The Village People
There isn’t a YMCA for miles. There were no interestingly-garbed band members singing that iconic song that would instantly incline some to bust a move. No, these were Village people of a different kind!
Months ago, I told you I believed Onga Onga, in Central Hawke’s Bay was going to be the next BIG thing and I STILL do. At the top of last week I sat with my friend Maryanne, in a meeting with some other business folk from the village. I have to admit that first day was simply an ear to the ground exercise and in the end the meeting was held over two days.
The second day had a more definite sense of forward momentum. It was especially interesting for me because Maryanne was in Waipukurau that day. I loved the business meeting Onga Onga style. 1 minute walk from Maryanne’s home to the local historic General Store. It was held on a wooden deck shaded by trees affording beautifully dappled light. It was sighworthy.
Building Prosperous Communities For Our Grandchildren
The premise for the Tuesday meeting was to meet John Wise “who has been contracted to assist with the facilitation of District Forums”. John is a practitioner with many years experience at the leading edge of Community Economic Development. Together with Trudy Kirk from CHB Promotions and in partnership with the CHB District Council, he is developing a series of forums in the community entitled: Central Hawke’s Bay – Owning Our Future ‘Building Prosperous Communities for our Grandchildren.”
Right off the bat I have to tell you I was a ring-in. I’d probably never have been asked to that meeting personally save for the fact that Maryanne insisted to the meeting organiser she wouldn’t be there unless I could be. I haven’t yet moved into the village. So, how was I going to be viewed? As an outsider? Maryanne tells me I have a heart for Onga Onga and that’s what really matters. She’s quite right.
Out-of-Towners
As fate would have it, I could have argued (if pressed) that I belonged to a growing number of out-of-towners (a group of whom own residences in the village yet live elsewhere, usually Wellington or Auckland and most recently Australia). That morning the villagers were perhaps too stunned to react to my being there by myself. That was a bit of a phew!-moment actually.
It was an interesting baker’s dozen collection of people that represented a small proportion of the community and hard for me not to feel that they didn’t ‘exactly’ represent ‘every day’ Onga Ongaites, this seemed a great pity to me. So where would you find ‘every day’ Onga Ongaites?
At the Onga Onga pub of course where Pat the publican (a super sweet guy) and a bastion of community support quietly goes about his business. You see, to me the business function of a village like Onga Onga is simply one aspect of the overall lifestyle to be taken into account. And you have to start somewhere and here we were some self-starters and hopefully fire-starters among us. I’m quietly optimistic. I’m going to talk a little bit more about this in another blog but just for the record, ‘there’s gold in them thar hills’ … keep watching Onga Onga. It’s got a heart of gold.
