Lessons from the land

Hats off to those who gathered at Parihaka pā to celebrate the Mā ori New Year early on Saturday morning.

The Parihaka pā family has had big changes since I was younger, in numbers living there and visiting people celebrating their cultural relationship with the land.

Yes, the crowd was invited to hang around and help with the garden there. It was a celebration of the relationship with the land and providing food from their gardens, and teaching skills which seem to have been lost in the past couple of decades.

I believe there is a really need for local Taranaki iwi leaders (kaumatua) to teach down-to-earth food providing skills. Believe it or not, our vegetables grow in the ground and do not just come from handouts or supermarkets. Ian McAlpine, New Plymouth

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