Berms, Palestine and Maungakiekie
A common thread.
The tree on our berm has died. Unbeknownst to us, our lawn man had slowly (and systematically I suppose) ring-barked the tree using his whipper snipper on each visit.
I would love to replace it with an olive tree, one that produces eating olives because they are so goddamn yummy. It has been the year of the olive for me, i can’t get enough of them and through association the tree that bears them, Olea europaea. The tree is tough, beautiful, provides shade, fruit, oil, on and on….
Below are 4 olive related nuggets. May 2025 be the year of the olive for you. Trent xx
First off the bat comes Palastine artist Khaled Jarrar who I came across reading the magazine MacGuffin. Jarrars work draws attention to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Jarrar, chipped concrete from the Separation Wall inside occupied West Bank, fashioned it into everyday objects, sold them in the art market, purchased land with the proceeds, harvested olives and intends to sell the olive oil. You can read about him here or watch a tour of the exhibition here.
I was further reminded of the Palestinian peoples connection with the olive tree while looking through the book, Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine before the Nakba, which we have on our coffee table at the moment. Beautiful in the richness of life and culture it shows, heart breaking in knowing what has since been lost/stolen/destroyed.
Closer to home is ‘The Olive Book’ by Garth Renowden, written specifically for the Southern Hemisphere. I bought this book years ago in a secondhand bookstore and now it’s finally come in useful. It has a great section on selecting the right variety for either oil (Tuscan variety Frantoio, described as a workhorse…) or pickling (can you go pass Kalamata…?). There is also a very readable section on potential pests and diseases ,whipper-snippers and Israeli settlers were noted omissions however.
Even closer to home is the history shared in Shifting Grounds by Lucy Mackintosh. In one chapter, Mackintosh talks about Tāmaki Makaurau’s first olive grove (which still exists) planted on Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill in 1878. It’s my favourite kind of book, using landscape as an archive, highlighting places we have spent our lives driving past, absentmindedly.
