Covid-19 punished many in the arts sector and yet it’s art that we rest on and return to during crises. Paekākāriki printmaker Joe Buchanan of Diatom Press captured the human response from his garden studio resulting in an extraordinary series of hand-cut lino and letterpress prints. Drawing on his background as both biologist and font-nerd, the collection documents and comments on the full sweep of the lockdown journey; from our sudden fascination with viruses, to haircuts, to hope.
Photo stories
Waitangi Day 2020 Paekākāriki
On February 6th Ngāti Haumia ki Paekākāriki and the village community hosted the official 2020 Waitangi Day commemorations for the Kāpiti Coast. Delivering spectacular sunshine, music and kai the day will be remembered as a triumph of community spirit. Mark Coote was there to capture some shots for the Kāpiti Coast District Council record books.
A Colourful Community
Louve Pharand-Doucet is a young French Canadian student passionate about music, feminism and photography. She moved with her family in 2018 to New Zealand for a new adventure. She wants her works to show the diversity and beauty that is all around us, everyday.
#perching
Heard of the planking phenomenon? Paekākāriki gives you it’s own take: #perching
Launch Party
A community party celebrating Matariki and the official launch of Paekakariki.NZ.
Meet the locals
Hearts all day long
Sarah Bainbridge on her work as an essential worker in a Wellington hospital during lockdown
Remembering Florrie: Florence Louisa Ward
Paekākāriki resident Florrie Ward passed away on 19th March 2020 aged 103. Her daughters, Claire Pinfold and Ronda Thompson, share with us her extraordinary life and character.
Meet the locals #4
Meet Gilbert, Kamala and Jon.
Remembering a Community Champion
Allie Webber remembers John Porter — a man deeply rooted in community values.
O, poetry! O, Helen Heath!
Paekākāriki poet, Helen Heath, just won big time at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards for her poetry collection, Are Friends Electric? Here she chats to two other local poets, Maria McMillan and daughter Lily McMillan.
Meet the locals #3
Meet Suzie, Anna-Maria & Margaret
Meet the Locals #2
Meet Michael, Mercedes, Joe & Nicole
Meet the locals #1
Meet Carol, Moira, Alun and Arlo, Darcy and Prue
Perky’s eulogy
No-one in Paekākāriki talked about ‘diversity’ in 1971 but the Perkins family soon came to epitomise it. The culture of the Middle Run family farm was right wing, left-leaning, New Age, rural, cosmopolitan, outdoors, arty, horsey, gentle, blokey, into surf life-saving, and famous for teasing humour noted for a consistent lack of tact. The John Perkins era attracted wonderful people to our village: people who might not be like-minded―the Perkins family is incapable of being that boring―but certainly people who are, by and large, remarkably like-hearted.
Community
Paekākāriki Xpressed 2001-2011
An award-winning community newspaper we consider, with total bias, to be one of the finest ever printed. Paekakariki Xpressed editor Don Polly here reflects on those who contributed to a paper which informed and entertained Paekākāriki households for a decade.
A lovely seaside haven for rodents
It’s that time of year in New Zealand when mice and rats move in and share our bubbles as they seek warmth. That means, says Maree White, its time for us to work together on being predator free. Paekākāriki has long taken a lead with likely the first backyard trapping group anywhere in New Zealand.
Stronger together: What communities can do in the Covid-19 crisis
From Italy’s ‘Listen to Your Grandmother’ campaign and Bristol’s Mothers Turned Drug Runners to RongoCare in the tiny village of Rongotea, Louise Thornley has been researching great NZ and international community responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In lockdown with the kids of Paekākāriki
Tash Nilsson gathers together the creative ways tamariki and their parents are keeping sane in the Kapiti Coast village.
The complete history of the Paekākāriki Progressive Association
A true and accurate chronicle of an episode in Paekākāriki community politics by Gilbert Haisman. Images: Mark Amery
Commercial Vehicle Safety Centre proposed for Emerald Glen Road
NZ Transport Agency’s plan for a souped-up version of a truck weigh station, planned for land at the start of Emerald Glen Road, has hit some wobbles as locals and the Paekākāriki Community Board express their disappointment at the lack of consultation.
The Paekākāriki Green Dream: Realising a Community Orchard and Garden Project
What is happening in our newest community space? A welcome for you to join in, plus a short history in images and words of the journey it took to get here.
