Wangapeka is turning 50!
Join the Celebrations and Activities in 2025
Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua
’I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past’.
What harvests from 50 extraordinary years of the life of the Wangapeka Centre will help us look forward with our hearts open and our minds clear? What powerful fertile seeds can we collectively plant now for all those who will come after us?
Louise Petzold wrote in the article ‘The Whakapapa of the Wangapeka’
‘Perhaps we will never truly know the whakapapa of the Wangapeka whenua as it is held by human voice and mind. Perhaps the true and only way to know the history of the land is to connect with, and listen to what is there now, and she will tell us all there is to know.’
What we do know is that in 1975, a bunch of inspired, determined, energetic young people known as the Sphere Group paid a deposit for the purchase of a large barren patch of land up the Wangapeka valley. We understand that the land contained 3 trees, swathes of bracken and potent potential.
‘We’ meaning the Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre, and every being who has contributed to it’s growth, came into being from these tender roots. And in the last fifty years, generosity in its myriad and expansive forms has nurtured and sustained this Centre as a ground of learning, a place of refuge and a catalyst for transformation for all who have somehow found themselves in its magnetic orbit.
Here is what is bubbling for a year of celebration and sharing the dharma. We’d love your ideas, input, hands and heart to practice, appreciate, fertilise and dance in celebration for the benefit of all beings.
We will run Community Conversations exploring the precepts (facilitated by Kath, Mark, Chani and guests) You can take part online and in local groups.
There will be opportunities to practice Meditation on Peace each full moon through 2025.
There will be an Easter Community Celebration at Wangapeka 18th – 21 April. Residential and day visitors welcome. All our Elders have been invited.
We will be planting 50 native trees at the Centre and ideally fence the areas.
You are invited to a celebratory family friendly lunch at Fairfield House, Nelson on Sunday 15th June.
Home made anniversary aprons will be available for commemorative gifts.
There will be a Community Gathering at Wangapeka Labour Weekend 24 – 27th October. Lama Chime has accepted an invitation to be part of this event.
Ideas currently being explored
A beautiful new seat near the Old Mother Beech tree.
An audio project telling some of our 50 year history
Donations and Fundraising to see Wangapeka through the next 50 years, and beyond
Please participate in whatever way you can. If you have the impulse, it would be wonderful if you initiated other activities in your local communities to bring people together in a spirit of joy.
The 50th anniversary team at present consists of Ronnie Englard, Mandy Reid, Dan Burgess – Milne, Graham Price, and Jane Hobday.
Please contact jane.hobday17@gmail.com if you would like to be involved in any way. We’d love to hear from you.