Janja | Brook Valley, Nelson

“Around the concept of home, Nelson has been my home now for 13 years, and it’s probably the longest that I’ve ever been anywhere. When I grew up, my parents had itchy feet, and we moved around a lot.

Different countries, different places, and so for me I think I went to something like 25 different schools by the time I hit high school, and I was always very envious of people that had a home and knew people from the time they were at Kindy, knew them all the way through school, and for me, Nelson has been that place. Nelson has a really strong community, and Nelsonians help to make you feel at home. Most people you actually speak to often come from other places, and have chosen to make Nelson their home, and I suppose that may be why it resonates so strongly. One of the things moving around a lot was that you met lots of people, and so you learned to be adaptable and to communicate, and I’m very grateful for the strong mentor in my mum. One of her mantras if you like, is what would kindness say, and what would kindness do, and so essentially I think that has allowed me to both be welcoming of people, and allow myself to be welcomed by people, and I think that is something that’s really important in that concept of home, is that home needs to be a welcoming kind of place, and I think that’s something that Nelson very much is.

I was born in South Africa, raised in Australia and came here when I was a teenager, went to school in Auckland and then pretty much went bumming around the world snowboarding and surfing and then came to education later in life. Now I work as a community art-worker. So, I manage a community art space. We do lots of events and exhibitions and I absolutely love it.”