Ahakoa he iti he pounamu - Although it is small, it is greenstone
This blog was supposed to be about the prospects of our new packaging but instead it morphed into an explanation of why I create carry-away as we do.
So I will let you snuggle in for a read and look forward to hearing if I have relayed my reasoning well.
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Our Packaging is created from, and for Papatūanuku.
It reflects our constant striving to improve and evolve, and how we constantly try to use less and give more.
We create packaging that gives message not mess.
It still sits in the realm of imperfection yet I know that each step is getting us closer to feeling 100% about or decisions and designs.
It is in the wee hours of the morn that I receive a-ha moments and realisations.
They come in the space between realms where my mind is both awake and resting
2am is the hour of curiosity and 4pm the hour of sometimes intense productivity with 5-6 being when I try to regain the REM that I have missed.
It is where the name and symbolisations of PAUSE were born, it is where my blogs and writing step forth.
It is the time when I can feel Papatūānuku and Ranginui, when the darkness of their embrace can be imagined, and the creation of their children and the stories that came are paraded into my focus.
It is where I hear my family - really hear them, breathe and shift in their positions of moe (sleep)
Wrapped in this mix of still and night sounds of manu and movement,
I write.
So what has come forth this time - it was more of a realisation than a renewal.
In store we craft carry-away in a manner that honour the products,
our planet and the purchaser.
We wish for you to leave with more than your purchase.
We understand the act of wrapping /unwrapping is one we inertly have as a way of care.
It is what we do to, and for, our babies.
We wrap and unwrap them to keep them safe, secure and snug.
We do this movement and notion of folding and unfolding within our space.
I joke that my wrapping style is that of wrapping fish and chips though it is in this jest that I hint to its true reason.
Cooking and wrapping fish and chips was something my mum did as a job when she first moved to Waiheke
Leaving her career of being a teacher she nurtured in a new way through kai and care.
For me, my style of wrapping is homage to the warmth and care of my mum, a reference to her ways and our connection.
I am able to conjur up the image of mum moving with precision and charisma to enfold a meal for people’s consumption and curiousity.
It was how she would have moved, though at a slower pace l, and with more intent, when she swaddled my sister and I as babes.
This point of connection and kaha is what wraps each item that leaves my hands to travel to your home.
A memory, a cradle, that I rock each time I fold paper around purchase.
And the lavender that adorns each parcel is also homage to my past.
Our mum always had flowers in the home.
Small posies in the bathroom/bedrooms of fragrant filled flowers, that she had picked from our garden or brought home from travels to the Waikato.
A central vase in the dining room was filled weekly by our dad who would purchase on his way home from work a bunch of carnations or other in season offerings.
I think it was normally a Friday…
He would park up in the driveway, jump out of his truck and grab lunch bag and bunch from the cab and walk round the front of the house in his stubbies, knee high league socks and work shoes
(And trying to remember if they were boots or shoes, lunchbox or bag- must ask him)
Empty container was destined for the kitchen bench and bouquet and a kiss for our mum.
This happened every week
They were not fancy flowers, they were simple and symbolic of his constant love for our mum and unwavering providing for his family
So when I pick, place and put forth pieces of Papatūānuku onto our packaging these are the offerings/memories I hand over.
Offerings of intergenerational care, of kindness, connection and of a kaupapa of kaitiakitanga.
They are there as a reminder of the love I grew from, and a hope that the receiver will feel cared for and connected, - interlinked in this cycle of kumanu.
Just as flowers and fondness made us feel as children.
Cared for, and part of a dream like state that our parents wrapped us in so our dreams and concepts had safe spaces to develop and play.
So the next time you receive a TIMMY SMITH, know what it comes in is more than merely sustainable, it's significant as you too re now wrapped in the fabric of Mary Smiths embrace.