Soil health is of critical importance to ecologies that support and sustain life, even in the context of a city.

Soil carries out a range of fundamental functions: it is a source of food and nutrition, supports plant life, filters water and protects us against flooding. It is interconnected and interwoven with other elements, like water, air, fauna and flora.

In te ao Māori, this understanding is deeply embedded in knowledge and practices.

Knowing soil’s importance to the wellbeing of living systems, it follows that we should be making soil health a key part of how we build our cities. After all, urban systems and living systems are also interrelated.

What urban forms can support healthy urban soil? What potential does soil hold to improve the health of our urban spaces and neighbourhoods? What does this positive transformation look like?

First, some quick-fire presentations.

Hear from featured speakers:

• Jessica Hutchings (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Gujarati), kaupapa Māori researcher, activist and hua parakore grower

• Zoë Avery Director, The Urbanist; Associate Director of Design, School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland

Then, move to a panel discussion and Q & A, chaired by Sacha McMeeking (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mutunga), Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Canterbury.

Finally, the evening closes with some soil-inspired words from multidisciplinary storyteller Juanita Hepi (Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi).

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