Northland thieves fleece visiting charity food growing group twice in 10 days

Whenua Warrior charitable trust founder Kelly Francis is happy helping communities grow their own food. However, she's "devastated" that one of those communities in Northland recently stole all the trust's tools and vandalised two of its vehicles.

A charity group visiting Northland to help communities grow food and to help gift to the community an upcoming harvest of about 15 tonnes of locally grown vegetables is devastated to have lost all its tools to thieves.

Whenua Warrior charitable trust founder Kelly Francis said the group of travelling volunteer gardeners, normally based in South Auckland, had built 1500 gardens from Kaitāia to Christchurch since it started in 2017. This was the first time it had been burgled.

She was “devastated” not just by the thefts but by how unsafe group members now felt in Kaikohe.

Nine members and their children were present when the thieves struck a Māori church in central Kaikohe where Whenua Warrior had booked to stay until the end of January.

The group had expected the church to be a safe base while they visited various Northland properties to help, learn from, and share ideas about growing food - particularly kūmara.

However, just six days after arriving in Northland, thieves struck. They gained entry to a locked yard area at the church and took all the group’s hand and power tools, valued at about $5000.

Four days later on Boxing Day, thieves again hit, this time causing $2000 damage to two of the trust’s vehicles.

“Of all the cars in our carpark, the two that are uninsured now have smashed windows and have had the interior damaged, panels smashed and the spare tyres stolen,” Francis said.

The Whenua Warrior charitable trust group planned to spend six weeks in Northland on a variety of initiatives, including the harvest and storage of a large kūmara crop, to be gifted to the Waima community by Rereata Makiha, a renowned Māori astrologer and expert in traditional food planting and harvesting practices.

Whenua Warrior had been collecting its tools for the past five years and with some funds from a Kai Ora grant was in Northland to help communities develop and maintain gardens during the hottest part of the year.

However, the loss of its lawnmower, weed eater, and tools like rakes, forks, and spades, meant the group couldn’t even help home gardeners with smaller-scale projects.

Without power tools the group couldn’t construct housing for vegetable gardens or the traditional food stores (te whata) that it was going to make in readiness for a large crop it had helped renowned Māori astrologer and traditional Māori gardener Rereata Makiha to grow.

Each hand tool was marked with purple paint and the power tools were all Makita brand, Francis said.

The theft had been reported to police.

The group was not hopeful the tools would be recovered.

Francis started a Givealittle page to fundraise for replacement tools and to repair its vehicles so it could continue its Northland work.

Whenua Warrior was also planning to construct te whata - traditional Maori food storage huts - for crop storage.

Power tools are used to construct vegetable planter boxes.

Up to 20 more Whenua Warrior members were expected to join the group in Northland over the next few days but some had now pulled out.

“I think the biggest harm that’s come from this is actually the fact that we don’t feel safe in Kaikohe,” Francis said.

“The first theft was on a day when we’d just spent six hours in the [Makiha’s] garden weeding kūmara and peruperu (Māori potatoes) that are going to be given away to the community of Waima for free.

“We’re trying to create an alternative food system so that people don’t have to steal stuff and while doing that, our stuff got stolen,” Francis said.

“It’s horrible.”

However, the group had been shown some generosity, including by the New Zealand Sports and Turf Institute, which had donated some tools now surplus to its needs.

Francis believed that was because the Government had cut funding to the institute and others that had taught the community how to grow food.

That loss demonstrated the Government didn’t want people to have food sovereignty, Francis said. And, it meant the work of philanthropically funded charitable trusts like Whenua Warrior was all the more important.

“There’s no other way for people to learn how to grow food now,” she said.

“We’re trying to prove a point here and work together against the problem - not create new ones.”

Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, much of which she spent court reporting. She is passionate about covering stories that make a difference