Silt Inn - Hawkes Bay
Silt Inn - Hawkes Bay
Speaking With Perry and Jane at the Home Base For Volunteers and Workers In The Cyclone Gabrielle Clean-Up
Perry chats to Liz on how the Esk Valley community has been coping in the days since Cyclone Gabrielle hit Hawkes Bay in February, 2023. He also tells Liz of the specific needs for the Silt Inn, the base camp for volunteers who are helping throughout the community.
Liz Gunn on Silt Inn:
“This place has it all if you come down. It's such a community little hub. And it can be even more so as we get the heating, we get lots and lots of Kiwis coming in and out - and bring your home baking when you come as well. There are so many ways Kiwis can contribute. It'll just be such a hub for this winter and it will be the place that helps Esk Valley rebuild and we'll do it regardless of the government, regardless, and we will help these people, these fellow brothers and sisters who are our Kiwi family. Please come.”
Interview With Jane -
The Silt Inn, Pakowhai.
In The Wake Of Cyclone Gabrielle.
LIZ GUNN: Jane, you are a food angel, and have spent some time here I mean it's just it's so homely isn't it?
LEAO TILDSLEY: Yeah. I love this, this reminds me of when I was young. My dad had a garage very similar to this. There's still no power.
LIZ GUNN: And today it's three months since this ghastly thing happened in Esk Valley. So tell us how this came about, Jane. How this beautiful little venture happened.
JANE: Well, this is part of the clean up crew that Zeb Jackson was involved in. So she and a big crew of people were just going from house to house. She came down, identified that there was a lot of need. Next thing you know, she'd banded together a whole pile of amazing people who just went door knocking and said, "What can we do?"
They came to this property. The owners were, like everybody else along here, just absolutely overwhelmed. They cleared out the house, they took out all the silt and and all the belongings. And the owners very kindly said, "If you want to stay here, you're more than welcome to."
And so it's kind of become a safe haven - The Silt Inn. And the owners have just been incredible. They just say, "Look, we trust Peni." They have a lovely relationship with Peni, who's the most beautiful woman. You can meet her. And they have said, "You can bring people in here. They can camp. We can have some people camping in the fields”.
LIZ: And we're looking out to fields here, but what happens inside here? Tell us what a typical day would be.
JANE: So, they all get up and have a coffee and a cigarette. It varies from day to day as to who's staying here. So there's that Danish guy. He was just was driving past. Next thing he's being roped in to join the crew. He's visiting Hawkes Bay. And so he's joined the crew as well. Pretty much no time for breakfast unfortunately, which does bug me a little bit for them. But they just head off to the first work site.
LIZ: At what time?
JANE: Usually about 9.00. And then we have a crew of Food Angels who will turn up at lunchtime, and one of those is me. We make them a good, substantial, healthy meal that will get them through the day. And then they come back here in the afternoon any time. Well, it depends if they finish the job, or if it's a big job they'll stay till 3, 4, 5 o'clock. These are all volunteers. These are people that are not being paid. And then there are people who are living in emergency motels, that might just turn up in the morning and say - “Right, we’re here to dig. What can we do?”. It’s just giving back to the community in the most beautiful way.
LIZ: But these are often people who themselves have gone through trauma. So they're all traumatized and they're working like navies - day in, day out.
JANE: Day in, day out. Seven days a week sometimes.
LIZ: With any government help, any finance from the government? Any finance from Red Cross?
JANE: We have that broom over there, that we used this morning, from the Red Cross.
LIZ: From the Red Cross? One broom? This is criminal. This is absolutely criminal! So many people are asking questions about the Red Cross up in Auckland.
LEAO: Yeah, that's right. Where's the money that we gave you to bring down here? And it's not just Red Cross. So many places that put their hand up and said they’re fundraising for Hawkes Bay, but…
JANE: …Where's the money?
LIZ: What are you thinking here, Leao? Banks? Putting up fundraising?
LEAO: Yes, so I've seen that the banks… ANZ… were saying every time I log into my bank account it'll be like: “Donate Money!”
