Lucy Matene

I always say I married into Avondale. My husband was raised here, and together we have lived in this beautiful suburb for a decade on four different streets. The memories are endless.

I watched many gardening shows when I was at home with my daughter Kitty, who was at the time a newborn. I wanted Kitty to have a garden with flowers, fruit and vegetables to run around in like I did growing up. Avondale has a rich whakapapa around their gardens and kai producing, plus my own tūpuna from Ngāpuhi were gardeners, so it felt right to make our own here. It makes me feel connected to Te Taiao, something I also want Kitty to feel.

Despite the cruel realities of Covid, the time we spent at home as a whanau was so memorable and a time we would never have had otherwise. Spending days in our māra (garden), biking around Avondale looking for fruit trees and flowers, playing in puddles, feeding the ducks, and visiting the horses. These are very cherished memories.

My mother always said to me that the thing she wanted most for us was happiness. That really resonates with me now. I want my daughter to be happy and confident in her choices and have the skills to deal with the troubles that life will undoubtedly bring. I want her to have a community around her that supports and uplifts her, and I hope that she will do the same for others.

For me, motherhood is beautiful, challenging, hilarious, humbling, rewarding and exhausting all at the same time. Watching a child develop into themselves and grow is a great privilege and responsibility. Motherhood has challenged me to be a better person and work through my stuff to be the best person for my tiny humans. Children have a good way of reminding you of the best and worst parts of yourself.

I want Kitty to stand tall in her Māoritanga. For her to exist in an Aotearoa that lives and embodies the principles of Te Tiriti. And as we have witnessed and experienced recently, I hope that the pressure of the world's environmental issues does not weigh too heavily on her generation's shoulders - this is a problem they had no part in creating.