The Talking Rubbish team at ME Family Services were thrilled to be able to host our first Open Day in a year last week! Usually a regular school holiday event, the Open Day is a chance for the community to come together, spend time in our Te Puna Oranga garden and makerspace, see our Recovery Room in action, and share learnings about living more in harmony with Papatūānuku.
We have a seasonal theme for each Open Day, offering workshops that reflect what’s happening in the garden and what the weather’s doing. Workshops are run by staff members or Timetraders from our community who want to share their skills with others.
Our Winter 2022 Open Day participants were given an opportunity to rotate around three different workshops; composting and gardening with our Regenerative Practitioner Vern, raranga (flax weaving) with our Timetrader Nelly, and sewing resuable bags with our Recovery Therapist Georgina. The morning finished with a delicious shared lunch of homemade bread and soup, using fresh produce from our garden.
It was great to be able to welcome people back into our centre again after such a long break, and to utilise our new covered outdoor learning space. “I leant a lot. We need more places like this!” said one participant. We were especially delighted to receive a gift of a first korowai from our Timetrader Nelly during the Open Day. The korowai symbolises the work we do to regenerate the streams, ngahere and whenua of our community. It was really special to have our work acknowledged in this way and to know that we are making a difference in Māngere.
