The Pundi Passion
Pundi Produce is not just about produce, it’s about empowerment. It’s about helping people reconnect with nature through touch, taste and tending, in order to improve their overall health and wellbeing.
The disease of disconnect
Pundi means “mouse” in Ngarrindjeri language. A mouse is a tiny creature, seemingly inconsequential, and yet, integral to the ecosystem. Small, but making a big impact.
That’s symbolic of how I see Pundi Produce. We are a small business that make a huge difference, not only in the areas of sustainable farming and native food production and promotion, but within the very fabric of society.
Currently there’s a real disconnect between people and nature which is the source of so many problems. My goal is to bring people back to nature, particularly our indigenous youth who are dealing with drug and alcohol addictions as well as mental health issues. Every Sunday I share my sustainable farming knowledge with a young group. Seeing gradual changes in their outlook on life, and their future, is extremely rewarding.
A holistic approach
To improve our health and wellbeing, it’s important to eat the right foods, exercise, and keep our minds active.
But that’s not all.
Health and wellbeing starts where life itself began – in nature. So many modern problems are a result of our disconnect from nature.
If a house-foundation is not strong, the house is more prone to problems. The same can be said for our own human foundation.
Connecting to nature helps build the strongest foundation for our mind, body and soul; a foundation that the rest of our lives can be built upon.
With this solid foundation in place, we’re centred and stable, and better equipped to handle life’s challenges. When problems arise, we can look inward for solutions rather than self-medicating with external diversions or synthetic poisons.
Returning to the earth connects us to land and culture.
Grounds us. Gets us back to basics.
Nature is the cheapest stress relief
Nature is the most available, wondrous stress relief. And it’s free! Smelling the earth, digging the dirt, watching wildlife, gazing at the clouds is all revitalising. The simple act of planting and tending a tree is not just calming, it’s curing. The growth and new life of the tree inspires growth and new life in us too.
Connecting to nature is connecting to country
My people are from Yuin nation, the Black Duck People from NSW. When I was younger, I used to sit and watch my nanna tend her garden. She had a green thumb, and gardening was her favourite past time.
As I learn more about bush medicines and plants, I feel more connected to her, and her way of life.
The thing is, you don’t have to be an indigenous Australian to feel connected to Indigenous Australia. The very earth you touch, is the earth the first peoples walked upon and tended to. If you’re simply mindful of this, you’ll always be connected to them. Curiously, all they had in life was the earth and each other, and they thrived. Despite the leaps and bounds we’ve made as a modern society in industry and technology, unlike our ancestors, we are disconnected from the earth and from each other.
It’s time to reconnect.
It’s time to feel more grounded.
It’s time to grow and thrive, as one.
We acknowledge and pay our respects to elders past, present, and emerging of the Nagway and more than thirty other groups of traditional owners of the land now known as South Australia.
