.
This is a place where anyone can come and chip in, pull a few weeds, harvest some vegetables, learn about each other and learn about gardening.
The project is the sixth of its kind to attempt to turn the 0.4ha block off The Esplanade into a community garden but Wi is the first to follow through and turn it into reality. It took an international pandemic though, for the ball to start rolling on this long-term project.
‘‘A year ago I had just come back from Australia where I had planned my daughter’s surprise 30th birthday on the Gold Coast.
‘‘That was when I noticed, going into Australia, people wearing masks, airport staff using gloves and it made me aware of how far behind New Zealand was, at the time, when we went through customs.’’
By March 21, 2020, the Government announced the four-tier alert system and on March 25 the country went into lockdown.
‘‘I remember getting up every morning and then by 11am I would have cleaned my house top to bottom, I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs with nowhere to go, nothing to do,’’ Wi said.
‘‘I was also getting really anxious about the misinformation being shared online about the pandemic, people talking about not getting a vaccine and I found it really unproductive.’’
Wi had been working as a cleaner at the Waitomo Caves tourism attraction and during level 4 she was among 140 employees made redundant.
‘‘I had actually already started looking at setting up a community garden before that because I just needed something to do.
‘‘I am really thankful to have this garden, it gave me a focus, it helped me heal, gave me something to do and I could really see a need for it in the future.’’
The garden was officially opened in July last year after a few months of hard toil to clear the block.
The second round of alert levels which followed later in the year showed how vulnerable the country was.
‘‘We have all of this fantastic, fertile growing land from here through the Waikato and yet we seem to rely on Auckland for supply.
‘‘Why can’t the supermarkets take produce from around their own communities? Isn’t that better in terms of things like a reliable supply, a lower carbon footprint, employment for people?
‘‘We need to look at things like that and perhaps go back to the old days when we knew how to grow food for ourselves.’’
Everyone wants to buy ‘‘a big house with a larger section’’ but most don’t know how to grow a garden.
‘‘What are you going to use a big section for? Surely not just to have a barbecue?
‘‘We used to have big sections because we knew how to grow food to feed our families, we were self-sufficient.’’
The maara kai is on land owned by the Waitomo District Council and leased by Maniapoto Marae Pact Trust.
Wi is waiting for an agreement to be reached between the two organisations which would allow the Maniapoto Maara Kai Roopuu, a charitable trust, to apply for funding to drive projects at the garden.
Reluctantly, she reveals all of the work she has put into the garden so far has been for aroha, it has been voluntary.
Funding would help pay a wage for her efforts although that is not the primary factor driving her efforts.
‘‘It is certainly not but being able to apply for funding would mean we could look at long-term planning for the garden.’’
Wi refers to the location as ‘‘the dark side of town’’ because many years ago it was the last part of Te Kuiti to have street lighting installed.
The nearby rugby park and its open drains also put the dark side of town on a collision course with the council.
‘‘That was the last big march on the council, from this side of the community, to get them to fill in those open drains around the park. My kids used to play in them and they would come home covered in all sorts, you name it, diesel, oil, we had to protest to get the drains covered.
‘‘So as you can see this side of town has not always had the best reputation but hey, we have got a garden and we love it.’’
The garden’s first summer harvest produced a bumper crop of corn, tomatoes, numerous varieties of potatoes, melons, pumpkins, courgettes and a lot more.
‘‘We have had hundreds of kilos of food come out of this garden. I have been blown away by the soil and what it has produced for us.
‘‘I have never brought in any new top soil, or used anything extra aside from a bit of sheep and calf poo.’’
There has been only one incident where a couple of people tried to take vegetables without giving back something in exchange.
Wi said if people were desperate for food, she would never turn them away. All she would ask for is a bit of time helping out in the garden in return.
She does not open up the garden for people to come and collect food though.
Instead she delivers to key providers who are in contact with the families most in need of some kai.
Her weekly delivery rounds include the town’s two foodbanks, Wha¯ nau Ora, women’s refuge and Hillview Home, which is a retirement home in Te Kuiti.
‘‘My deliveries take a long time because you know, I like to talk, and it is a good way to let people know about the garden.’’
Wi has kohanga and childcare centres which visit regularly where the children can learn about how food is grown.
Te Pukeiti Early Childcare Centre is among them. The children have been part of the garden’s progress since last winter.
Recently, they helped harvest riwai and collect eggs from the chickens at the back of the garden.
Wi has linked in students from Te Kuiti High School who have been helping out maintaining the garden as well.
‘‘Some kids come here and don’t even know how food is grown.
‘‘They think it all comes out of the supermarket. It is a good experience for kids and I love having children come in, seeing the look on their faces makes it worthwhile.’’
Hillview Home looms as another side project for the garden and Wi hopes to convince the high school students to become involved.
‘‘I would like to see more of our older people down here but because of Covid, I know they are worried about going out.
‘‘Hillview is where a lot of our old people, Ma¯ ori and Pa¯ keha¯ , from this community end up because it is one of a few places with palliative care.
‘‘They have a garden there but it has not been used for a while. I am hoping to teach the students how to set up a garden so they can take over the one at Hillview.’’
Potatoes have been a particularly successful crop and Wi had a storage shed built to keep a decent supply for when demand picked up heading into autumn.
She is also going to trial winter potatoes as another project for the students to tackle.
Wi knows winter can be a testing time for families. The power bill goes up to keep the home warm and sometimes that means there is not a lot of money left over to put kai on the table.
‘‘I have just changed over to grow winter crops now. I have rested a few of the beds, put a bit of fertiliser on and have all of my brassica vegetables ready to go.
‘‘That is cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, I have also got bok choy, carrots and parsnips already in or ready to go for winter.’’
Wi attended the Pakaraka Permaculture course established by Harry Parke and Jeanette Fitzsimons in the Coromandel, which helped her shape the maara kai in Te Kuiti.
Education and training forms a big part of her long-term plan for the garden and she hopes to connect with a training provider over the next year or so.
‘‘I really want to set up a horticulture course here to teach people about growing food. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, learn how to make a garden for our old people in our community who can’t do it themselves.’’
In the short term, Wi and others are planning the ‘‘Maniapoto Munch’’, a kind of evening food market in Te Kuiti.
‘‘We want to provide food from as many different cultures as we can, Ma¯ ori,
Pa¯ keha¯ , Indian, Asian, we want to have a table of food from each one for people to come along and try.’’
In 2020, Wi was among the recipients of a Kiwibank Local Hero Medal for her work at the garden. She reckons the accolade is the result of the efforts of many community groups, businesses and families who have helped make the garden a success.
‘‘Yep, so Te Kuiti has had its ups and downs. I just hope this encourages more people to come down here and become involved. It is life changing.’’
‘‘We used to have big sections because we knew how to grow food to feed our families, we were self-sufficient.’’