Conservation Comment: Repair Café Whanganui project starts

Repair Café Whanganui team members met last week. From left, Peter Watson, Chris Kemp, Margi Keys, Maddie Stanley, Marion Rainforth and Frances Taylor. Pic/Ronis Chapman

OPINION

Repairing clocks, costume jewellery, plastic and wooden toys, electrical appliances, and mending clothes and soft toys used to be how we extended the life of our damaged items, but somewhere along the line consumerism got in the way.

It has been cheaper to replace items rather than fix them, but this wastes valuable resources.

Things are changing. Repair cafes are part of an international move to reduce waste and help create more sustainable communities.

Many people have the skills required to fix, mend and patch, and time on their hands to do so.

We are looking for all sorts of repairers, from qualified electricians to woodworkers to darners for our monthly Repair Café.

If you have repair skills and tools, we want to hear from you.

A small team, led by myself, has this month begun to work together under the umbrella of Sustainable Whanganui Trust. They are actively looking for a suitable venue such as a community hall.

In New Zealand, there are more than 20 repair cafes, each using the model outlined by Repair Café Aotearoa.

They typically operate one weekend day a month, for a few hours. The closest ones to Whanganui are in Feilding and Palmerston North.

A friend and I visited both last June to see how they operate. We were encouraged by what we experienced there, and began to promote the idea, collecting the names and contact details of lots of local repairers who would be willing to give their time.

That was the easy part. We could not find a Whanganui venue that ticked all the boxes though. Repair cafes need a hall-sized space at ground level with a non-carpeted floor, plus toilets, tables, chairs, and a kitchen with a fridge, crockery, cutlery and an urn. The venue must have plenty of parking places nearby as well.

Our committed team has a wide range of skills to bring the project together in 2024. We aim to offer the first Repair Café by May, on the last Saturday of each month from 11am to 1pm.

If you would like to help in any capacity, please phone 06 344 1250, email whanganuirepaircafe@gmail.com or go to the Repair Café Whanganui Facebook page.