Finding my roots from afar
When I moved to New Zealand, I moved from Brixton, London. I went from living off one of the most polluted roads in the UK to living among native bushes that whistled and tooted with native birds. I thought that coming to New Zealand would be an adventure, but I didn’t know it would change my whole outlook on life and ignite a spiritual connection that sustains me.
Although New Zealand is probably seen globally as a green haven, that isn’t necessarily the case. Much of it was essentially changed to be an England in the southern hemisphere – complete with green naked hills, patchwork farms and, yes, lots of sheep. That being said, my everyday life was suddenly playing out in a city that is essentially wrapped in a green scarf of trees and native bush. As I said in my last post, as 99.9% of human history has seen humans living amongst nature, I think that it is like coming home to ourselves, and to realising we aren’t a species at the top of a pyramid that owns everything underneath, but part of a collective web of life. It’s like this modern existence has led to us forgetting something important – that we are nature – but our unconscious, our soul, knows that something isn’t right.
Being surrounded by nature but also by the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa, Māori, made that buried and dimmed part remember something ancient. Learning about reciprocity with nature, not taking more than half, seeing everything as having a spirit, an aliveness – it changed me. It made me think about my own roots on this Earth. We are all, essentially, people of the Earth, but whether it’s because of our daily surroundings as we grow up, the stories and memories passed down from generations, or some crazy DNA thing, many people feel a deeper connection to certain landscapes. I definitely have a certain affinity to rocky and moody coastlines!
Over time, my desire to connect with the place my family are from, Norfolk, grew stronger. Although I spent a bit of time there as a child, it wasn’t really time in nature. During the last couple of trips back to the UK, I’ve explored the beaches, the birds, seen hares jumping across dewy fields at sunrise, walked through old forest, seen wildflowers bloom – I feel like my roots to place are growing deeper and more nourishing, even from a distance. Norfolk is my home. On my last trip, I bought a book called Winter: An anthology of the changing seasons by Melissa Harrison to remember how winter goes at home – here, it is forever green and few leaves fall from the trees.
I like that I can love and appreciate the nature in New Zealand – the odd birds with their coughs and sneezes and screeches; the evergreen, bushy, abundant native plants – and I can rebuild a sense of connection with the place that is woven into my body and memory, conscious and unconscious. It feels important to have that connection and I think so many of us have lost it in this modern world. I love that a connection to nature is so sustaining. It’s always there – there’s always a tree, a bug, an interesting lichen, the clouds, a patch of sky, a rock, a fallen leaf, a cluster of little birds bobbing through the air. All it takes is to notice and love.
Here are some photos from my trip in April 2023.
