Events: Urban Ark – Manawa Taiao

Urban Ark is holding an ‘all-group’ meeting on Wednesday 10 August (6.30-8.30pm) at the Gribblehirst Hub in Gribblehirst Park (5 Cabbage Tree Swamp Lane; see map below).

This month we are honoured to have Rob Small presenting on the work he is doing on the mara Rongoa (wellness garden) at Pourewa Reserve with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. After holding senior roles in parks and with local councils, Rob, who is Ngāpuhi, ‘retired’ to do a Masters in Landscape Architecture. His project looked at ethnobotanic garden design in the context of the revival of Māori traditional uses and practices. You can listen to his interview with Jesse Mulligan.

Rob will also discuss his investigation into the narrowing palette of species that plant nurseries are offering and how that impacts the preservation of our biodiversity.

That should set us up nicely for a short kōrero about how your group might like to get (more) involved with the possibility of bringing more native plantings to the inner west of Tāmaki Makaurau. This goes hand in hand with weed control, so bring along your passion for weeding and planting and a few ideas about what your group could do.

The meeting is mainly for group leaders. Please RSVP if you’re coming and let us know if you’d like to invite anyone else from your group.

Being winter, we’ll be holding the event indoors. but to minimise the chance of COVID tranmission we’ll have windows open. Wrap up warm. We encourage everyone to wear a mask except when addressing the group or eating.

We’ll also be running our peanut butter refillery: bring a container and we’ll fill it up with bait free of charge.

Group: Urban Ark – Manawa Taiao