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You might see Breahn (she/her) zipping about on a bike with a trailer full of food-scraps, having a kōrero with pīwakawaka who are flitting over the compost she’s piling, or laughing till she cries with workmates while washing compost buckets. She grew up out west in Tāmaki Makaurau, is Tangata Tiriti, and works as a Kaicyclist and Composter with Kaicycle.
What is something about your mahi at Kaicycle that brings you joy? Many things…Feeling grateful for good work. Singing and laughing to myself on the bicycle. Listening to children play and scream over the fence at the kindy. Time to think and feel. Watching bees buzz. Feeling sunshine, especially after rain. Eating miners lettuce on my walk to the loo. Talking with pīwakawaka and magpie. Coffee when we are wet and cold…And most of all, the people of the farm; to listen, laugh, cry and groan with.
What’s your favourite food or recipe and why? Flatbreads. I don’t have a recipe as such, but it usually involves flour, oil, salt, water, and a smoked-out-house. I love the feeling of dough between my fingers, the sizzle in the pan. Not much can beat warm oily bread! The next best thing to that is the never ending list of things you can eat in/with/on it! I’m a lover of a bitsy meal, with all the sauce.
Tell us something you like to do in each season that is special to you. Kōanga: When I have had somewhere regular to grow things/watch things grow, spending time there is always a joy in spring. Sorting through seeds and all that they contain is a delight. Spotting Puawānanga flowering for the first time Raumati: Soaking up sunshine till it makes me sleepy and eating outside with friends. Ngāhuru: I think it is often a time of reflection for me…and spotting fungi! Hōtoke: Swimming (yes, swimming!). I love this anytime of year…but in winter, I love the feeling of plunging into the cold and coming up laughing, hysterical. The tau-feeling once I’m out & standing on the shore, buzzing. And, of course, the snug feeling of warming up afterwards.
Three things you find useful spending time doing:
Tuatahi - Choosing to care and involve myself in communities by cooking bulk amounts of food, discussing and organising, listening and talking, laughing and sharing home. Tuarua - Writing poems and just writing to write. Feeling that burning build up inside of you, till it all spills on the page, or sitting with a pen and no thoughts until something bubbles up or sneaks into your view and asks you to write about it. Tuatoru -I think closer relationships with the natural environments which nourish us, is useful in so many ways. If you spend time close to a river, you will notice when it is polluted. Recently, time in the ngāhere/bush has been useful for me; whether nearby pockets of green in the city like Waimāpihi, or yonder, like Tararua.
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