Lee Nasiseni and Swanie Nelson Photo: RNZ / Leonard Powell
Green MP and former Auckland Councillor Fa'anānā Efeso Collins was farewelled on Thursday, with a huge celebration of his life at the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau.
The leader from south Auckland died at a charity event on 21 February.
His farewell celebration was attended by thousands, and filled with music, poetry, stories, tears and laughter.
And such an event required a village of volunteers in the kitchen to prepare food for the guests.
A big white tent was buzzing with people of all ages from the Ōtara Kai Village, as boxes of food were sorted on fold-out tables.
Among those on the tools was former local board member Swanie Nelson.
"Today we've basically got many members of our community from Ōtara, good friends of Efeso, related to him as well. They've worked alongside him in the community, they've been recipients of a lot of the advocacy that he's done within Ōtara," she told RNZ's First Up.
"Just every single part of Ōtara that you could think of is here today who have got behind this catering to make it happen."
Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro
The volunteers were preparing to feed about 4000 people at the event. And they wanted to cater to the diversity of people who would be there.
"Efeso, he touched the lives of many people from diverse backgrounds with different religions, different ethnicities and so today, we're not going to just be seeing Pasifika community, we're going to be seeing a community that represents actually the whole fabric of New Zealand," Nelson said.
There were about 10,000 bottles of water, with thousands of pieces of cakes, sandwiches, sushi and sandwiches on offer.
Cake at Fa'anānā Efeso Collins' funeral service on 29 February 2024. Photo: RNZ / Leonard Powell
Nelson said hospitality was at the heart of moments like this, and they had been overwhelmed by the generosity of people wanting to help.
"In Pasifika, Māori culture, this is what we do. We always feed people. And so they'll be able to come out and be participants of the hospitality of the beautiful Collins whānau, Efeso's family, Fia's family and the wider community of Ōtara.
"We had people just arrive through the night. We haven't slept all night. We've been putting up things, preparing food all through the night hours. And as that's happened, we've literally just had people from all facets of the Ōtara community message and say, 'Can we help?'."
Leota Alice Photo: RNZ / Leonard Powell
The group taking the lead is the Community Builders NZ Trust, which runs the Ōtara Kai Village.
Operations manager Lee Naniseni told First Up it grew from an idea based on sustainability.
They offer free meals, kai distribution, and run community-building events.
Sharing food was essential, she said.
"This is our language for Pacific Islanders. We connect around food, we create relationships around food and Efeso was a huge part of the Ōtara Village as well.
"He initiated a lot of the ideas behind it and supported everything that flowed out of it.
"Food is a huge language of ours and it was very important to have that as part of Efeso's day today," Naniseni said.
