As April closed her doors, wild & grace were invited to IdeaShare Twentytwelve project through Transition Town Tauranga, a networking night of sorts which saw fifteen projects presented and received, by inspired Bay of Plenty-ites.
Held at Toi Tauranga, the exhibition space was edged with curious people amidst the cake stands of vegetable fingers and generously garlic-ed homemade hummus, Julia’s green weed fruit smoothies, and black and white sign up sheets for stimulating and worthy activities in the Bay.
Some of you may be asking – What is a Transition Town? Wikipedia tells me: “Transition Towns is a grassroots network of communities that are working to build resilience in response to peak oil, climate destruction, and economic instability. Transition Towns is a brand for these environmental and social movements “founded (in part) upon the principles of permaculture”.
I am sharing (this lengthy blog) about the evening as a way of packaging it for the unlucky people who missed these dedicated, skilled and passionate people and the presentations of the projects they ‘power’. I’m not going to try and sum up everything these people intend to or are doing, but aim to provide a directory for hungry parties to follow. In most cases background information is taken from the projects’ websites. So, here goes, in the evening’s chronological order.
One bit of advice when you ‘like’ an organisation’s ‘stuff’ 
their facebook page or subscribe to their blog. It’s a simple quick way of keeping up what’s happening.
Frocks On Bikes spontaneously emerged in New Zealand in the space of two short weeks in the lead up to the 350 Climate Action festivals being held in Auckland and Wellington. They mobilised over 350 Frockers pedalling for change – making a beautiful point as they promenaded through cities: normal, funky women embracing the bike as a fun and sustainable way to move. Since that initial momentum, Frocks On Bikes has exploded throughout Aotearoa! See Tauranga/Mt Maunganui’s branch for upcoming events.
Contact Rosie Entwistle: frocksonbikes.tauranga@gmail.com
Like: http://www.facebook.com/groups/40709291079/
Subscribe to: http://frocksonbikes.wordpress.com/bay-of-plenty/
4Good
In June 2010 a Tauranga kid named Max was diagnosed with Cancer.
In January 2011 the 4good charitable trust was formed and the scene was set. As a group, they were sick and tired of traditional fundraising methods where people gave based on guilt (picture malnourished african child) or because they couldn’t cross the street to get away from the collector in time (we love the environment too but leave us alone!)
The concept was pretty simple. 4Good wanted people to feel good about giving and they didn’t want the dollar amount or having to choose a charity to get in the way.
Like: http://www.facebook.com/4good.org.nz
View and Donate: www.4good.org.nz
Tuesdays and Thursdays 4.30pm – 8pm
Most Sundays 10am – 4pm until June 21st 2012
Lantern Festival (Parade) -23rd June 2012
Contact Ron Major: (07) 574 1927 r.m.m@xtra.co.nz
I have an imagescape to follow about this space at another date, as Otumoetai’s Community Garden which borders the Railway Track is close to my (Emily from wild & grace’s) heart (both metaphorically and geographically as it turns out.)
The Community Garden did have a wait-list but currently have 3-4 plots available to rent (as of the 30 April 2012). A full site costs $20 per month, with 1/2 sites at $10 also available. Gardeners rent and tend their own garden plot. The plots are all ready to ‘Get Growing’ and are raised-beds to maximise ease and appeal. Start-up ‘Let’s Get Growing’ kits are supplied complete with seasonal learning opportunities.
Anne suggested one of her favourite things about the Community Garden is sharing knowledge, seeds, produce and gardening time with others rather than being isolated in your own individual bordered backyard.
Welcome Bay Transition Town Group & Community Fruit Project
Creativity. Community. Nature. Well-ness. Sustainability.
This means wild & grace celebrates the arts; brings people together; encourages all to get outside and be in nature (yours and everyones’); promotes happiness and well-being; and shares knowledge about and invites, environmental action.
Tao of Clown, Permaculture, Breadmaking, Crochet, Basic Homeopathy for the Family, Pennie Brownlee (Early Childhood), Reflexology, Pizza oven making, World Singing
Like: www.facebook.com/wildandgrace
Subscribe/View: www.wildandgrace.wordpress.com
A new group is being formed to promote and support each other to achieve optimum health through healthy eating, thinking, relationships, exercise and anything else shown to be beneficial and affordable. The group aims to promote a better understanding of health issues and practical steps on how to pursue good health through sharing information, books, websites, discussion etc. Michael Pollan’s (author of ‘In Defense of Food’) line ‘eat food, not very much, mostly plants’ was highlighted on the night.
