CompassionFest Island Bay

Another compassionate response...

A collaborative mural created at the zero-waste giftmaking workshop at CompassionFest '23. The antarctic ice shelf is disappearing because of ...OUR actions.
Thank you to all - community and church, younger and older - who contributed.

CompassionFest '23 is all over! What a special weekend. And what a tribute to our local hero of compassion, Kae Miller. If you'd like to share some thoughts on any event you attended, we'd appreciate it.

Our last CompassionFest event of 2023 will be this Symposium, 7.30pm today, all welcome! Thanks to everyone for your support of this venture, we trust we have helped revive the memory and profile of Kae Miller, a remarkable woman who made a valuable impact on this part of Wellington

This Symposium will conclude the CompassionFest calendar for 2023, hosted by Kae's grandson Max Rashbrooke. 7.30pm, Home of Compassion, Island Bay

Here is the programme again, (due to venue error) for what will be a night to remember: the "Interspecies Fungus Sound Experience". Be enthralled, at the...Island Bay Bowling Club on Sunday 29th October!

Come hear about natural dyeing practices from native flora, by textile artist Angela Kilford. Island Bay Presbyterian, 2pm

How to use seaweed in the kitchen and garden, with local marine biologist Wendy Nelson, 9.30am today!!! Island Bay Presbyterian

Vegetable.Machine.Animal. ready to go at the bowling club tonight!

Show your compassion for the planet this weekend! Join in CompassionFest and make upcycled gifts, following in the footsteps of Wellington's earliest environmental activists, Kae Miller.
In the early 70s, Kae began taking waste minimisation into her own hands - the authorities were not moving fast enough!
In 1976 she secured a lease for an acre of land above the Porirua tip, on which she spent $3,000 building a recycling center and storage hut built from recycled materials, notably wooden car crates. Kae wasn’t allowed onto the tip itself and had to lure passing motorists to bring their trailers to her first before their goods were added to the landfill.
She blended her compassion for the environment and those with mental health struggles by using her Box Trust to employ former psychiatric patients to work in the recycling center alongside a community of volunteers who gathered around her.

Tadaa! Take a look at what gifts you can create at our 'zero-waste' gift making workshops this Saturday and Sunday! A book tote, cute animal planters, gift bags and more. All at CompassionFest, this Friday to Sunday. All ages and it's all FREE.
Saturday 10am-4pm (pick the time that suits)
Sunday 1-4pm.
88 The Parade Island Bay

Tadaa! Take a look at what gifts you can create at our 'zero-waste' gift making workshops this Saturday and Sunday! A book tote, cute animal planters, gift bags and more. All at CompassionFest, this Friday to Sunday. All ages and it's all FREE.
Saturday 10am-4pm (pick the time that suits)
Sunday 1-4pm.
88 The Parade Island Bay

How did Kae live her vision?
Except from the CompassionFest website:
"The 1970s seem to have been the decade of awakening for Kae and her social activism in Wellington, and the decade she reached retirement age. Alongside her primary focus on mental health, she also developed her strong interest in environmental issues. Kae became convinced that protecting the environment was essential for human survival on our planet, and she began to eschew material possessions more and more. She became active in groups seeking to preserve native forests, and also turned her eye to the Porirua tip and recycling.
People were slowly becoming aware about waste minimisation. In 1972, 3.6% of the population listed pollution as the most important problem facing our country. In the 1970s, then, Kae was well ahead of her time in taking things into her own hands and trying to take action on this issue.
In 1976 she secured a lease for an acre of land above the Porirua tip, on which she spent $3,000 building a recycling center and storage hut. These were, themselves, built out of recycled materials, notably wooden crates in which cars were imported from Japan.

Kae wasn’t allowed onto the tip itself and had to try and lure passing motorists to bring their trailers to her first before their goods were added to the landfill. She blended her compassion for the environment and those with mental health struggles by using her Box Trust to employ former psychiatric patients to work in the recycling center alongside a community of volunteers who gathered around her. One of those volunteers was Bruce Stewart who later built the Tapu Te Ranga marae in Island Bay, also out of recycled car crates, and where Kae was a welcome and respected visitor in her later years.

