A Guide to life
Swannanoa Roots
As a journalist with a farming-family background I have spent more than 20 years telling the stories of rural New Zealanders, so I jumped at the chance to gather profiles of New Zealanders making a life on the land.
In Kiwi Farmers’ Guide to Life I have traced ancestral journeys that brought New Zealanders to their particular piece of rural Kiwi paradise.
From a dive into farming history to a probe of modern agricultural issues, Kiwi Farmers’ Guide to Life shows farmers at their finest and – in some cases – their most vulnerable. Essentially, I have set out to explore why farmers do what they do, rather than how.
There’s a richness to New Zealand primary industry which deserves to be described to the full. Through the lens of the people living these issues every day, I spent the best part of a year trying to capture the joy of rural life, while also covering some of the darker corner of rural NZ, like a Waikato family’s experience of racial discrimination. In between there are also stories of farmers’ attempts to curb waterway pollution and parasite burden in livestock.
Within the 25 stories you’ll also find some of the country’s most innovative farmers: their motivations, frustrations and legacies. My own rural upbringing was at ‘Larundel’, a 350ha sheep and crop farm at Swannanoa.
Back in the ‘80s, nearby Swannanoa school only had a couple of classrooms and local schools were crying out for pupils. In a bid to snare as many kids for the school roll as possible, the Swannanoa bus used to cut through our farm, scooping up other local children en route. The farm lane would sometimes be blocked by a yard-full of sheep so the bus driver (quite possibly the school principal) would swing right by our home, stopping by the veranda where my brothers and I would hop aboard. Sheep-work always took priority
Much has changed in farming since then, locally and nationally, but thankfully it’s not the sunset industry it was once thought to be. I love telling rural stories so I hope Kiwi Farmers Guide to Life (link to book: https://timfultonmedia.co.nz/kiwi-farmers-guide-to-life/ ) helps more people to understand the joys and complexities of life on the land.
Written by
Tim Fulton
