Lani Rotzler-Purewa bio: He uri tēnei no Ngāi Tūhoe, no te Schwarzwald hoki. I’m a third generation urban māori with a passion for learning about what it means to be in good relation to Rangi and Papa through the lens of our tupuna. I’m currently working at Purangakura as a rangatahi partner and researcher at on a project called Generation Kainga, doing mahi around rangatahi aspirations for regenerative kainga. We are a part of that rangahau to tell the story of our mahi at Taita College, where we established a school garden, helped to restore native ngāhere and wetlands and instill the love for our soils within our tamariki and rangatahi through knowing the feeling of being of the land, of the soil as tangata whenua.
People might also know me from my work with Common Unity, teaching in the school garden at a Primary school, or from my time at Para Kore doing waste miminisation education. I am also blessed to have worked at Papawhakaritorito Trust, who supported the Taita College garden and hui to establish regional relationships between Māori growers in te upoko. I have very recently have been called to move homeward to Te Urewera, and am curretly shifting my life to live in Ngaputahi, and to deliver a Kai Oranga course at a kura in Te Whaiti.