JANE: Supermarkets- you can scan it - supermarkets that takes you to the Red Cross website!
LIZ: Where IS this money?
JANE: My favourite hashtag, #wheresthemoney?
LIZ: You are right in the centre of this community, and are you telling me you are not seeing any of this money getting to individuals?
JANE: Not a bit!
LIZ: What is the state of the mental health of the locals in this area, Jane?
JANE: It's awful. They are broken. They are exhausted. They get up every morning and they look around. And you know if it wasn't for these guys going into their houses, giving them the hardest hugs you can ever have…and the homeowners are so thankful, when we turn up, for the slightest little bit of help.
But then, you know, prior to that, the last three months, they've been just getting up every morning with silt two metres high in their homes, staying in sheds and makeshift dwellings outside their houses. Their livelihoods ruined. A lot of them are farmers who farmed the land. They can't now. Their crops have been ruined. Onions and pumpkins have been washing up on Westshore Beach that had been harvested and lying waiting, before the cyclone. All gone.
LIZ: And the apple harvest was 10 days from being brought in - the apples were perfect. So they are… many of them are waiting in hope that the government and insurance companies will pay. So they're being kept in a kind of ‘suspended animation’, aren't they?
JANE: It feels to me as if, from the people that I'm talking to, no one seems to know what to do to help them. So there's an element of that, as well as the question obviously being asked by a lot of us, is “Do they even want to help?” And you know, the people who own this place are in their seventies and they are looking to just walk away, once insurance pays out. They’re going to go and buy a flat in town.
LIZ: And that's what the government wants.
LEAO: That's what I'm seeing. And you know what the most heartbreaking thing is? It's been 12 weeks and we still have homeowners who are weeping. Each week, up in Auckland, we're getting less and less feeds and views of what's happening down here. Out of sight, out of mind. And yet here it is. We need to get this out about how devastating it is down here because, at the end of it all, this is the Food Bowl of a whole nation. This is not just “Hawkes Bay had a disaster.”. So you're holding most of our fruit, our onions, our squash.
JANE: This is going to be massive in terms of food security.
LIZ: Food Security is a huge issue.
JANE: I think people are on that same page already. People are contacting me privately and saying, "I want to click & collect. I'll buy something. What do you need?”. And we'll just go and pick it up. So that's something we do, as well as New World vouchers.
Someone who follows me on Twitter, the most lovely lady, just messaged me: “I’m going to cash in my New World points and what's your address?”, and she sent them down so we can buy food. There's been a lot of my Twitter friends are just the most beautiful people. One of them turned up here, came down for a wedding from south of Auckland, went to the local place where you buy safety gear, and bought jackets and wet weather gear, because the guys are getting saturated with muddy, stinky, nasty silt! All those practical things.
LIZ: What have we got here, talking about ‘practical’?
LEAO: Ah yes, practical. So I've brought down some vouchers, for your Food Angels and as well as just those who are running around, from the donations from people throughout New Zealand, but filtered through Ranui Baptist Community . So we've come with some $30 gift cards, so you can use them on anything.
JANE: Oh! that's really helpful. And $30 may not sound like a lot for one person, but it fills a gas bottle. And people are relying on gas because they don't have electricity, because they've got no power into their houses.
LIZ: So you're relying on gas here…over three months? There is still no electricity here? These beautiful people are working in an increasingly cold environment! So you were saying at night, when they come home, there's a beautiful brazier over there. And what? Everybody sits around and just helps one another?
JANE: This amazing fire starter guy called TJ, and he lights the fire. And, basically, the kai gets cooked. It's a communal effort- people bringing food along. Sometimes, someone will turn up with a fish pie. There's always food on hand here. People donate. People are generous. People just turn up with baking.
LIZ: But if farmers wanted to do what they did in Freedom Village, come with half a beast, that would be very welcome? Sausages, food, potatoes, whatever they've got?
JANE: I've got a half a beast waiting for me in Te Aroha. From one of my Twitter followers- “I've got this for you”. I’ve just got to get it. So we have actually been donated a 20 foot freezer.
