Presence In The South - Andrea Rowe

Sustainable Taranaki has a personal presence in South Taranaki, with local woman Mrs. Andrea Rowe in her role of Partnerships Project Manager. Andrea is such a force of nature, that in very little time, she has been able to bring Together We Grow ‘a Sustainability short film’ to Hāwera, and Stratford, while working alongside Alice Arnold (Community Garden Coordinator) to successfully establish the community garden at St Mary’s Anglican Church. Andrea also seeks out skilled facilitators to bring workshops around composting, worm farming, and uses for the fruits/vegies of labour from the garden.

Alongside this mahi she is also doing some relationship building with others in the community and creating dynamic partnerships to encourage and enable the establishment of Te Ara Taiao programme in the South.

“Many cups of tea have been, and are still to be had, in establishing relationships and encouraging participation in the programme that is in a growth phase in the North of Taranaki, but yet to be established in South Taranaki” she said.

“I think that our community, from South of Inglewood all the way to Waitōtara, and up to Ōpunake, are very ready for the type of initiatives that Sustainable Taranaki facilitate, and especially for the Te Ara Taiao Collaborative Community Education Model. It’s such a timely and encouraging model of education whereby hapū and community aspirations are blended into a shared knowledge of their places with and for the young people and (kura) schools of the rohe (area)” Andrea says.

Andrea continues, “Ideally, my role is about connecting those wider community aspirations to projects, people, places, and sourcing funding to ensure that our young people are receiving the most amazing local knowledge and history thereby connecting them to each other, encouraging their leadership and advocacy for our fragile local environment”.

“There is a thirst for sustainability knowledge here and an even greater thirst to get involved and to help nurture our communities and taiao. And that’s not just the people, we’ve had incredible support from many local businesses and organisations. At first it was just me, but as we’ve found more funding, we now have the amazing Alice Arnold and hopefully soon we’ll bring on more passionate locals”.

Andrea lives in Hāwera on an 8-acre lifestyle property where she enjoys getting her hands dirty in the garden and lime orchard with her husband, two young children, and her father-in-law. She is learning how she herself can be more sustainable in her daily life. She descends from Ngai Tahu, and Te Ati Awa, and is enjoying her own journey of reconnecting with her Māoritangi. Andrea enjoys exploring the region with her whānau; be that tramping, camping, swimming, wakeboarding, skiing, and diving.

Andrea is proud to call South Taranaki home and refers to the community as ‘her people’. “South Taranaki is absolutely blessed. We have fantastic people who care about the environment around them, lots of organisations working away to protect our taiao, and we have incredible capacity and willingness from local Iwi. Now what we want to do is bring all the sustainability opportunities and programs from the North Taranaki area to the South, and find ways to support the great work that is already happening in the region. Further, we can create additional opportunities that are specific to my people here in the South”.

You can communicate with Andrea via: andrea.rowe@sustainabletaranaki.org.nz