Background on Kaiwaka Initiatives

Kaiwaka is on SH1 between Wellsford and Whangarei, just south of the SH 12 turning to Dargaville and of the Brnderwyn Hills. Holiday visitors often know our Dutch Cheese Shop and the very funky Cafe Eutopia (which also sells organic food) and make it one of their regular breaks in their journey.

We are lucky in Kaiwaka as the town seems to attract alternative people. We have two Eco-Villages, Otamatea http://www.otamatea.org.nz/ and Kohatu Toa http://www.koanga.co.nz/pages/eco_village.html but also many local people on life-style blocks are already trying to be less dependent on the main-stream economy. We have several inter-connecting networks which have been passing round videos (in one format or another) of movies such as "The End of Suburbia" for several years. The Koanga Gardens Shop, situated on the land of the Kohatu Toa Eco-Village, runs sustainable living workshops and the Koanga Institute http://www.koanga.org.nz is saving seeds suitable for our bio-region. We have an established Green $ Scheme here which is based at Kohatu Toa Eco-Village but which has many members from the broader community. The Green $ scheme has been operating successfully for over 5 years and is a fantastic networking resource as well as supporting us to trade and exchange skills and time.

For information about Transition Town Kaiwaka please e-mail aikens27@xtra.co.nz or phone 09 4312 204 (Gail or John)

We now have a number of active subgroups but also continue to have regular Public meetings to continue to raise awareness.

SUBGROUPS

GARDENING / FOOD GROUP Our aim is to increase self-reliance in our local area in terms of food production and distribution. Current activities include working bees at different properties to help each other out, learn & share skills, network & build community links; investigating establishment of a community orchard; developing a system for distributing unwanted produce. For more info contact aikens27@xtra.co.nz

TRANSPORT GROUP Looking at opportunities around the local railway (currently a completely under-utilised resource with only a couple of goods trains through per day. For info contact m.tschirky@slingshot.co.nz Has established a google group for local car / lift sharing. Contact bigblukiwi@hotmail.com for info

SEWING / CRAFT GROUP Meets regularly to share skills. Twelve people attended our most recent group session with people working on a range of projects including knitting, crochet, sewing, quilting and hooked rag rug making. A great way to network and learn. Contact pippa.andrews@hotmail.com

HEART & SOUL GROUP To offer & receive support for our inner transitions Contact pukahu@slingshot.co.nz

ECOMEDITATION: Our group meets every Friday 11:30am to 1:30pm at either Kohatu Toa Ecovillage or Otamatea Ecovillage. Ecomeditation is one way to bring about inner change. It begins by connecting with Nature and the Earth. It branches out in many directions: 1) dealing with sadness and other difficult emotions around Climate Change, Peak Oil, and the changing times we live in. 2) creating love and community, and finding practical ways to live which support and nourish us. 3) guided meditations for healing the Earth, and ourselves, and for connecting with Nature. Meetings also include discussion. Contact aotearoa1@gmail.com

UPCOMING DATES

GARDENING / FOOD GROUP Working bees

16th August Gail & John"s

20th September Wolf & Sabine’s

18th October Loral’s

SEWING / CRAFT GROUP 10th of August at Simon and Mana's place in Mangawhai Heads, 54 Cullen Street from 10 am to 1pm. 431 5610

HEART & SOUL GROUP Sunday 03.August from 2 to 4 pm at Wolfgang and Sabine's.

ECOMEDITATION: Meets every Friday 11:30am to 1:30pm at either Kohatu Toa Ecovillage or Otamatea Ecovillage.

DISPLAY GROUP: Wednesday 30th at Geoff & Mo's 7.00 pm

ALTERNATIVE ECONOMY GROUP: A newly formed subgroup. Contact Helen Marsh 4312582 for info.

PLANNING MEETING: Thursday 31st July 7.30pm Kaiwaka Hall

ALL WELCOME TO ANY EVENT OR MEETING -

PLEASE COME ALONG & GET INVOLVED.

Subgroups all meet regularly - please use contacts given in introduction for more info  or if dates are not shown here

Recent activity

Wednesday 23rd July Public Meeting 7.30 Kaiwaka Hall. Showed "In Danger of Falling Food" (an old but very relevant permaculture DVD with lot of ideas). Was followed by discussion about increasing local food production and the work TTK Garden / Food group are doing.

Saturday 12thJuly Garden / Food Group Working bee at Kohatu Toa Eco-Village

PLANNING MEETING Thursday 3rd July 7.30pm Kaiwaka Church Hall A good turn out of 15 people with lots of interesting discussion and planning

Public Meeting - Kaiwaka Hall Showed “Escape from Suburbia”Another well attended meeting with some new faces.

Wednesday 28th May at 7.30 p.m. Public Meeting - Kaiwaka Hall 7.30 pm We had a succesful meeting on Thursday 24 April. Thank you everyone for coming along. New activities are planned. Groups have formed around transport (railway), gardening, sewing and technology. Anyone welcome to get involved in these groups - contact us for details.

Saturday 5th AprilWe held a free guided tour of Kohatu Toa Eco-Village, Kaiwaka. Ten people came along and we spent an enjoyable afternoon talking about what we're doing here and sharing ideas and then had a yummy afternoon tea (thanks Emma!) We hope there will be further events at members properties to encourage networking, sharing skills & ideas, & connecting with local people who might not come along to meetings.

Wednesday 26th March Public Meeting. Kaiwaka Hall 7.30 pm. We re-showed “The Power of Community” DVD for those who missed it first time around. Good turn out with lively discussions afterwards. Discussions were in small groups on different topics - food, heart & soul, transport / energy, economy / trading. Felt like a good beginning to forming subgroups to work on these areas with some concrete suggestions for action.

