a city of contradictions…

beauty …

The kowhai around Ranui are in full flower now, and visited daily by dozens of tui which hurtle with aerobatic skill through branches, and chortle and warble their spring invitations.  Piwakawaka – including a rare pale cream one (leucistic is the technical description) discovered by Earthsong resident Melody – flutter around the trees in the Earthsong driveway.  And always in the background are the Waitakere Ranges, nurturing native bush, birds and water for the whole isthmus.

Lema (right) and her daughter Amani, from the African community

Louise and Hinemoa, community workers

Ranui people are enormously diverse, and we’re delighted to have new friends from Japan, Africa, Bangladesh, India as well as Aotearoa, other Pacific islands and Europe. Strangers in the street smile and greet us when we’re out walking, or stop for a chat at the shops. The staff at the new Fresh Choice supermarket are all locals, and marvellously helpful.

There are many multi-talented people working in Ranui to empower those local people who are struggling to keep their lives and families together.

..and beggars

For the last month or two there have been buskers and beggars seeking cash outside the Ranui shops most days. Sometimes it’s a single man or woman asking for a bus fare; sometimes a sad man trying to play a guitar.  For a while it was a couple sitting on the footpath in the freezing southerly and holding up a ragged cardboard sign asking for money for mental health medication, food and accommodation.

We have been angered by the callous hostility shown towards these visibly damaged people by some passers-by, and puzzled that in spite of the many helping agencies at work in Ranui, no single agency appears to take responsibility for helping beggars. As yet there’s no appropriate drop-in centre in Ranui – and only a few around Auckland – where they could be warm, treated with aroha, and given a chance to join people in activities which might help them.  Staff in Ranui House, the  Ti Tree Café, Ranui Library and Ranui Community Centre do as much as they can, but a designated space and specialist helpers are needed too.  This is one of the challenges being picked up by the Ranui community.