Conservation and cicadas

Ka Patua te whenua i te kino
Ka ngaro te mana me
te wairua mo te iwi

"Violence against the land
is as destructive to the Mana and Wairua
of the people of that land
as it is to the land itself"

One of the many things I love about my adoptive country is its deep commitment to conservation. This blip was taken in "seed source gully" planted by the Tapu Te Ranga marae: volunteers plant indigenous trees and shrubs so that birds might scatter their seed across the bush.

My walk in the bush today was beautiful and the air was vibrating with the song of cicadas. If you look closely you can see a cicada in the blip, just above the word "source", its rear end and wings blurred with the movement it makes to "sing".

The Maori name for the cicada is tatarakihi.