Community Emergency Hub Open Day and Practice

By Angela Brown,  Community Board

The Martinborough Community Emergency Hub open day and practice event, which was held on Saturday 30 September, saw over 70 people turn up.

Among the attendees were representatives from various community groups including the  Foodbank, Men’s Shed, Lions Club, Toy Library, Community Market, Community Patrol and Business Association.

The event also attracted a delegation of emergency support people from Hawkes Bay who are looking at adopting the WREMO (Wellington Region Emergency Management Office) Emergency Hub model into their own communities. 

They have offered to come and talk to our community about what happened during their real emergency response earlier this year. We hope to get them back after Christmas to share those  experiences.

A big ‘thank you’ also goes to Vivienne from WREMO for facilitating this and the previous two

events the Community Board has hosted over the past few months, and to Nigel from SWDC who has been really involved to ensure the success of this Resilience Series.

The group was able to discover first-hand what could function well and what needed to be modified for this community, and feedback from those who attended will help with future planning. 

Just as the Community Hub is about the people, the success of the event was due to the people who took time to engage.

Bec Reilly, owner of Ventana Creative Collection, offered her services as a facepainter to engage with the children, while Jojo Cutforth kept everyone refreshed by operating a community tearoom. Sausages were cooked by members of the Bowls Club and Neighbourhood Support came along to assist. Several elected members also took part in this community effort.

This has been a strong and successful start to one of the important objectives identified as part of

the Community Board Plan for 2023. So what’s next? 

We have members of our community who want to continue to engage and work collaboratively with the Community Board on a Martinborough Resilience Project. If you would like to know about this please get in touch:

Angela.brown@swdc.govt.nz

Community Hub ready to roll

The government (note, small “g”) is coming to town in the form of a Community Services Hub which in Martinborough will be under the direction of Heartland Services. 

The Jellicoe Street unit which opens shortly funded by MSD (Ministry of Social Development) will be the 41st across the country “offering a range of (government) services tailored to local needs.” 

The facility, said manager Hana Makin “is an exciting new space for the Martinborough and rural South Wairarapa communities to come and connect with government and non-government services kanohi ki te kanohi: face to face.”

Most of the Heartland Services centres are located in rural communities which don’t have easy access to the range of government services located in bigger towns.

“I’m really looking forward to connecting more with local people and supporting them to access the support they need,” she said.

Martinborough Heartland Services will have two staff in-house, as well as REAP Wairarapa Adult and Community Education staff, Building Financial Capabilities, and Youth2Work Wairarapa team members. 

“We will be open five days a week. Planning for services is still under way, but at the minimum the centre will provide:

_email and phone facilities;

_access to government forms;

_access to technology (print-photocopy-scan)

_access to government and non-government service websites; 

access to face-to-face or virtual appointments with government and community services; 

_assistance in making government appointments, with the ability to direct the community to services they need.

A detailed “wish list” of services has been circulated for the community to indicate what it most needs from the new hub.  

“Heartland Services Hub differs from community to community. They are a friendly place to ask questions and get help from government agencies,” Makin noted. 

Darren Kerr, CEO of REAP Wairarapa, said he’s excited about the project. 

“This is a great opportunity for REAP Wairarapa to lead a project that will ensure people are able to connect with government services they have not previously had the opportunity to access.”

Maori Ward by 2025 elections in South?

“The times have changed,” is the only pointer South Wairarapa councillor Pip Maynard could give over the prospects of a brand new Maori Ward being included in the election process for SWDC in 2025.

Maynard is helping work through the process as liaison between council and the Maori Standing Committee, which has been consulting local Maori Iwi and hapu in recent months. 

An earlier move to establish Maori Wards for the 2022 election failed, a decision Wairarapa Iwi noted as “disappointing.” 

“The Maori Standing Committee is engaging to see what the appetite is for establishing a ward” among mana whenua, she told The Star.

“A lot of work has been done to ensure the voice of the Maori population of South Wairarapa has been heard,” she added, but said she was “not going to go there” when pressed on what the responses were across the rohe. 

Maynard said “it’s a work in progress” and the project is “about representation, not just a Maori Ward. It is a very important issue.”

While the issue had been “consulted in the past, there was not the appetite” for the idea. “The times have changed,” she added.

Two previous reviews (2012, 2018) have declined to introduce Maori Wards to SWDC, despite legal requirements to ensure “fair and effective representation for individuals and communities in local government.”

Earlier this year an independent panel confirmed “a radical overhaul” and stronger relations with Maori were needed.

A recent Martinborough Community Board meeting was told one Maori Ward would be warranted on the basis of the 2022 census data. … Continue Reading

Native birds mural new to Marty Mural Walk

Martinborough wine village has a new wall mural depicting a family of native birds with strong connections to the Wairarapa region.

The new mural has been designed and painted by Manawatu artist Joe McMenamin and is part of the reignited Marty Mural Walk – a continuation of The Martinborough Mural Walk Project that came into being five years ago – a vision by Auriga Martin the then-owner of Ventana Creative collective.

The Martinborough Mural Walk Project brought public art to the village with its variety of colourful works in key locations. But in recent years no new works had been added, until local Charlotte Harding had a desire to reignite the project under its new name Marty Mural Walk.

The first new artwork to come about is thanks to the collaboration between Harding and Wairarapa based business, Tranzit – New Zealand’s largest family-owned bus and coach company.

After receiving funding from Creative Communities, Charlotte approached Tranzit – the owners of a property on the corner of Broadway and Cologne Streets for permission to transform the colourless wall into a beautiful new mural.

Tranzit, who are preparing to celebrate their centenary, thought it was a great opportunity and loved how the muralist wove in their family story into the artwork. The mural features a family of native birds including the Karearea – native falcon – and a white kiwi with a nod to Pukaha National Wildlife Centre, which has a long association with Tranzit.

“Hopefully this will just be the start of growing the mural walk to add to the many things to do in Martinborough Wine Village,” Harding said.

The development of a new map and app likely will also be part of the project.

Check out the new mural on the corner of Cologne & Broadway streets along with original murals featured on Ohio St, Thunderpants HQ Naples St, TK Vineyard, Margrain Vineyard and Neighbourhood Cafe.