Arohaina mai!
[This page was first prepared towards the end of 2010, at a time when we were very optimistic about finding a way to ensure that Te Māra Reo would have a sustainable future, as both a real-world ethnobotanical garden, and an internet resource. When these pages were being revised in August 2013 the future of the physical garden was becoming increasingly uncertain. The garden continues to grow, but the uncertainty also remains. The website has, Deo volente, continued to be maintained and developed, but whether the physical garden will continue in its present location, be re-established somewhere else, or vanish into cyberspace, remains an open question even in the year 2023, although we are a little more optimistic now than we were a year or two ago. Hence the caveats inserted into some of the paragraphs below.]
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Aroha is a wonderful word, covering love, pity, affection and approval! Te Māra Reo is definitely a labour of love, and if you also feel warmly towards this venture, we'd love to have your help!
Some ways you could help
Koha ~ Donations
"Friends of Te Māra Reo"
Friends' Newsletter
Ētahi Momo Āwhina - Some Ways You Could Help Us.
[Please see the note above. If you could help in any of the ways suggested below, please email us at temaarareo at gmail.com, and we will let you know whether we are able to accept such assistance at the moment.]
One way of helping would be to give a cash donation -- there's something about that further down this page -- but there are other kinds of assistance which would also be greatly appreciated.
For example, recipes that include the fruit, leaves, flowers or stems of New Zealand native plants, especially those with names brought here from Polynesia that are featured on this site, would be much appreciated. We will include these in the pages for the plants concerned (you will already find a suggestion for cooking an extraordinarily delicious chicken in the page for miro).
Your comments would also be most welcome, including suggestions for improvements and correction of errors on the web pages. Constructive criticism is much more valuable than unmerited plaudits! (Merited plaudits, however, are always appreciated.) We value information, photographs and questions from people visiting the site -- this material is often incorporated in the notes about specific plants, and also included on the "News" page.
We would also appreciate ideas about raising funds and information about possible sources of financial support.
Our e-mail address is temaarareo {at} gmail.com. We do not have a Facebook page, however -- maintaining the website is difficult enough!
Hoki atu ki runga - Return to the top of the page
Koha - Donations
Based on our actual expenditure between 2007 and 2010 on expenses directly associated with Te Māra Reo, such as mowing, removing weeds, fencing, and removing problem trees, we estimated that if we had an income of about $25,000 a year (while still donating our own labour) we would at least break even, and probably have a little extra to help with the web site, research expenses and the routine things like rates, water and telephones. A slightly higher income would allow us to contemplate some capital expenditure. (Basic costs have risen substantially since then.)
By mid-2010 it became clear that we could no longer maintain the language garden adequately from our own personal resources. We had not been able to employ any assistants since early that year, but we continued to purchase plants, using the special funds we set aside for that purpose.
So cash donations and grants would have been very much appreciated. We did get a few small contributions, but nothing substantial, and the obstacles to developing the place to a standard where it could become a visitor attraction, coupled with the high cost of maintaining the property has made our long-term future here problematic. For this reason we are not at present actively seeking donations towards expenses relating to the garden itself. However, contributions towards the cost of maintaining and developing the web site are very welcome.
We were planning to set up a proper Trust for "Friends of Te Māra Reo" to administer donations, and enter into a formal undertaking that the properly assessed value of any trees, equipment or other improvements purchased from these funds would be donated to an appropriate organisation or interest group in the event that the family decided to sell the property. We may yet be able to organize something along those lines, if we are able to develop the physical garden to a satisfactory standard. We are slowly working towards that goal.
Financial help will still be appreciated and put to good use, to help defray the costs of maintaining the web site, and also, if there were ever a surplus, towards the on-going work re-creating a mini time trail that would take visitors from Taiwan to Aotearoa in a dozen or so stages through the names of living plants. Now that cheques are obsolete, direct credit is the most practical means. We can let you know how to arange this if you are interested. If you wish to write to us, our email address would be the best route:
temaarareo {at} gmail.com
Hoki atu ki runga - Return to the top of the page
"Friends of Te Māra Reo
Anyone who uses the web site or otherwise has an interest in the garden and what we are trying to do is welcome to join our group of friends -- we will add your email address to our mailing list, and let you know about what new pages have been added to the site, or other developments or information that we'd like to let our friends know about. The main vehicle for this (apart from the on-line news page) is our "Friends Newsletter". Previous issues of the newsletter are linked below. The newsletter replaces the longer items that used to appear in the "News" pages from time to time. Our "friends" mailing list is not used for any other purpose and is not available to third parties so you don't need to worry about security!
If you would like to be registered as a friend, just email us at temaarareo {at} gmail.com.
Links to previous issues of the Friends' Newsletter
(Ngā Hoa o Te Māra Reo: Kawerongo).
[Past issues are posted here a month or two after the previous issue has been sent out.]
Kawerongo/Newsletter #1 Koanga / Spring 2020 (pdf)
Kawerongo/Newsletter #2 Raumati / Summer 2021-2 (pdf)
Kawerongo/Newsletter #3 Koanga / Spring 2022 (pdf)
Kawerongo/Newsletter #4 Matariki 2023 (pdf)
Hoki atu ki runga - Return to the top of the page
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