LIZ: That's fantastic!
JANE: And it's based in Puketapu, unfortunately. But we can fill that with food.
LIZ: If you could get power going here, you could have a big chiller here. And you could have really good community food, and get-togethers.
There is one thing Jane- are you finding it Leao? It's blooming cold! And yet the sun's out.
LEAO: I know! I was like, for an Islander, it’s very cold!
LIZ: There's a chilly breeze, there's a cold cutting breeze coming through, so now summer's ending, autumn's through, winter's coming, to me Jane.
JANE: We do! So we need the ability to stop that wind from blowing through here because it's bringing dust as well, which is not great because there's a lot of silt piled up everywhere. Yeah, so from a health and safety, hygiene, and just general wellbeing perspective, that's not ideal. That wind is pretty unpleasant. You can imagine it at seven o'clock at night, and we're going into winter, where it will be zero degrees overnight.
LIZ: Is there anybody who would donate a couple of beautiful wood burners for this Community Centre? Because if we could put up some wood burners, that would really see them right in winter. And if there are builders, can you contact us?
LIZ: Tell us about the shower and the toilet.
JANE: Yeah, it was put together a couple of weekends ago by some of the guys who were staying here, and then there's a very open air composting toilet over there as well. People are helping, like at the protest. Things just happen. We identify a need, and it just happens.
There's a hangi pit over there in that amazing keg. That's actually got layers in it that you can do hangi.
LEAO: That's amazing!
LIZ: What about clothing? Because I know lots of Aucklanders are willing to donate warm clothing. You said about the safety gear.
JANE: The jackets and the safety gear. It's more about keeping them dry.
LEAO: What about warm socks?
JANE: Socks would be useful. The Flaxmere Baptist Church donated a whole pile of clothing and I've been working with them to get in towels, blankets. I mean I don't like to name people because I'll leave out people, but there have been people turning up with mattresses, blankets and that sort of thing. People want to help, they just need to know what we need. Main items that would help:
Swandries,
Socks,
Beanies,
Gumboots.
Comfortable Chairs.
It’s so backbreaking, the work that's being done out there. And if you try to lift some of the silt, when you slide the shovel in, the silt sucks down the shovel into the ground. And then you have to fight to lift it up. So they're physically exhausted when they get home.
LIZ: Jane you're just so beautiful! You’re like a mother. What motivates you? Is it just service to people that you care about?
JANE: It's the least I can do. I can't dig silt, I’m too old. When people say to me you need to take care of yourself, you sound tired, it's like, these guys are doing what they're doing, the homeowners are dealing with what they're dealing with, the least I can do is help in whatever small way that I can! Whether it's feeding the helpers or just giving some homeowner a lasagna in the evening and saying “Here you go, here's something to just take that load off your mind tonight”.
LEAO: That's the thing Jane, everyone can do something. It seems overwhelming, but I can do something small.
JANE: And if every single person did something, it would be amazing. So there's so much reliance on small pockets of people. Some of my “Twitter” friends I call them (because I haven't met them), they are the most awesome bunch of people… are talking about doing a weekend down here and camping out in the paddock!
LEAO: Oh I might need to come and join them!
JANE: I think that will be amazing. There will be some really neat people, some from Hawkes Bay, some from out of town, and using this as a base and just getting stuck in. And they’re all ‘River of Filth’ veterans so…
LG: …’River of Heroes’ veterans!
Do you have enough money just to keep this going?
JANE: Yes, so with donations like this and just people turning up and saying, you know, “Here's a $50 voucher” or... I had somebody stop me the other day and he came him up and he said, “Are you Jane?” I said “Maybe”. And he said, “Here”, and he just handed me $100, and he said to use it on whatever's needed!
LIZ: That is fantastic. But again, Leao, people can put cash into your account, and you can get cash.
LEAO: Absolutely! And if you just reference “Jane”, then it will come straight to her.
JANE: Voices For Freedom are contributing to the Food Angels, which I’m a part of (The Food Angels provide baking and cooking food for the workers and volunteers). I'm not sure what the process is or how they're doing it, but I do know that they've been very active and supportive. So those are our simpler donations… and getting help out here on the ground as well.
