Ana Apatu: Community garden is flourishing

Ana Apatu

Suddenly spring is upon us. As if on cue we arrive at work the first week of September to find our fruit trees in our community garden in blossom.

I appreciate the warmer weather. It's been a cold winter and it's not over yet. Gary our head gardener is busy planning planting and preparing beds. We receive many visitor to the marae and garden who are impressed with our progress.

Michael Whittaker kindly offers us mushroom compost. Gary Pam and I optimistically discuss planting potatoes, and kumara - optimistic because plants are often pulled out too early. However, we decide to give it a go. We have the room. We have also recently purchased a potato mounder, an implement for our David Brown tractor. It was purchased with a donation from the Hawke's Bay Foundation last year. The tractor has been a blessing. We order rocket and Maori potatoes.

Gary from PG Wrightsons provides advice. The moon is right to plant now, he assures me.

We are fortunate to be advised by Hanui Lawrence of Aunty's Garden, Waipatu Marae. We marvel at her garden " it's beautiful " aesthetically pleasing, planted in koru shapes. Broad beans, leafy greens herbs and flowers flourish. There are EIT students and people picking. We congratulate her efforts but we are also there to glean her knowledge about growing kumara. She is our local expert and taonga (treasure). She generously offers advice and tells us she will share with us kumara to grow from and how to prepare the beds. We leave with a list of what to gather but not before we enviously admire her chooks which forage and look so at home in her garden.

We tell Hanui we are too nervous to purchase chooks - that they may end up being cooked for someone's meal. Hanui laughs and shares that this particular breed of red chickens are big and can run fast. No way could most of us be able to catch them. We add chooks to our wishlist and return to the marae.

U-Turn is a member of the local whanau ora collective. Our collective's name "Takitimu Ora". We, Te Taiwhenua Heretaunga, Nga Marae o Heretaunga, Te Wananga Whare Tapere o Takitimu, Waimarama Marae, Whanautahi Trust and ourselves U-Turn Trust are all represented within this collective. Our communities of interest are Flaxmere, Whakatu and Waimarama. We are one of two collectives which have had their business plan accepted by the commissioning agency Te Pou Matakana this first round.

Our collective vision, Rangatahi to Rangatira, safe, confident and engaged youth. Our mission " working to advance the education, income and health of our neighbourhoods and communities to ensure every child succeeds every step of the way, from cradle to career.

In a nutshell we want our young people to be safe, confident and engaged. We focus on the age band 15-19 to be either learning (in school or training) or employed.

According to Census data (2013) there are 288 Maori youth aged 15-19 in Flaxmere, Whakatu and Waimarama not in employment, education or training. Takitimu Ora decides to choose this as our key focus area to start with because not being in school or in formal education or employment can lead to poor life outcomes.

We are more likely to get sick and more likely to be involved with crime and other poor statistics. Having good access to data also helps us measure what we can achieve. We are also aware that this is a time of transition and change for young people 15-19.

Leaving school, leaving home, getting a job, entering into intimate relationships can make this a challenging time for our young people. As Bayden Barber, a father of a 17-year-old, describes there are temptations out there for our young people that makes it nerve- wracking as a parent.

George Reedy, chief executive for Te Taiwhenua, stresses: "We need to invest in our young people." But we are all aware this next stage is crucial. All very well having a flash business plan, "Ka u te Waka", it's now time for action. Gathering details of key people and organisations to meet our collective ambitions is our next step.

Ka u te waka is our call to action for community groups marae, providers, government and businesses to come together.

We can't do this on our own.

-Ana Apatu is chief executive of the U-Turn Trust, based at Te Aranga Marae in Flaxmere.