“Let’s bring in some taro and potatoes and other things that our people need,” Vaka Tautua Canterbury and Otago Regional Manager Toleafoa Malu Tulia suggests to UC PhD candidate Esala Vakamacawai as she pulls weeds.
Broccoli, spinach, and chard line the four planter boxes in a cleared lot where the old Science Alive! building used to be in Ōtautahi Christchurch.
“Gardening is very traditional in Fijian culture,” says Dr Vakamacawai, who had been a practising surgeon in Fiji. “Unlike running or going to the gym, it’s a form of exercise that anyone can do.”
This community garden grew out of Dr Vakamacawai’s research for his PhD at the University of Canterbury’s Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies.
Funded with a gift of $5,000 from Pegasus Health, the first community garden he created was a case study for his thesis on using traditional Fijian and Pacific culture to mitigate Type 2 Diabetes in Fijians living in Christchurch.
The participants in this initial case study experienced increased physical activity from gardening, and they were also able to access free, fresh vegetables. His research aims to change minds and habits, and help people gain health literacy.
Dr Esala Vakamacawai
The project was so successful that he partnered with Vaka Tautua, with support from the Christchurch City Council, to create another garden project focused on wellbeing for people living with disabilities—or, as they call themselves, Tagata Sailimalo (people pursuing success).
This includes people who have experienced strokes, are living with cardiovascular disease, knee replacements, chronic joint pain, traumatic brain injuries, or are in the late stages of cancer and kidney disease.
Each week, a group of Tagata Sailimalo come together to care for it, share harvests, and talk about “everything and anything,” says Toleafoa Malu.
“There’s cultural wellbeing and social wellbeing,” says Dr Vakamacawai. “We’ve always done gardening in the villages so we’re just continuing that. As Pacific people, we work collectively, and through gardening together, we’reable to do that too.”
“From the point of view of health promotion, the garden has helped a lot with understanding nutrition. In the last session, group members brought in vegetables they’d grown at home and talked about growing and cooking them,” Toleafoa Malu shares.
“It’s a way for the young ones to learn from the elders. Many elders have been in New Zealand for a long time, and many are married to Pākehā. They educate the younger ones and newer arrivals to Christchurch about growing and eating crops that are available in New Zealand.
“It’s also a great opportunity for the younger generation to learn about their language, culture, and the stories and histories from home,” she adds.
Through the group, both Toleafoa Malu and Dr Vakamacawai have learned about new produce. Recently, Toleafoa Malu tasted her first fig that someone had brought in, and Dr Vakamacawai’s first experience with a feijoa was also through the group. “They smell and look the same as guava,” he says.
“But soft,” adds Toleafoa Malu, who loves them.
Going forward, Dr Vakamacawai is looking forward to helping members of the group start their own vegetable gardens at home.
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