Neighbours Online Aotearoa

Our Neighbours Day Aotearoa  Zoom festival was so successful, we followed it up with the Neighbours Online Aotearoa: Great Skill Share. Check out some of the great events where you can learn some really amazing skills from local people, the people you might have in YOUR neighbourhood. 

DREAM INTERPRETATION

WITH MARGARET BOWATER

During lockdown many people reported having vivid dreams, maybe you did too and wondered what it all meant? Margaret is a senior counsellor who specialises in dreamwork. She is the author of Healing the Nightmare, Freeing the Soul, A Practical Guide to Dreamwork. Watch her on Zoom as she talks with Cissy about dreams and what those disturbing dreams are telling us.

HOME REPAIRS WORKSHOP

WITH SCOTT MURRAY

Have you ever watched home decorating shows and thought they looked so easy, and then struggled to hang a picture? Scott is here to make sure you can do some basic around-home repairs. He is our very own, ‘Tim-the-toolman-Taylor’ zooming in online! 

Some neighbourhoods have started up tool banks and share tools to make it easier and cheaper to do your own DIY. It’s a great way to meet people, share skills and get the jobs done!

MAKING VIDEOS ON YOUR SMARTPHONE 101

WITH CRAIG MAJOR

Craig Major has been 'dabbling' with video, both professionally and for fun for many years. In his day job he shot and edited an entire series of video interviews using his phone. Here he takes you through his '101' session for planning, shooting and editing videos on your smartphone.

Learn the basics of planning, filming and editing a short video clip on either an Apple or Android device. Craig will help beginners to get started and give you some tips that will help your video content look and sound decent. 

PRODUCTIVE AND ENJOYABLE FOOD GARDENING

WITH HELEN DEW

Sharing your surplus from your garden with family, friends and neighbours helps build relationships and increases community well-being and resilience. 

Experienced gardener Helen will share her life-time of gardening experience to help build individual and family food security, through home-grown fresh produce. In addition to the nutritional, environmental and economic benefits, home gardening can be immensely satisfying! 

Whether you are a beginner gardener or more experienced, this workshop is designed to help you create and sustain enjoyable and productive food gardens.

FUN FITNESS FOR EVERYONE

WITH JENNY GILBERD-LONGDON

It feels great to workout, but sometimes starting seems so hard! Join yoga teacher Jenny as she takes you through simple and safe exercises to get you moving - and enjoying it!

Jenny has been a yoga teacher for 5 years and knows how hard it can be to get people to come to class - whatever size they are! She wants to share something that reframes exercise as not a chore, or something you *have* to do, but something that can lead you to feeling really empowered and healthy. You can start from where you are, right now. You might even want to start up a local exercise group in your neighbourhood!

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN HEALING BALM

WITH ANNA-MARIA O’BRIEN

Anna-Maria O'Brien has been interested in plants and their uses since her childhood, when she used to follow my Opa around as he would tell her about the uses of the weeds he found on the ground. Using french herbal practice and ‘weeds’ found commonly in our backyards, Anna-maria will show you how to make your own balm. It will be a lot cheaper than anything you can buy in the shops and you will also learn how to make different balms for more specific uses.

HOLISTIC HOME EXERCISE

WITH MIKE JEWELL

Whether lockdown got you moving with more exercise or you found it hard to be motivated at all, experienced trainer Mike Jewell is passionate about helping you to build and maintain your own health and well-being through movement and breath. Feel energised and clear-headed through movement, breath work and mind-body connection. 

Come away feeling better and more energised, you may even encourage friends or neighbours to join you!

BAKING GRANDMA

WITH SHEREE HOUSTON

No, we won't be baking grandma but she will be showing us how to decorate cakes! Self-taught cake decorator, Sheree is here to show you some of the amazing tricks she has learnt from 30 years of baking and decorating cakes. Learn how to pipe and ice with buttercream and use fondant. She will even share some recipes with you!

You might even want to organise an afternoon tea with the neighbours and wow them with your cake skills after this!

RONGOĀ GARDEN

WITH JOANNE HAKARAIA OLSEN

This amazing, interactive webinar will be filmed in the backyard of someone in West Auckland who is keen to learn more about Rongoā Māori. You will discover what rongoā could already be growing in your backyard, learn some medicinal uses of native plants in your area and learn the tikanga around harvesting. Joanne will also show you how to make poultices, tea, oil remedies for common ailments. 

This will be held over two Sundays, each webinar dealing with different information.

COMMUNITIES GARDENING THROUGH WINTER

WITH KATRINA WOLFF

Spring feels like a long way off, but for many gardeners autumn was a write-off, with almost no access to tools and resources. Let’s not let THAT happen again! Come and get inspired by a range of ideas to stimulate skill-sharing and the creation of collective resources for gardening in your neighbourhood, with or without a community garden. 

There’s a lot of talk about community gardens being the way of the future, but some of us want the convenience and creative freedom of gardening in our own backyard, but how do we get the best of both worlds and connect with people to share their surplus? 

Avid gardener Katrina, will show you ways to garden together with neighbours while essentially staying at home.

Katrina’s vision? Good food for all, in a localised food economy.

THE CREATIVE ART OF PRUNING TREES

WITH GARRY FOSTER

Garry Foster is passionate about permaculture, community resilience and regenerative food production. Check out Gary’s Zoom as he shows us how to prune fruit trees for beauty, productivity and so they remain low maintenance. 

Garry will show us the most appropriate and effective strategies, methods and techniques for pruning your own fruit trees. After 40 years with the Department of Conservation he currently lives on a 2.4 acre block of land where he is developing a forest garden and has sixty fruit trees, and counting as they plant more every year! Garry runs pruning workshops for his local community garden and has a small permaculture design and organic gardening business.

HOOKED ON CROCHET

WITH MAREE BEAVAN

Crochet is colourful and creative. It’s great for the winter months...or lockdowns. Maree was born crafting: from cake decorating to yarns, cards, woodwork and arts. She loves sharing her skills and recommends crochet as a calming, restorative pastime!

You can even crochet along! You will need some wool (8ply is a good starter) and a hook (about size 4, 4.5 or 5).  

Check out our final Zoom skill share for Neighbours Online Aotearoa. You might want to start a crafting group with neighbours after this!