The Tui Community & Trust

Tui Community was founded in 1984 with the aim to create intentional community.  The group purchased a farm consisting of 50 hectares (125 acres) in Wainui Bay and over the years the community people and processes have evolved.  Now it is a blend of an “intentional community” and a “village” where people deliberately come together to share lives in a way that reaches out beyond nuclear family living. 

Today 30 – 40 adults and children live in a beautiful place by the sea, Wainui Bay, on the edge of the Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand’s South Island. Among the many activities of the community, we grow a large organic garden, organic orchard and some shared communal meals.

Families live in separate houses and people are responsible for the financing of their own accommodation, some people work in the “Tui Balmes & Waxes” business, and many have independent incomes and occupations. A main focus of community life is the building of genuine relationships based on honest and open communication. 

The Tui Spiritual & Educational Trust is a charitable Trust dedicated to the general promotion and enhancement of community life. The aims and objectives of the Trust are interwoven in that way of life .

The Trust gains much of its impetus from the working example of Tui Community and some of its objectives are realised by providing programmes in which people may visit, experience and learn the workings of an intentional community. These programmes also include experience in working co-operatively in organic horticulture.

Other current programmes of the Trust include the Dance, Creative Arts , “Teenagers” “Men’s”, “Women’s” and “Co-Gender” and “Kids Gatherings”. These events are either co-ordinated or administered by Tui Trustees. They are open to public participation and focus broadly on the healing and enhancement of individuals, through their participation in the challenges and nurturing of community. While the “Gatherings” are currently held on Trust land, they are distinct from Tui Community itself.

To view or our Tui Calendar of Events (Link to Tui Events)
Email contact for Events at Tui Spiritual & Educational Trust.

View community workings.