“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now.”

At Te Pae o Manukau/Manukau Sports Bowl, behind our current site at 41 Boundary Road Clover Park, we’ve been mana-festing a food forest open to the public, to strengthen community kai resilience and food security.

The site we’re mana-festing on is covered in tough, thick grass aka Kikuyu. Standard PVA tikanga means no chemical sprays, so we brought in steam weed- a method that uses hot steam to burn the “weeds”, making way for our diverse range of beneficial, edible plants and trees.

In just a couple working bees with the help of a few community orgs and locals we were able to concrete and put up our rustic, brustic fencing up to keep vehicles and dirt bikes off the future food forest to protect our young plantings, but the ultimate idea was to give the space an organic, welcoming feel and have our community wondering… “What’s going on there?!”.

At this point the first block by our waharoa or mouth/entrance into the nautilus shell pathway we planted up with raspberries, boysenberries, winter veges from our Ko’anga and the first line of kaitiaki (protectors). Fast growing trees like eucalyptus, lancewood, and a lot of natives that would serve as a barrier supporting our other young, more tender ones. Shortly after, our first couple feijoa & and an ice-cream bean tree were planted in as a lasting mark of our work experience students, who could always return here and say “This feijoa that feeds us, I planted this”.

Marking out our bespoke design on the actual whenua was done by the trusty 1 step=1 metre measurement, sticks, string and spray paint, and of course, the power of our eyes. Since fencing our first full steam-weed done to give shape the whole design, we had a drone shot done by council and also fellow Food-Forester Ethan of Te Piringatahi o te Maungarongo Marae so we could see how the shape actually turned out.

*Our first go at the nautilus shape, using the power of our eyes, feet and steam.*
*Drone shot credit: Jeff, Auckland Council*

After receiving the drone shots, turns out we did a pretty great job using our own ancestral intelligence! But we noticed the nautilus shell wasn’t fully shining through. So with more of Dan’s (Open Syntropy) wide steps and a little more spray paint, we made some adjustments.

Since then, we’ve had a few more working bees, mainly on Thursdays during maara time, and 2 big ‘Plant with us’ days, reeling in the support of curious locals and other community organisations who showed up to give back to the community through time and hard efforts.

To date, we have over 350 plants and trees in, including citrus, plums and the start of our pā harakeke thanks to Auckland Botanic Gardens. Thanks to local arborist Proclimb, our forest floor is protected and rich soil is slowly building from clean mulch.

In just a few months, the community ngāhere kai is really taking shape.

"Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini”.

My success is not mine alone, but is the strength of many.

Thanks to the many hearts that have come into this space to lend their hands, energy, time and tautoko, Te Pae o Manukau Community Food Forest is coming alive from the ground up! From being a field of underutilised grass, it’s now a nautilus of promise and hope. A kai resilient future is on the horizon, for the community, by the community.

There is still so much to do before anyone can reap the harvest, but by being consistent meeting up every Thursday, we are steadily turning this dream into reality.

Check out some photos from working bees, to some of the amazing people who’ve come through this space below.