On the 8th of September we were fortunate to have Rebecca Parnham visit us at Heaton during Art Extension to talk about the Christchurch Unity Garden and her other enterprises.

Rebecca Parnham first went to Cambodia on holiday with her husband 10 years ago. She said the poverty she saw there was "heart-breaking."

As a social worker, she wanted to do something which would make a positive impact on these communities.

When she was there she noticed the traditional krama, the Cambodian garment used as a scarf, hammock or towel. 

"I went to a pretty devastating place and what I saw was the strength of the women and the versatility of the krama.

Rebecca set up Krama & Co with her co-founder Nita. The company pays the women making the Krama a fair wage and a premium to a 'village fund'

Rebecca found herself working with children who were struggling with anxiety after the earthquakes when the events of 15th of March happened. Some of the paper messages from Rolleston Avenue and Al Noor Mosque were donated to Rebecca by the Christchurch City Council. These were turned into pulp, wildflower seeds added, and the mixture formed into heart shapes. 'Giving Seeds of Love' was born. Rebecca has been very involved with the Christchurch Muslim community with this and other projects. More recently a space in the Red Zone was made available to create a Unity Garden. This is intended to be the insect dining table for the area and has began to be planted with wildflowers but it is also intended to be a place of peace and contemplation.

https://krama.nz/

https://www.givingseedsoflove.com/

Rebecca's stories inspired us to design and make clay 'rocks' and decoration for the garden. When finished these will be taken to the Unity Garden. We were also inspired to make clay message rocks for the Heaton Gardens. Why not come and help us at Art Club.

We also had a go at making paper hearts, just like the Giving Seeds of Love hearts.

Rebecca was very impressed by our Oamaru stone Unity Sculpture. 

We are so grateful for Rebecca for giving up her time to come and speak to Art Extension and some of the Environment and Cultural clubs. Many thanks for inspiring us and for showing us how one person and craft can really make a difference.

Some of the clay 'rocks' were printed with dried flower tributes from the Heaton Mosque shooting memorial, some used Trade Aid African figures and Indian wood stamps to create the designs and some were printed with messages and quotes.

I was inspired by Rebecca to create clay work for the Unity Garden.  Montserrat Room19

A Couple of weeks ago Rebecca Parnham came on a Tuesday morning to talk to us about the unity Garden. Rebecca Parnham also inspired us to make something for the Garden so we made rocks out of clay and made some other things, to put into the garden.I really enjoyed Rebecca Parnham coming to talk with us last week. She was really inspiring.   Tayla Room 19

I enjoyed doing the workshop yesterday. I liked how Rebecca explained how she came up with her business idea, and how it came to be. I also liked how she helped us make the paper hearts for the garden and showed us her process of making them. Overall I thought this was a great workshop and we should do it again.            Maggie Room 4