Eco Day at Titirangi Library

from The Fringe, September 2021

by Fringe Media

25 years of the Friends of Waikumete

A recent Saturday afternoon became a very big day for local groups working on environmental causes when Titirangi Library attracted close to 400 people to its inaugural Eco Day.

For one day the library became a hub for neighbourhood pest-free and weed-free networks, along with Arataki and the Council wastemimisation team, EcoMatters, Birdcare Aotearoa and experts on native bats, nesting petrels and the Ark in the Park initiative. At the family-themed event the children got to make foam bats and bookmarks, listen to a bird-themed story, pick up a colourful cat collar to protect birdlife, see taxidermy bats and learn about triaging injured birds. Meanwhile the adults were learning about local weeds and pests, meeting the wood-turners team creating recycled toys, and gathering information about local parks and reserves. Lots of information and networking took place and many opportunities for volunteering and involvement in future activities were presented.

Of course, no-one could have made it through the six hours of displays and activities without the support of the local playcentre which provided homemade snacks.

The Library says it was a very successful day, bringing together so many experts in one place, and staff are considering making it an annual springtime event. They are especially keen to thank the many presenters who willingly and enthusiastically supported the day, and the many local businesses which helped advertise it. If you missed the event, the library has a list of contacts – drop by and they will be more than happy to help out.

Anchored by Stories

Two stunning books sit on my coffee table. Both are much more than coffee table books. Both are deeply embedded in Westie culture. Both have at their core two iconic Waitākere locals. Both needed a team to bring their vision to fruition.

Mary (Bobbie) Woodward (left) is 93 years old. She has been writing about her love of the west for many years; most recently Shimmersea, a fearless account of her life; the loves and the heartbreaks; the detailed story of her crowning as the first Miss New Zealand. It was to be her last book; the coda to a long and fascinating life. Waitākere’s West Coasters, an unfinished manuscript discarded over 20 years ago, fell into the hands of the late John Edgar, then president of the Waitākere Ranges Protection Society, who believed it was not only an important piece of research and documentation but full of galloping good yarns. His interest confirmed by others, Bobbie moved forward. In her own words, she was ‘old and tired’ and knew she could not complete it alone. So here comes the team! Bruce Harvey, Sir Bob Harvey, Sandra Coney, Dick Bellamy and Barbara Lusk – they all contributed to the narrative.

But at the heart of the book is Mary (Bobbie) Woodward, grand-daughter of Pa Bethell, with her love of storytelling and her visceral link to the wild coastline and to the pioneer families who settled the land. It is a book to dip in and out of, to return to again and again. It’s rich in detail and ripe with characters; and through it runs the magnificence of the beaches, the wild hills and the pounding sea.

I am fascinated by old photographs, those frozen moments in time, and this book is my heaven. I could hardly get past the cover photo; a line-up of walkers at Te Henga, circa 1919. Large Edwardian hats dominate the scene, both men and women; they all carry what look to be hand-whittled walking sticks; the seated women all ‘side-saddle’ – no immodest knees or legs to be seen. They line up in this pristine landscape and yet a world away there is the devastation of war! There’s such a story to be read in each and every photograph and Waitākere’s West Coasters is richly larded with images from both public and private collections.

This is a lovely book to hold in the hand, beautifully designed by John Ringer, yet another Westie with a passion for our stories.

Orders to westcoasters21@gmail.com

The second book has another local at its heart, but more distantly. Murray Gray (my partner) was the driving force behind the Going West Writers Festival for 20 years. It was his depth of knowledge of New Zealand literature and his often irreverent programming that shaped the festival from 1996 to 2016. Always there was a significant public intellectual and/or writer offered the podium to deliver a keynote address on a particular theme, or to wildly digress from that theme. Year after year many of our best and brightest wrote and delivered stunning dissertations on life, love and the universe. As with all Going West festivals, they were recorded and archived at the Henderson Library Research Centre.

These, with five subsequent orations, make up Voices of Aotearoa: 25 years of Going West Oratory. I wrote in advance of publication at some length in the July Fringe. Suffice to say that a significant team of editors, publishers and designers, all local, have now brought