Fwd: Earthskin Annual Report 2025/26

Welcome from the Chairwoman and Founder — Nancy King

Welcome, and thank you warmly for taking the time to read this report. It has been another delightful, interesting, and dynamic year for The Earthskin Trust. I would also like to acknowledge all the people whose presence, dedication, and generosity of spirit have enabled Earthskin to sustain its purpose-led local activities — creating connection, collaboration, and the development of our nature-centric woven future.

These are complex times for small trusts like ours. Although donations are not flowing in as they once did, we continue to function fruitfully through the commitment of our small and remarkable team, who persistently hold and share the larger vision Earthskin has carried for over twenty years.

Our ongoing driver of inter-collaboration with other charitable trusts continues to create its own momentum. Through the rich interplay of Earthskin Scholarships, supportive energy and commitment are flowing into cross-support roles that help build local regenerative models into a living, sustainable collective. During these quieter times, we are “fixing our nets” and preparing the way for my eventual retirement as Founder.

This season also marks the closing stages of a rich four-year project restoring my iconic historic home and haven for nature — a place Earthskin has shared and enriched through community workshops and Ecological Artist Residencies within the newly earth-plastered walls of the Earthskin Barn.

Originally built by the renowned architect Graeme North as the cherished home of himself and Deniece, and later my own home, the house and gardens are now fully preserved and enhanced, ready for future contemporary needs that will sustain future kaitiaki. All our love has gone into the careful refurbishment and deep ecology of this precious heritage food and nature forest.

From April through to November, Guenther Andraschko of Resilient Living, together with support tutor Judy Keats, use Earthskin Barn and my home to facilitate the hands-on weekend component of the six-month Permaculture Design Course. Earthskin annually offers scholarships to students requiring assistance to attend.

One of the most exciting additions this year has been the inclusion of groups of architects interested in teaching the New Building Standards for Natural Housing — NZS 4299. These groups came to Earthskin to participate in the process of making​ hemp boards for insulation, at a significant moment when hemp is finally beginning to play an important role in New Zealand’s future.

New Zealand now holds the most comprehensive earth-building standards in the world, with deep acknowledgement owed to the volunteer specialists — including Graeme, then chairman of EBANZ Trust — for their extraordinary diligence and dedication. Earthskin also remains deeply connected to New Zealand’s first Hemp School, Hemp Central. A particular personal joy has been the restoration of an old wool carder lapper machine named Earthskin, now housed at the school. It awaits its next exciting chapter as part of experimentation combining natural materials —utilising hemp alongside flax and wool.

The beauty and strength of Earthskin lies in having two regenerative centres which, though small, maintain a continuity of community care and are housed within my own family properties, including our North Piha site. These spaces provide venues for artists, short courses, WWOOFers, teachers, and permaculture gardeners such as our “garden angel” Athena, allowing them to extend their training and practical skills.

At Piha, the Waygood Foundations have had fewer opportunities during 25-26 to host artists due to the ongoing effects on the land following Cyclone Gabrielle. This coming summer eco-artists are trialling short-stay residencies in preparation for reopening our Artist Residency programme in Piha for the 2027 year. Nevertheless, other activities continue to keep this place thriving — including visits from garden clubs, weekly volunteer days, local playgroup visits to their on-site children’s garden, and small workshops for locals.

The exceptional management and hosting capacities of Claire Inwood and Tanya Milton continue to set an extraordinary standard that ripples outward into community resilience and enrichment — creating spaces for retreat, growing, learning, sharing, and caring for our natural world. I would also like to express appreciation to my cousin Dennis, living next door, for keeping our lawns impeccable.

Significant progress has also been made on our conservation land beside the Marawhara Stream, which was devastated during Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023. The area now carries a restoration skin of green through local community seed planting.

Piha artist Charlotte Graeme’s plantings of hue seeds are now well settled into the whenua, becoming part of Piha’s living plant history while also forming the foundation for some of her wondrous artistic work. It has been a rewarding year of working steadily towards completion.

Finally, I would like to thank my Trustees, our lawyer John Cox, and especially honour my daughter Vanessa King and Guenther Andraschko, who have been my constant practical guides and support in realising the potential of Earthskin Warkworth. As Project Manager, Guenther has walked beside me continuously in my endeavours to ensure this property — currently called Earthskin — will continue to grow and survive long into the future. It is a spectacular and iconic place to be shared, and I have been deeply privileged to live within such beauty and experience its true magic — the kind very few people ever encounter. Yet I trust that many more will in the years ahead.

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Nancy King

Chairwoman and Founder

The Earthskin Trust