Our Festival opener is perhaps the most enigmatic of all! "Vegetable.Machine.Animal" is going to be a sound experience like no other, presented by Island Bay's Interspecies Fungus Trio!
You may ask, "How does this connect to our Festival local hero?" Kae Miller was very in tune with the mushroom world, as a dedicated forager and eco-warrior from the 1970's.
Question.... Is a mushroom a vegetable?
Friday 27th Oct, 7.30pm, Island Bay Bowling Club.

This Symposium will conclude the CompassionFest calendar for 2023, hosted by Kae's grandson Max Rashbrooke. 7.30pm, Home of Compassion, Island Bay

Now this is going to inspire you. Come and learn about natural dyeing techniques using plants endemic to Aotearoa.
Saturday 29th October, 2-30pm. Angela is our presenter for "Sustainable Colouration Methods"

This CompassionFest Retreat is a special chance to learn of the ground where Kae lived her vision of restoration. In this retreat we visit Alice Krebs Lodge, “a place where we learn to understand, forgive and find forgiveness and share the holy Light.”
Drop in and join us from 10-12 or 1-3 to be gently inspired by Kae Millar’s life. Learn about her vision for Alice Krebbs Lodge. Bring your journal and enjoy time out for reflection, silence or wandering the nature reserve. Join us at 12 with your packed lunch. In the spirit of Kae, please bring drinks and food free of processed sugars, caffeine and packaging.
Our local Hero, Kae Miller, dwelt here for most of her 'retirement' years in the 1980s, replanting, foraging, baking inedible bread and hosting guests in the Lodge above Te Raekaihau point overlooking Princess Bay (“the headland eaten by the wind”). This headland was all gorse at the time, but Kae presented plans to the Council for a Peace and Conservation park with a Lodge for the teaching of cottage industries, for the promotion of foraging and harvesting from nature, for reflection/prayer/meditation, and to serve as a residence for the park’s caretaker.
Kae began by replanting native bush, often on her own. The first trees she planted are 30 years old now and are the basis of the native bush-clad headland we can now enjoy.

Alice Krebs Lodge was officially opened in 1985, a simple structure built in the tradition of a DOC hut, providing a place of healing and a safe haven for many over the years. Kae described the Lodge in many ways – a habitation and memorial for departed spirits, notably Mary and Frau Krebs; a whare wananga and a whare whanau; “a place where we learn to understand, forgive and find forgiveness and share the holy Light.”

This space is available as a haven for the public and a memorial to a remarkable life of compassion and vision.

One identity who personified and lived waste reduction? Kae Miller, the "Tip Lady of Porirua". In these CompassionFest rolling workshops you can create treasures from waste. Let's be fearless like Kae, and value giving from nothing.

The 1970s were the decade of awakening for Kae and her social activism in Wellington. aAlso the decade she reached retirement age. Alongside her primary focus on mental health, Kae developed her strong interest in environmental issues. Kae became convinced that protecting the environment was essential for human survival on our planet, and she began to eschew material possessions more and more. She became active in groups seeking to preserve native forests, and also turned her eye to the Porirua tip and recycling.

People were slowly becoming aware of waste minimisation. In 1972, 3.6% of the population listed pollution as the most important problem facing our country, and in 1976, Devonport began the first municipal recycling scheme in New Zealand. As many of us will remember, however, kerbside recycling didn’t become widespread until after 2000. In the 1970s, then, Kae was well ahead of her time in taking things into her own hands and trying to take action.

In '76 she secured a lease for an acre of land above the Porirua tip, on which she spent $3,000 building a recycling center and storage hut. They were built from recycled materials, notably wooden crates from imported cars. The hut was christened “Frau Krebs House”, after her mentor Alice Krebs. Kae wasn’t allowed onto the tip itself and had to lure passing motorists to bring their trailers to her first before their goods were added to the landfill. She blended her compassion for the environment and those with mental health struggles by using her Box Trust to employ former psychiatric patients to work in the recycling center alongside a community of volunteers who gathered around her. One of those volunteers was Bruce Stewart who later built the Tapu Te Ranga marae in Island Bay, also out of recycled car crates, and where Kae was a welcome and respected visitor in her later years.