I'm a behind-the-scenes kind of girl. I just want to get in and get the job done, and a lot of the crew are the same here. They're not in it for the recognition or “Wow, aren't they amazing”! We just want to get the work done, in the same way that the crew are reluctant to petition for funds from the various grants that are available, because there are some local grants that you can apply for. But as soon as you get into that, you suddenly have to have safety cones.
LEAO: You have to become beholden to them.
JANE: Exactly. It comes with all these rules. And then you have to report on everything and that's fine, but at the end of the day, we don't have enough people to be doing that.
LEAO: You don't have an actual admin person for that specific thing.
JANE: Exactly. That person could be digging silt or washing dishes or making dinner for somebody.
LIZ: That's what the wife of somebody whose place is looking very much on the brink of bankruptcy here, said to me. She said, in order to get any grants, there was so much paperwork in the early weeks. And they had no time. And they were so stressed. And they were just trying to save their businesses, maybe stop some trees dying, maybe stop the vines, dig out some silt, and think that they might be able to survive in their home. And they couldn't do all this government paperwork. It was so cruel. What I also think is, it looks as if the government is just holding everything off, telling the public it's going to pay, telling the people we're going to pay one day. But in the meantime, these people are being driven to the wall.
JANE: And homeowners are generally unwilling to talk about that because they obviously don't want to. They're nervous that they'll get blacklisted perhaps, or that they'll get less service because they're speaking out. But the community is hurting and angry, and it does seem as if there are roadblocks that needn’t exist.
There are pockets of people that haven't even had any help given to them. I was approached by a lady in Havelock North. People don't even know about that. There's a whole pile of houses there, that have got silt everywhere. And the elderly lady just said, “I don't know what to do, I can't do this!”.
No one has identified that there's a need there. What they should have done - they can do a census! So they can go around and be on the local schools grounds and send people house to house, saying, “What do you need?”. Getting boots on the ground - here's some money, here's some food, here's a port-a-loo.
LEAO: And then they spent on that census! It's incredible.
LIZ: And Leao, we were talking this morning, the money they spent on Covid! They had Covid millions and millions for advertisements, day and night. That money, if they could do it for a ‘pandemic-that-wasn't’, they can do it for this- because this IS serious.
Where is the army Jane? Are a lot of people asking that? Why aren't they here with their shovels digging?
JANE: They did come down initially, and yes they did. And feedback I've heard from residents in various parts of the Hawkes Bay is that they would turn up… and one community received something like two thousand toothbrushes.
LIZ: That's insulting!
JANE: They were a delivery service because it was being choppered in, because the bridges were down. Part of me wonders if it was just overwhelming for them. So I don't think anyone understood the extent of the damage until they were here. So whether they were perhaps going, "Oh, okay, we'll come back”. And then? We never saw them again.
LIZ: That was ten weeks ago.
JANE: Twelve.
LIZ: Twelve weeks ago! Jane, it's disgraceful. Absolutely disgraceful! And it also does feel like they've brought people to their knees, or are trying to bring them to their knees. And then they're teasing them with this carrot that's just out of reach: “We will one day pay”. In the meantime, all of these people who don't want to talk because they are worried. The government will lean on the insurance companies and say “Don't pay out”.
So, we almost need to leave the government in its corner and build this community person to person, Kiwi to Kiwi, don't we? We need to just forget about agonising over the government failures. Let them reveal themselves for how shoddy and tawdry and uncaring they are, because they won't get the votes at the election if they keep on doing this. But, Leao, you're big on community building aren’t you?
LEAO: Oh, absolutely. And I think the start of Parallel Communities, no matter how overwhelming it seems…the government has all of their experts, but we do too. How do we bring people together? Let's make it a countrywide project of Hawkes Bay, and if we can spearhead helping Hawkes Bay, then we can help everybody, no matter what comes. On a bigger scale, we need to grab people with their skill sets and ask “How much time can you give?”, and start to bring people together.
