The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we live, not just here in New Zealand - but worldwide. As new cases of Covid-19 continued to rise around the country the Prime Minister declared on Monday 23 March that New Zealand would enter alert level 3, effective immediately, during the health ministry briefing. We were advised to prepare for alert level 4, effective at 11:59 pm on Wednesday 26 March that would see New Zealand go into lock-down.
Along with hundreds of other businesses, THE BACH gallery closed up, uncertain of when things would return to "normal" life-as-we-knew it. With the country in lock-down and only essential services permitted to operate, the tapestry project came to a grinding halt.
At the beginning of March 2020 we still had a number of foreign and domestic tourists enjoying Northland.
Petra de Koning Gans (above) and Jeltsje Wieroma (below) visiting from Ulrecht in the Netherlands, both enjoyed doing some weaving on the community tapestry
They both agreed they enjoyed weaving experience and were grateful for the opportunity.
The day before New Zealand moved to Alert Level 3, Pam - a local from Kamo, took up the invitation to try a bit of weaving, opting for the harmony panel as she didn't feel confident weaving on the main tapestry. She too enjoyed the opportunity to "just sit and add her bit" to the community project.
This is where we are currently up to...
We are looking forward to being able to return to spending time with members of the community, sharing stories and teaching the basic weaving techniques when it is safe to do so.