Introducing one of our CompassionFest artists: Ian Logan. Reserve Saturday 27 Oct for what will be an inspirational concert!

"Two festivals are brought together through jazz by Ian Logan (piano) and Alistair Mcleod (bass): the Wellington Jazz Festival and CompassionFest 23, based in Island Bay on the same weekend."

Artist, musician and actor Ian Logan has combined jazz, poetry and art for this show - a tribute to the creativity, genius and love for jazz and popular song in pre-N**i Weimar Germany.

Alongside the standards of Weill will be original music in a jazz vein composed especially for this performance by Ian Logan as well as contemporary German songs. Joining Ian Logan will be the versatile bassist and guitarist Alistair Mcleod, a master of many genres, renewing a productive collaboration they had in the 1990s. An exhibition will be running alongside to view as well as a reflective piece by the Rev. Nathan Parry speaking to Kae's life and work.

CompassionFest 23 promises a journey into the life of local hero Kae Miller (1910-1994). Check in for festival details!

"Kae Miller's activism was both compassionate and bold, in many cases decades ahead of its time, most notably when she lived on the Porirua Tip in the 1970s to draw attention to the lack of recycling in New Zealand. She also helped Jewish refugees escape N**i Germany and sought to create spaces and housing for people experiencing mental struggles. What can we learn from this extraordinary life, and what action might we take now on the great challenges of our day – on climate change, on social housing, on asylum policies – that will similarly inspire hope and, in half a century's time, seem equally visionary?"

Father James Lyons invites us to explore the mystery of forgiveness through the healing ministry of Jesus and drawing on insights from the 'lost and found' parables of Luke 15.

Everyone is welcome as we begin this series on Wednesday 4 March 2020 at 7pm in the Chapel of Our Lady of Compassion. There will be a two-week break before it continues on Wednesday 25 March and 1 April 2020.

Please phone 04 383 7769 or email [email protected] to register.

Happy Advent everyone! FYI games, BBQ and carols this Sunday from 4:30pm at St Hilda's Anglican in Island Bay

We are really happy to announce details of our Island Bay churches Community Carols! Sunday 8th December, 4.30pm on St Hilda's lawn. This is one of our annual family-oriented Christmas celebrations.

Taizé in Aotearoa https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/taize-aotearoa-tickets-73887759277?utm_term=eventname_text

We are just about to release a new book on 22 March 2019 and you can pre-order your copy now!

'The Journey of Compassion Continues' is an illustrated book about how the Sisters of Compassion have lived the vision of Suzanne Aubert over the past 25 years. It shows that the mission of Compassion is still possible today in our world. The sisters have let go of some of their more traditional work being done well by others, and have accepted the challenge to move into different ways of extending the charism of Suzanne Aubert.

Pre orders can be placed online at https://compassion.org.nz/product/the-journey-of-compassion-continues/

A note about this presentation as euthanasia came up strongly in our CompassionFest symposium last year...

Many of you will be aware of this talk, but many won't. Hear Dr Leonie Herx, Canadian Palliative Care Physican, share her experience of working in a health care system where euthanasia is legal and practiced regularly. She will talk us through the impact on Drs, clinicians and the hospice and palliative care sector.
Date: Wednesday 27 March, 7-8.30pm, Rutherford Room LT1
Victoria University of Wellington,Pipitea Campus
Koha is appreciated and can be made at the door.

If you enjoyed the festival Taize service or would like to explore other reflective encounters up at the Home of Compassion, their retreat programme for 2019 is now out

https://compassion.org.nz/spiritual-programmes/retreat-programme-2018/

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We would like to review how our festival went and the impact it had on raising awareness about Suzanne Aubert and the way of compassion. If you would be willing to fill out a 10 minute feedback questionnaire, please contact [email protected] and one will be emailed to you. Thanks!

If you enjoyed our CompassionFest Taize service, another is being held at the Home of Compassion tomorrow (Friday 2nd) 7-8pm. All welcome!

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