Opinion: Our City Has Warriors
Kai
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
Around the world, we are raising children far removed from the source of the food on their plate. Who find it hard to be active and even harder to find stillness.
Around the same world, much to our relief, in the great tradition of the Lorax, our cities have warriors.
Jess De Bont, Nathan Fa’avae, Bailey Perryman, Michael Reynolds.
These are names we may know, or may not.
They are warriors, who have taken on this nation’s greatest social battles without even waging a war.
They all started in the same place, saying: The simplest things make us feel the best, as individuals and as communities.
Being active. Eating fresh local produce. Creating opportunities that empower our young people.
Across Christchurch, every year hundreds of women take a massive leap of faith and confidence and fitness and train for the highest-participated one-day adventure race in the world, a simple spring challenge started by Nathan and his wife over 10 years ago.
Across the South Island, from Coast to Coast, a group of east Christchurch kids coached by Jess face their fears, surprise their own families and rise above all odds to complete the world’s most iconic multisport event.
Bailey, along with Fiona Stewart, introduced an urban farm to post-quake Christchurch, a source of enterprise and employment, upskilling and life-changing our at-risk young people, while at the same time changing our local food systems with a world-leading approach to waste management.
Michael? He was inspired by the figures around young people and deprivation. After all, the number of Kiwi kids eating enough fruit and vegetables is declining across the country, with half of two to 14 year olds not getting the recommended amount of vegetables.*
In his own neighbourhood, in the heart of the Garden City, Michael saw abundance where others lack imagination.
“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.”
After the 15th of March, as Cantabrians, as Kiwis, as humans – it was all about common ground.
In Christchurch, we’re big enough to be visionary. Small enough for a sense of community. And tight enough to agree, yes we sure do have common ground.
And in Christchurch, what we have in common – if we care an awful lot – could put us forever on the world map, for all the rightest of reasons.
We agree that our children consume too much sugar. We value fresh local produce, not just on the café menu, but as part of every day life. We know that moving matters – equally for mental and physical health.
When Michael Reynolds established Roimata Commons in Woolston’s Radley Park, he took a piece of our Garden City and made it meaningful. He showed what community can achieve when they care about their neighbourhood. He showed that gardens aren’t just for looks in Christchurch 2020, they’re for fruit-picking and picnics and cyclists. Michael points to plants we don’t recognise and recites the nutritional value (it’s off the charts). Michael shows us if he can grow it, anyone can.
After all, we live in a city with 9,000 hectares of public park space, where 30,000 fruit trees grow on public land, 70 schools host edible gardens, and 30 community gardens provide free nourishment for anyone who needs it.
“And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack! From outside in the fields came a sickening smack of an axe on a tree…”
On Friday when we found out that Roimata Commons suffered a significant loss, with eight fruit trees hacked by vandals, we weren’t surprised.
Every warrior expects challenges.
And like every warrior, Michael isn’t looking for simple answers. He’s hoping more people will ask the right questions, take the right responsibility.
“Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care. Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air. Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back.”
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