Thursday 13th MarchTransition Town Kaiwaka planning meeting at the Church Hall in Kaiwaka at 7.30 pm. A good attendance at this meeting. We made a decision to begin to move to a new stage of forming sub groups to work on certain topics (eg food, transport, skills, appropriate technology etc). We will have small group discussions in each of these areas following the DVD at the next public meeting. It feels time to start to moving to action rather than just talking. Our group has made a concious decision not to go for 'official' Trnsition Town status even though we easily meet the criteria. We can't see any point in this and, as the whole purpose is about local action, being rubber stamped by someone elsewhere seems to run contrary to the core values.

Friday 7th March We carpooled to get lots of the group down to Orewa to hear Roberto Perez speak.

Wednesday 5th MarchOtamatea High School environment group organised a presentation by Fred Leichwark from Raglan on tree and shrub planting on waterways and wet areas and the effect on stock health and clean water etc. We circulated information about this event widely and several members of Transition Town Kaiwaka attended.

Sunday 2nd March Transition Town members from Otamatea Eco-Village held a guided tour.

Thursday 28th FebruaryAs we were in Dargaville we organised a public meeting and showed Richard Heinberg’s Peak Everything presentation. The turn out was small (although we hear relatively good for such events in Dargaville) and included a local councilor and local dairy farmers. We had interesting discussions after the DVD about the implications of peaking resources for the Kaipara area.

Thursday 28th February to Saturday 1st MarchSome of the Transition Town group were already attending the Northland Field days in Dargaville in a variety of different roles so we arranged to have a Transition Town stall within the Central Northland Organics marquee. We put together a display on Peak Oil, Climate Change and potential solutions. New members of the group very quickly put together an excellent leaflet with “Peak Oil’ information on one side and “Transition Towns” on the other and also a repeating display on a lap top of Transition Town information. John Aiken, our local green woodworker, volunteered his time and did regular green woodworking demonstrations over the 3 days. This drew a lot of interest, demonstrates an appropriate (non fossil fuel based) technology and provides a great opportunity to talk about broader issues.

Friday 22nd FebruaryWe are keen to network and build community in a variety of ways so held a potluck social event at James & Pip’s. Around 20 people attended and we will be organising more social events.

Thursday 21st FebruaryHeld our planning meeting at the church hall in Kaiwaka. Our core group has been meeting since August and has ebbed and flowed in number but has generally been between 8 and 13 people. Following the Public Meeting our planning group swelled to around 20 with new people attending. We also took a step forward in beginning to identify and allocate key roles. It feels good to be sharing the work! One of our members, Dido, has recently returned from the UK and attended a Transition Town training session while over there. It was great to hear her feedback and she returned with loads of ideas and useful information.

Wednesday 13th FebruaryWe held our second Public Meeting in Kaiwaka. We showed the DVD called “The Power of Community” which looks at how Cuba survived an imposed ‘peak oil’ situation caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union and embargoes by the US. The turnout was smaller than our last Public Meeting with around 35 people attending. We feel that in part that was due to publicity problems and that we can do better. Following the DVD we broke into groups and considered what we could learn from Cuba’s experience and how we can increase resilience in our local community. Discussions were lively and interesting with a broad commitment from more people present to get involved.

''' Our December Public Meeting''' was cancelled as Joe had become ill by then.

Thursday 29th November

Ten people attended our core group meeting including two new faces from the Public Meeting (although they were part of our "most likely" network so they didn't feel very new).

Some of us had watched Jo Duff's video and Gail told us that she had asked Jo for a copy if it. We decided to make some copies so that it can be passed around.

Some of us had attended the council "Open Forum". The Mayor seems to regard himself as more “Green” than rest of Council and says he needs Public Support to change things. Is concerned about a project to install turbines in mouth of Kaipara. Feels this may limit harbour use in the future, particularly that we may need barges and don't want that option lost. We agreed to contact the Mayor to offer to show the video to the council.

A positive suggestion that came from the floor of the public meeting was to set up an internet car-sharing tool. We will explore that starting by checking out what Orewa are doing.

One of our members is going to UK and will explore the possibility of attending a training session while she is there.

We noted that our local High School is a member of the EnviroSchools programme and agreed to explore whether there was some way we could work with them.

We agreed to target the Kaiwaka business community and offer to show the video for them.

Saturday 24th November

The ‘Workshop on Energy & Technology’ offered by John and Wolf didn't get enough numbers but they will try again later.

November 21st (Wednesday)

- Numbers at our Public Meeting in the Kaiwaka Hall were difficult to count but we think there were between fifty and sixty people there. The Mayor didn't make it but we were reminded that councillors are having an "Open Forum" in Mangawhai on Saturday so we hope some of us will go and ask them some questions.

We showed the video of Richard Heinberg's Orewa Speech and had small group discussions with reporting back afterwards. People picked up a positive spirit in Richard's address and seemed to respond well to it. There was a general sense of readiness to get to work.

November 15th

For a couple of months a group of us have been meeting every second week for "Energy Descent Planning" and at our last meeting, after some of us had been at the Eco-Show, we agreed to adopt the "Transition Town" name to link us in with the activity elsewhere in the country.

November 7th

some of our members walked 20km along the beach from Mangawhai to Pakiri as part of the "Climate Relay" http://www.climaterelay.co.nz/ . This action was initiated by one of the nodes in our local network - the Mangwhai Earth Whisperers. There is a plan to make this an annual walk in memory of Rod Donald.