I also know connecting more with our community, and helping people actually makes us feel stronger and happier. It’s proven in wonderful books like Sonja Lyubomirsky’s “The How of Happiness”.
About once a month they present a film, usually a documentary, covering an issue that is either ignored or poorly covered in the mainstream media, and on which information may not be easily accessed by the general public.
These films cover issues such as environment, peak oil, climate change, health/nutrition/eating, politics, human rights, animal welfare, sustainable living. They often have guest speakers after the films (for those who want to stay on) to discuss issues arising from the film and to answer questions.
They strive to keep ticket prices as low as possible, covering costs only. Films are usually screened at the Rialto Cinema but occasionally elsewhere in Tauranga. Only those people on the Film Night email list are sent invitations i.e.films are not advertised publicly. Films shown include: The Power of Community – how Cuba Survived Peak Oil; The World According to Monsanto; Dirt!- The Movie, Taking Root – the Vision of Wangaari Matthai etc
Like: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tauranga-Monthly-Film-Nights/181660328513592
Peter blogs about how Tauranga will Taste Better: “A few weeks ago I needed some Kiwifruit for a function that I was catering, unfortunately the only ones available in the Bay of Plenty were imported from Italy, a truly insane situation in the home of Kiwifruit. As I drove away from the veggie store, seething, I was listening to a podcast from the BBC food program all about the amazing work of the Incredible Edible project in Todmorden, and all I can say is I had an epiphany, we live in the Bay of Plenty, a place so fertile that almost anything will grow and yet our stores are filled with imported food…The idea is to create a community driven local food campaign, encompassing the whole of Tauranga, where community spaces are utilized for food production. Not as a profit centre but as an act of sharing in all the bounty the Bay of Plenty has to offer. Imagine areas spread throughout the city where you can help yourself to food that is truly local.”
My limited understanding is this is the ‘text’ that underpins Weston A Price Health.
“The Weston A. Price Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charity founded in 1999 to disseminate the research of nutrition pioneer Dr. Weston Price, whose studies of isolated nonindustrialized peoples established the parameters of human health and determined the optimum characteristics of human diets. Dr. Price’s research demonstrated that humans achieve perfect physical form and perfect health generation after generation only when they consume nutrient-dense whole foods and the vital fat-soluble activators found exclusively in animal fats.
I went to my first Ooooby last Saturday and had a blast. The last head count would have been around 25 people, who gathered firstly to drink Julia’s green smoothies and talk about drinking raw milk during pregnancy among many other things. We then moved out into the garden where some of the more experienced gardeners suggested to Kelli (the host) what to encourage, how to encourage it, and what to ‘repatriate’ in her new and first garden. Edible was very much the flavour of the day. The tour of the Matua garden past Kelli’s hay-bales ready for mulching finished at the trading table where Ooooby-ers swapped swan plants, bulging feijoas, avocados, persimmon, guava and some roots resembling ginger I didn’t catch the name of.
Contact Julia Sich: juliasich@xtra.co.nz
Seed Saving Tauranga
Gisella closed our evening with delightful grace, sharing her seed saving secrets with us. She encouraged us to date our seed envelopes, which she recommended storing/catalogue-ing in a shoe box. She also kindly suggested if collecting seeds from all crops seemed too daunting, to select a favourite and at least bring that to the hui that meets in Spring, at which time one can donate their ‘basil’ seed to all and gain seeds of sunflower, tomato, pepper, courgette… She did although say the greater number of times one plants a seed in the same soil the stronger that plant becomes i.e. ‘your’ tomatoes may do even better the second season in ‘your’ same soil. I also loved her tip about drying seeds on paper towel/toilet paper – instead of trying to pick the seeds off, plant the seed paper and all. Gisella believes in the magic of “saving your seeds to increase the resilience of local crops to Bay of Plenty conditions and sharing seeds each Spring to help others grow their own food.”
Contact Gisella Warmenhoven: awareness.through.movement@gmail.com
Good on you for getting to the bottom of this abundant blog. wild & grace hopes you benefit from these remarkable people forging generous events and I (Emily) trust I’ll meet you at some of them soon. Arohanui and go well.
