Post by NZBC on Jun 14, 2015 11:50:26 GMT 12
Many South Auckland residents will remember a time when their neighbourhoods boasted more market gardens than houses.
Now the history of that time - for so long largely unexplored in writing - has been collected in an illustrated volume.
Sons of the Soil: Chinese Market Gardeners in New Zealand by Lily Lee and Ruth Lam boasts 550 pages of community history with a chapter dedicated to market gardens in the Mangere area.
Self-described "Mangere girl" Ms Lee says the book was a six-year labour of love.
It incorporates more than 100 interviews with Chinese fruit and vegetable growers, as well as historic and contemporary photos.
The authors travelled throughout the country to meet with the growers and capture their histories in their own words.
"The highlight of the whole process was meeting all the gardening families and having them share their stories with us," Ms Lam says.
"They really opened up their whole lives to us."
And the authors found many of the families were connected, with siblings, cousins and children operating market gardens from Dunedin to Pukekohe.
"It's a long history and it covers many, many generations."
In the 1960s, New Zealand had 623 market gardens, producing 80 per cent of the country's greenleaf vegetables.
Thirty of those gardens, covering nearly 1000 acres of land, were in Mangere.
Ms Lee's late mother Ho Sue Shee operated a market garden there during the 1930s and 1940s as do Ms Lee's brothers today.
Both authors also helped with and raised their children on a market garden - Ms Lee in Kumeu and Ms Lam in Pukekawa.
It was crucial to look at the mana whenua and the earlier European settlers who farmed the land, Ms Lee says.
"We tried to go back and really look at what was happening before the Chinese came and what it was like."
Sons of the Soil is published by the Dominion Federation of New Zealand Chinese Commercial Growers and received funding from the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, which was established by the government in 2004 to apologise for the discriminatory taxes placed on Chinese immigrants during the early 20th century.
It is published alongside Nigel Murphy's Success Through Adversity, a history of the federation.
An exhibition of historic photos from the book is on at the Mangere Bridge Library until October 6.
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- Manukau Courier
www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/manukau-courier/7735869/Book-tells-Mangeres-market-garden-past
Now the history of that time - for so long largely unexplored in writing - has been collected in an illustrated volume.
Sons of the Soil: Chinese Market Gardeners in New Zealand by Lily Lee and Ruth Lam boasts 550 pages of community history with a chapter dedicated to market gardens in the Mangere area.
Self-described "Mangere girl" Ms Lee says the book was a six-year labour of love.
It incorporates more than 100 interviews with Chinese fruit and vegetable growers, as well as historic and contemporary photos.
The authors travelled throughout the country to meet with the growers and capture their histories in their own words.
"The highlight of the whole process was meeting all the gardening families and having them share their stories with us," Ms Lam says.
"They really opened up their whole lives to us."
And the authors found many of the families were connected, with siblings, cousins and children operating market gardens from Dunedin to Pukekohe.
"It's a long history and it covers many, many generations."
In the 1960s, New Zealand had 623 market gardens, producing 80 per cent of the country's greenleaf vegetables.
Thirty of those gardens, covering nearly 1000 acres of land, were in Mangere.
Ms Lee's late mother Ho Sue Shee operated a market garden there during the 1930s and 1940s as do Ms Lee's brothers today.
Both authors also helped with and raised their children on a market garden - Ms Lee in Kumeu and Ms Lam in Pukekawa.
It was crucial to look at the mana whenua and the earlier European settlers who farmed the land, Ms Lee says.
"We tried to go back and really look at what was happening before the Chinese came and what it was like."
Sons of the Soil is published by the Dominion Federation of New Zealand Chinese Commercial Growers and received funding from the Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust, which was established by the government in 2004 to apologise for the discriminatory taxes placed on Chinese immigrants during the early 20th century.
It is published alongside Nigel Murphy's Success Through Adversity, a history of the federation.
An exhibition of historic photos from the book is on at the Mangere Bridge Library until October 6.
Ad Feedback
- Manukau Courier
www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/manukau-courier/7735869/Book-tells-Mangeres-market-garden-past