For Preservation
Jenny Clark writes about the heritage of our Paekākāriki buildings and the merit in saving them
Children and parents learn te reo Māori together
“Tapawha whero!” yells three-year-old Hana as she proudly points to a red square on a board. She’s playing a game naming colours and shapes at Paekākāriki Playcentre with Whaea Wai Miller who visits the centre each week to help the children and their parents to practise their te reo Māori.
Giving it right back
‘In his quiet, behind-the-scenes way, he’s a very active, enthusiastic Paekākārikian, working hard for social equality. We are lucky to have him.’ Introducing our altruistic second sponsor.
How it started – Paekākāriki Escarpment track
“This is crazy!” We were hacking a path through 2-metre tall cape ivy in the quarry.
How to grow lizards
I have lived in Paekākāriki for over 35 years. Most of that time I have not known much about lizards. Sure, there have always been a few skinks running around my garden. But that was about all I knew. All that began to change when Ngā Uruora hired Ecogecko to do a series of local lizard surveys.
Creative non-fiction
Driftwood bridges
Dani Deluka about reaching across water to touch those we can’t and how a village can help get us to the other side.
Where does a poem come from?
Paekākāriki writer Rob Hack on what motivates anyone to write a poem, or become a poet.
A restless person’s guide to a walking meditation
I am restless by nature. There. A confession. Undeniably a deficit in my character. FOMO at its worst.
Taupo Swamp
The first time I became aware of Taupo Swamp was when the Queen came to visit. A platform was erected atop a small grassy knoll beside State Highway One. From here the Queen could stand, her back to the traffic, to admire the sea of flax, and perhaps wave royally across its expanse at commuters on the Kapiti train line. My parents felt a bit sorry for her – but they were also amused.
Centennial
Our house backs onto paddocks and on the other side of those paddocks part of Transmission Gully is being constructed. It’s a notorious road. One I can hardly believe is actually being built, having heard about it for as long as I can remember. I see the earthmovers and the hazard bunting during the day, and I’ve got used to the hi-vis workers clearing out the pie warmer in the local dairy, but it’s mostly at night when I feel the road advancing. Lights pulse and flash, machinery growls, and the shouting talk of workers carry across the paddocks.
History
Diamond in the rough: One Eye Gallery
New Zealand’s regions are full of galleries representing the work of local artists. Rarer outside the cities are contemporary art dealers representing the often more challenging work of artists nationally. From 1997-2004 in Paekākāriki, was a quite brilliant exception: One Eye Gallery. Just north of the Wellington art scene, highly regarded painter Gary Freemantle operated a satellite. He mixed an ever startling array of art outsiders and locals – work of quality from elsewhere but little seen in Wellington – and artists already of repute trialling new ways of working, like Don Driver, Joanna Margaret Paul, Rob Cherry and Hariata Ropata-Tangahoe.
We are failing the Wainui
When it rains hard a treasured Kāpiti Coast waterway, Wainui Stream turns very brown. Home to some of the best native fish biodiversity in the Wellington region the stream, says freshwater ecologist and advocate Mike Joy, has long been abused. It is now likely being damaged by Transmission Gully work upstream after measures requested by the Environmental Protection Agency were not put in place.
Kahe Te-Rau-o-te-Rangi: A celebration of art and wāhine toa
More than 50 Paekākāriki School students along with community artist, Rachel Benefield, were at the unveiling of their two newest panels celebrating the story of Paekākāriki’s famous wāhine, Kahe Te-Rau-o-te-Rangi.
Scoreboards & brawls
Jenny Clarke gives us a run-down of recent celebrations of Paekākāriki’s sporting history with images by Mick Finn.
Lake Hallow: A Village Pond with Spears, Bones and Pleasure Boats
Fiona Gunter Firth dives into the history of Lake Hallow
In 50 years' time
Not everyone wears shoes
Erica Julian ponders Paekākāriki’s future and what makes us special. The first in series of stories for Paekakariki.nz by residents on what we will, or could look like in 50 years time.
News
Paekākāriki – meet your candidates!
We hear from those standing for both the Paekākāriki-Raumati seat, district wide seat, mayoralty and Community Board.
New energy and expertise
Welcoming Dr Judith Aitken to the Paekākāriki Community Board
Te haerenga: the journey
“It takes a village, right? Thankfully, I was in one.”
An introductory editorial.