“Snack and Yak” – The Stewart Island way of connecting
“The benefits of Snack and Yaks will continue to increase given that we all have a common goal of making the Island a great place to live, as local groups get to know more about what other groups are up to – their skills, challenges and goals – then connections and collaboration will naturally grow.”
Read more; Snack and Yak – The Stewart Island way of connecting
The Story of the Stewart Island Community Centre
Living on an Island of 400 people means finding yourself stepping into roles that you might not otherwise.To get things done, local residents have to step up and share in taking responsibility for helping make things happen – and they do.
Building Stewart Island’s community centre was no different. This story shares the dream and the journey to make it all happen.
Read more about the Stewart Island Community Centre story
Kahu makes 23
In 2009 there were only 13 children left at Halfmoon Bay Primary school, Stuart Island, which meant losing funding for the last remaining teacher and becoming a sole-charge school.
The community came together to work with the school to brainstorm how to both protect the school and enhance its future.
Community groups’ expo strengthens connections
In recent times, pressure on the Stuart Island volunteer base has also been affected by the growing importance of tourism within the local economy. With its summer season peaks, local tourism employment opportunities are very seasonal meaning a larger proportion of seasonal or temporary workers in our community.
Casual workers, usually younger people, are now becoming a larger and larger part of the island’s workforce – especially during warmer months, with ongoing implications for community structure and dynamics.
To date, our local community still hasn’t worked out how to truly incorporate these shorter term community members into the total fabric of Island life. Indeed, many long time Islanders feel that new temporary resident workers aren’t a real part of our community, not in the long-term anyway. A kind of ‘us and them’ mentality has unintentionally emerged.
Given that temporary staff will continue to be a significant group on the Island into the foreseeable future, the community started to get their heads around how this perceived challenge could be instead be viewed as an opportunity. Working from this new perspective, they began to see things differently.
Read more; Rakiura Community Expo
A Pool to be Proud Of….
Living on an island means local children spend a lot of time on wharves and in boats which in turn means that learning to swim is a priceless skill.
The Halfmoon Bay Community Pool was first developed in the early 1970s as a basic, concrete, cyclone-fenced, rain water filled pool funded by the Ministry of Education, however, the more the local community became involved, the better the pool became.
Rakiura Community Expo
At a September 2011 ‘Snack and Yak’ gathering of community groups in Stewart Island, Rakiura, the idea of holding a community expo was proposed as a way for local groups and projects to promote themselves and their needs to others in the wider community.
It was also hoped this event could be a way to reach out to those new-ish to the Island, enabling them to find out more about what was happening and how they could get more actively involved in community activities.
Read More; Rakiura Community Expo