Martin James Wilson (1 August 1959 – 11 August 2022) was an

environmentalist Environmentalism is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of Green politics, g ...

and community leader from

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. In the 1980s he initiated and ran several

Cuba Street Carnival The Cuba Street Carnival was a street parade and creative celebration in Cuba Street, Wellington, New Zealand that was intermittently held from the 1980s and saw crowds of 10,000–20,000 people. It stopped in 2009 due to a lack of funding, and ...

s, started the Birdman competitions on the Wellington waterfront and initiated festivals and craft markets though several suburbs over decades. He raised awareness of food waste via setting up and running

guerrilla gardening Guerrilla gardening is the act of gardening – raising food, plants, or flowers – on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to cultivate, such as abandoned sites, areas that are not being cared for, or private property. It enc ...

composting in his local suburb of Aro Valley.

Early years

Wilson's parents were Diana Wilson and architect Derek Wilson. His father published two environmental and anti-nuclear books. Wilson was the youngest of three boys, and was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He went to high school at the liberal

Onslow College Onslow College is a state co-educational secondary school located in Johnsonville, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. In 2022 it had 1405 students. The current principal is Sheena Millar. History Onslow College opened in 1956 to serve Welling ...

then to study several disciplines from anthropology to politics, development studies to international relations, psychology to geography, environment studies to public policy, economics and commercial law at Victoria University. He was part of the central city, Cuba Street and Aro Valley scene from the 1980s which led him to playing in bands and then creating and running the original

1980s and '90s

The Upper

s were antecedent to two more privately run Carnivals in the middle of Cuba Street in 1991 and 1993. Wilson ran another in 1995. The City Council funded them from 1998–2009 as a biennial event. Since 2015 Council have run the Cuba Dupa festival With his company Capital Productions Ltd., Wilson created the craft market in civic square and several annual, community, village festivals in

Karori Karori is a suburb located at the western edge of the urban area of Wellington, New Zealand, from the city centre and is one of New Zealand's most populous suburbs, with a population of in The name Karori used to be Kaharore and is from th ...

, Newtown, Aro Valley,

Khandallah Khandallah is a suburb of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. It is located northeast of the city centre, on hills overlooking Wellington Harbour. Description The northeastern part of the suburb is dominated by a large area of par ...

Kilbirnie Kilbirnie () is a small town of 7,280 (as of 2001) inhabitants situated in the Garnock Valley area of North Ayrshire, on the west coast of Scotland. It is around southwest of Glasgow and approximately from Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley and ...

and elsewhere. Wilson ran multiple annual Birdman Festivals which included an event where competitors jump into the harbour often in elaborate costume. They were held on the

Wellington waterfront Wellington Harbour ( ), officially called Wellington Harbour / Port Nicholson, is a large natural harbour on the southern tip of New Zealand's North Island. The harbour entrance is from Cook Strait. Central Wellington is located on parts of the ...

2000s

Wilson became an elected member of the Aro Valley Community Council and was well known for his determined and often challenging beliefs particularly around environmental matters. He wrote in the Valley's newsletter on local urban farming group Kai o Te Aro and composting. He created two community

worm farms and composting systems. The first farm in 2018 was removed by the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a Territorial authorities of New Zealand, territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the city of Wellington, the country's capital city and List of cities in New Zealand#City councils, third-largest city by popul ...

and the second, the "Hotel de Worm" at the northern entrance to Holloway Road, was also threatened with removal, but following the intervention of Green councilor Iona Pannett the community composting worm farm was saved. As an avid

Ultimate Frisbee Ultimate frisbee (officially simply called ultimate) is a non-contact team sport played with a disc flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jonny Hines in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate rese ...

player and coach he introduced the sport into Wellington schools, coached and became president of the

Victoria University Victoria University may refer to: * Victoria University (Australia), a public research university in Melbourne, Australia * Victoria University, Toronto, a constituent college of the federal University of Toronto in Canada * Victoria University of ...

Flying Disc Club which recently created a specific award for fairness and sports-person-ship in his name. In 2013 Wilson stood, unsuccessfully, for council in the Onslow-Western Ward. Wilson organised Birdman Festivals in 2015 and 2017.

Music

Wilson played guitar in and managed several bands. He also ran raves in warehouses through the 1990s.

Personal life

He had two sons with Patrice Diamantis and one daughter with Laila Faisal. Martin lived in the Aro Valley's Holloway Road where he and his public guerrilla gardening composting initiative were well known. Wilson died in Wellington on 11 August 2022 of prostate cancer, aged 63.

References

External links

*https://natlib.govt.nz/records/22765519?search%5Bpath%5D=items Martin Wilson fixing bicycle with sons photograph. *https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/1162964 Cuba Street Carnival poster. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Martin 1959 births 2022 deaths Activists from Wellington City New Zealand musicians