This last weekend of June and indeed the Saturday before, was full on for our director, Louise Tu’u.
She completed a community bike mechanic course at Tumeke Cycle Space with five other volunteer bike mechanics with Rene van Rijn from the NZ Bicycle Training Academy. Rene was a very knowledgeable, sharp and generous teacher, who went over how to fix common problems, talking about the cycling industry and being comfortable with your own level of expertise.
On the last day of June, Louise took part in a Maori and Pasifika Womens Self-Defence course, run by Bev Thomas for Kia Haumaru – Personal Safety Education at the Auckland Women’s Centre. Bev shared her expertise, knowledge of stories, as well as physical exercises to help protect wahine in confrontational and violent situations. These were exhilirating to practise and hopefully, will never be used. Here below are some of the participants, with Bev, facing the camera.
Both workshops were mentally taxing, with lots of new information and exercises.
Thank you to Debi Pyle from Tumeke for organising the bike mechanic workshops and to both wonderful kaiako of Rene and Bev. If you’re keen to join in, please click on the links above for both organisations.
We Should Practice 