Tihei: Aunty’s book reflects dedication to feeding community

Arohanui (Hanui) Lawrence speaks at the launch of her book The Kūmara Vine. Photo / Connull Lang

Earlier this month around 150 people gathered at Aunty’s Garden in Waipatu, Hastings, to celebrate the launching of ‘The Kūmara Vine’ – a book that celebrates Aunty Arohanui (Hanui) Lawrence and her intimate conversation of life experiences, contributions from those who have had influence and continue to inspire her passion for gardening.

All garden lovers know Aunty Hanui Lawrence for ‘her beautiful Maara Kai/vegetable garden at Waipatu Marae, better known as Aunty’s Garden. It’s a thriving space that provides fresh produce for the marae’s whānau and wider community.

Aunty’s Garden has featured many beautiful recipes in ‘Tihei Kahungunu’, an iwi-dedicated voice in Hawke’s Bay Today since June 2015. Through the years Aunty Hanui has shared more than 100 recipes and stories, cooking hints, ideas and ways to make exciting dishes using vegetables and fruits from your garden. She’s often greeted by people in the street and admired for what she does for her community.

In 2021 Hanui’s dedication to Aunty’s Garden was recognised by the wider community when she was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori and horticulture. The award acknowledged her tireless work in promoting traditional gardening practices and her contribution to the wellbeing of the whānau of Waipatu Marae and the wider community.

For the past 20 years, Hanui has been a member of ‘Tahuri Whenua Incorporated’ which is a national collective of Māori NZ Growers. Over the years she has thoroughly enjoyed attending their annual gatherings to thrive in the knowledge sharing.

“I first met Hanui through the Tahuri Whenua collective in 2004 and in the almost 20 years since we have woven a whole lot of experiences together, most of it aligned to Aunty’s Garden, and all of it aligned to the opportunity to celebrate our relationship with the whenua and food, from sharing or sowing seeds, producing crops, preparing as kai and all the other manaakitanga aspects”, Dr Nick Rahiri Roskruge - chairman, Tahuri Whenua, said.

Aunty Hanui is testament to the power of community and the importance of preserving traditional knowledge and practices. As part of her desire to share the knowledge, Hanui applied for funding through Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) to run workshops at Aunty’s Garden. Part of her desire for traditional knowledge sharing was to write a book. With the help of the TPK funding and Tahuri Whenua collective, Hanui was able to publish her book The Kūmara Vine.

“I hand-wrote everything and sent it through with pictures to my Tahuri whenua team and they typed it up, organised the layout and two years later, we have launched it, and I love it,” Hanui said.

“I dedicated my book to my 11 grandchildren, eight of whom were present at the launch day. My grandchildren have always helped me on the maara kai to weed, harvest, and do all the hard work. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to do as much as I do.”

When asked why she called the book The Kumara Vine she simply said, “I love growing Kumara, they tell a story and now they tell my story, about growing from the tipu/plant to the table.

“The launch day was quite magical and everything was perfect”.

Hanui is quite the organiser and planned her day well in advance with continued prayer and preparation. Last year she decided to harvest kumara as a presentation at the book launch.

She carefully planned the first planting of her kumara on October 3 and within three weeks she said that they were sulking because it was too cold. She planted the next lot toward the end of October and they were better, then she planted her last batch in early November.

“I am pleased with the growth. Kumara don’t like cold, so by the time the last lot were ready, the first lot had caught up and they were all ready together,” Hanui said.

“I would check my plants often to see if the leaves were colouring right and I could feel if the kumara were growing and I knew that on the day, they would be perfect, and they were. We had 2kg kumara and it was great to see them all come out of the ground”.

As visitors arrived to celebrate the launch of The Kumara Vine they were greeted by Hanui’s beautiful grandchildren and could sit under a marquee donated by the Unity Credit Union and Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga. The proceedings began with a karakia offered by Hanui’s grand nephew Charles Ropitini followed by a speech by the Chairman of Tahuri Whenua, Dr Nick Rahiri Roskruge, followed by Hanui Lawrence.

The kai was prepared by Gretta Carney of Hapi. Granddaughter Mahina Lawrence sang her debut single ‘7 seas’ while people mingled, enjoyed the refreshments, listened to the beautiful music and purchased a book.

The 94-page book is beautiful with recipes, stories, a lot of love and admiration for gardening, kai, and is written with a lot of aroha.

“The book is perfectly imperfect,” Hanui said.

“I ordered 300 books for the launch, and they’re just about all gone.

“I signed people’s books with personalised quotes for them to reflect on.”

The Kūmara Vine is available at $35 a copy. Waipatu, Arohanui Lawrence QSM and whānau whanui of Waipatu Marae and the wider community of Hastings/Hawke’s Bay are pleased to offer online bookings using the following link https://form.jotform.com/n.watene/thekumaravinebook-purchase