Self-sufficient 'sisters' OUR OWN LITTLE UTOPIA

Jasmine and Wikitoria have created a happy place where 'everyone we love is here'

- Kasia De Vydt-Jillings

When Jasmine Brown wakes in the morning to her children running in calling out “Mōrena” (morning), all feels right in the world.

On her Āwhitu Peninsula village, four generations of her whānau, including husband Pineamine, 29, her children, seven siblings, parents and grandparents are all living harmoniously on their shared land.

Together they homeschool, grow their own food, raise animals and turn to nature for medicinal remedies in a bid to reconnect to a more ancestral way of living.

“I feel as though it’s a rich life because when I go to sleep, everyone I love is with me,” shares Jasmine, 28, who is mum to four children aged eight, seven, four and 10 months old. “Every morning, the tamariki [children] are bursting through the doors with vibrancy. It’s just so full of life and love, and I wish everyone could experience that depth of connection with their whānau.”

Meanwhile, two hours away in Waihi, best friend Wikitoria Kautai-King’s mornings look almost identical after building her own intergenerational land with her māmā Dale and pāpā David, husband Sheyenne, 33, their three children aged 12, two and fi ve months old, and her two brothers Daniel and Kale.

“My māmā and pāpā wanted to strip right back to simply grow alongside their mokopuna [grandchildren],” explains Wikitoria, 32.

“Going out to Jasmine’s whenua [land] and observing them made us see it was possible.”