Board
Kay Baxter
Kay has been an organic gardener for fifty years and is a co-founder of the Koanga Institute in New Zealand. Kay has a vast knowledge of home gardening, nutrient dense food production and the links between regenerative food growing and human health.
Kay has authored many books including:
Change of Heart (the Ecology of Nourishing Food), The Koanga Garden Guide, Design your Own Orchard, The Koanga Garden Planner
A range of Koanga booklets, including: Save Your Own Seeds, How To Grow Nutrient Dense Food, Beginner Gardener Booklet, Urban Gardening For Nutritional Resilience, The Art of Composting and Design Your Own Forest Garden
Kay has been teaching permaculture for many years, and draws upon her experience designing, implementing and managing permaculture systems, specializing in the field of nutrient dense food production – vegetable gardens, orchards, forest gardens and animal systems, predominantly in zone 1 and 2.
Kay was awarded a New Years Honor in 2017 for her outstanding work of saving our New Zealand heritage food plants as well as her work in creating sustainable growing systems for our food plants, and she considers her greatest challenge is to find a regenerative way of growing all of her own food without buying any fertiliser from outside Kotare Village
Bob Corker
Bob has been involved with Permaculture design for over 30 years as a self- employed environmental consultant and farmer. During that time his work has involved many individual permaculture designs, including homesteads, small farms and larger pastoral farms. He spent 15 years as a landscape contractor specialising in constructed wetlands, including large municipal sewage treatment ponds, suburban stormwater ponds and channels, and the design and construction of used-water treatment systems for permaculture households. He was also involved in the design and development of the Kohatu Toa Eco-village in Kaiwaka, a small intentional community in Northland NZ, where Kay and Bob lived until 2007. He is a co- founder of the Koanga Institute, and has a particular interest, within the Institute, of developing light earth building techniques and appropriate technologies for autonomous housing and simple living. Bob has co-taught many Permaculture Design courses and shorter Permaculture workshops. He is presently designing and developing Kotare Village, a 50 family rural village/intentional community near Wairoa, Northern Hawkes Bay, and developing a small family farm within the Kotare Village, based on Management Intensive Grazing, Perennial Polycultures and closed loop breeding systems to create the best possible stock for Kotare Village and a regenerative soil ecology.
Peter Alexander
Peter is well known within the organic food sector as the owner of Chantal Foods and Chantal Organic Wholesalers which distributes grocery lines throughout New Zealand. He is dedicated to the principles of organics and sustainability. He firmly believes that we must respect nature and produce healthy products that protect the earth’s resources for the future. He is passionate about organics because they mean health, fairness and care for our land, water, animals and people. Peter is committed to supporting New Zealand, employing over 40 people.
Peter grows fresh vegetables on 5 acres organically and also owns a vegetarian organic café as part of his health food shop in Napier.
Peter has been a member and active supporter of our work for over 15 years. He has a strong commitment to food self-reliance and healthy food within NZ. He is keenly aware of the importance of New Zealand becoming more self reliant in high quality organic and heritage produce, not only because of the increasing difficulty of ensuring supplies in a world of increasing food scarcity and demand, but also of the many positive benefits to our communities.
He believes the work of Koanga Institute will play an important role in our future resilience and support at this stage will return many benefits in the future
Wendy Gray
Business Consultant
After over 25 years living in London I returned to Auckland in 2011 to set up home close to the areas where my family of 3 generations has lived in Central Auckland and where I now live with my Singapore born husband Tom Ang.
Soon after returning Tom and I became involved with Kay and Bob and Koanga Institute and have for many years assisted with land banking and other specialist jobs which are within our skill-set.
Since July 2018 I have been seconded to the Koanga Institute Trust Board in order to assist the Board with special projects relating to restructuring of the Institute and its relationship with the Kotare Community Land Trust.
I have an interest in regenerative land management, agriculture, nutrient dense food and heritage varieties. In Auckland I am also involved in campaigning for the introduction of regenerative management of Auckland’s green infrastructure and urban ngahere.
Team
Kay Baxter - Mentor, Kaitiaki of collections, brand and education.
Gail Aiken
Gail has been involved with Koanga for many years and lives with her partner, John, in the Hokianga on a beautiful piece of land overlooking the Waima River. They are seed growers, grow plants for the perennial back order system, hold the Northern Fruit Tree Collection on their land and Gail is the Back Order System Manager so distributes orders from the back order perennials system. More recently Gail has also taken over managing the website and social media.
Michele Griffiths, Garden Manager
I first came to Koanga to work in exchange for a Permaculture Design Course in 2015 and fell in love with Koanga's kaupapa and seed saving. I returned 6 months later as a garden apprentice, this included the spring internship. After that I became an employee of Koanga taking care of the isolation garden which specialises in medicinal herbs and cottage garden flowers. More responsibilities came to me as time went by, including managing seed harvesting. I have now progressed to Garden Manager, taking care of all the seed gardens. I am extremely grateful for having such an amazing, motivated garden crew and staff to work with at Koanga. I also love the fabulous array of folks from all over the globe that come here to learn more about regeneratvie living. Best job ever!
Isiah – Gardener
Hello, I am Isiah. I am a Gardener here at Koanga. I have been working here since November 2016 and have been looking after the compost garden. I now take care of one of the Isolation gardens. What I enjoy most about working here is the awesome people you meet from here and abroad, the knowledge I have received and knowing that I am doing something worthwhile.
Murray Nevermen – Forest Garden Manager
Born in Napier where I lived most of my life apart for three years in Taupo. The last seven years I have been travelling New Zealand in a motorhome exploring this beautiful country and looking where I wanted to settle. Gardening and Landscaping has always been my biggest passion so, Koanga Institute and Kotare Village is a perfect fit living and working with knowledgeable people.
Ben and Whitney
Ben and Whitney job share a few roles at Koanga while raising their beautiful boy Jude. They are in essence the 'seed librarians' caring for the seeds from when they leave the gardens until they are dispatched. They also take care of book keeping and processing orders from the online shop. Ben got his love of gardening from his grandfather, some of his most cherished memories from childhood are of spending time in the peace and quiet and deliciousness of 'Jacks' bountiful garden. Whitney spent a number of years working in some of the top restaurants in Victoria Australia where she was inspired by the hard working market gardeners and other specialist producers who provided the beautiful produce that she got to work with. She has brought her passion for cooking and gardening with her to the Koanga Institute and loves the closed loop system of garden/farm to kitchen when cooking for our courses and workshops. Ben and Whitney spent their first year at Kotare Village as interns for the Koanga Urban Garden, which was an amazing opportunity to learn from the whole Koanga Team. They are now planning their new garden at home at Kotare Village for spring and are excited to apply the collective knowledge to a blank slate!
Franzi Corker
Franzi's journey with Koanga started 12 years ago when she met her future husband Taiamai (Kay & Bob's son), on her OE in New Zealand. She hails from Germany originally and loves art, music, gardening and raising their 3 wild children. Franzi started as a wwoofer for Kay & Bob in Kaiwaka and has since taken on many roles within Koanga, including growing 80 varieties of tomatoes, cooking for workshops, illustrating books and seed collection covers, graphic design, administration and bookkeeping. After finishing her art studies she is now back in the office, looking after our retail and wholesale customers and processing orders.