JANE: Oh look, the community certainly needs it here. Peni has a saying that's very appropriate. It's: “For the people, By the people.”
That's what her ethos is, and the crew here at the Silt Inn, and that's just on a grander scale, isn't it?
LIZ: Absolutely! If there is a builder who could get a whole crew of builders to come down here for three or four days, get this place working. Anybody who can donate, we've put our addresses there, we'll really promote the businesses that help these people. What else would you love, Jane?
JANE: Honestly, boots on the ground with shovels and wheelbarrows.
LIZ: Bring the kids down for a weekend, do some hard work as a family! Your kids will find there won't be time to be fiddling around with being trans or not!…they'll go, “Wow, I need to really help my fellow Kiwis”.
JANE: No one seems to care what your pronoun is down here!
LEAO: Normally with a disaster everything else goes out the window and we come together. It's just “nothing else matters but our fellow man”.
JANE: Absolutely! The week after the cyclone it felt very much like that. The rules went out the window. Everyone was mucking in. It was amazing! It felt like Kiwis became Kiwis again after this whole ‘two metres apart’, ‘dob your neighbour in’. Nobody cared about that. We suddenly became this caring community again, but people have to go back to their lives, I get that. But we need to bring in more people to replace the ones that need to go on.
LEAO: Rotate in, rotate out. This whole kind of idea is just becoming bigger and bigger and my head’s going, we can do this, this is incredible!
LIZ: They're also trying to keep this out of the media feeds on social media because I've got a really shameful confession. I had kind of ‘siloed’ this whole thing. I thought “The government's taking care of it, the money will come.” I fell for it. I fell for the trick. And I thought - we know they'll still need help, but it sounds like it's underway. When I got here yesterday, Jane, I was just in shock. It is so serious. It's like all activity is suspended . You can feel no energy is moving. Nothing's being done. These beautiful people are so demoralised. And I just was walking and holding my head.
It's like, “No government can be this cruel?”, but we, The People, now need to pull together, like Leao says.
So where do they start? If they want to sign up, do they start with Ranui Baptist?
LEAO: Yeah, so contact me and then I'll be in touch with Jane and we can go back and forth and start to create our Parallel Community here.
LG: And we get some other amazing organising men and women, like Zeb and you, Leao. And they can start to get their teams going.
LEAO: And we can come right here to this table and sit and plan things!
LG: Can we say a little prayer, all of us? Whatever Higher Power people want to believe? For me, it's God.
LEAO: Yeah, I’ll pray.
God, I just want to thank you for being here with us. We thank you that even in the silt, comes new birth and new life. And we just ask God, that you bring all the people that need to be here, bring all the minds, the spirits, the ones that want to see Hawkes Bay really live again in an incredible way.
So we just ask you God for your favour and blessing over Jane and the whole team: Peni, and all those who are here on the ground right now. We ask, God, for builders, we ask for the amount of people that we need to get this place set up, and a place that people can come and know what to do in the morning, and leave at night full in their hearts that they've done an incredible job.
So God, we just thank you. We thank you that you're here, and we pray for your blessing and favour over this place, and over Hawkes Bay.
We pray this in Jesus name, Amen. Thank you.
To organise a visit to Hawkes Bay, or to contribute:
Contact community organiser Sarndra via Facebook, or text Sarndra on
027 872 81550.Contact community organiser Peni Edwards via Facebook,
or via the Facebook group.The Silt Inn - Where many workers stay during their time spent volunteering. Contact J for info on how you can support on 027 9011 969.
Donate to Ranui Baptist Community Care: ASB 12-3039-0195267-04.
Use the reference: ‘Napier’ to allocate your donation for the ongoing clean-up effort.
Ranui Baptist Community Care
ASB ACCOUNT NO: 12-3039-0195267-04
REF. NapierContact Auckland-based community volunteers and independent journalists Leao Tildsley aka Island Girl Views on Facebook
Email Leao at leao@careranui.org.nz
Zeb Jackson about organising diggers, excavators, tip trucks or bobcats for Hawkes Bay. Email: zebjacksonlive@gmail.com.