Keeping It in the Family - Another Ritchie Graduate
Isa Ritchie’s family is rich with academic tradition. Two of her grandparents, James and Jane Ritchie, were professors
at the University of Waikato and her mother Jenny lectured at Waikato for 17 years too. Isa’s great grandparents Pearl
and Ernest Beaglehole were also academics, based at Victoria University of Wellington.
This month Isa is graduating with her PhD and her overseas examiner said Isa’s thesis was one of the best she’d read in
over 30 years.
“I practically grew up on the University of Waikato campus,” Isa says. “As a child my grandmother would take me to feed
the ducks at the lakes while my mother studied, and when I was older I spent a lot of time on sick days and school
holidays around the School of Education where my mother worked. My grandfather, James Ritchie, started the Psychology
Department at Waikato in the ‘60s and was responsible for the planting of the redwoods outside IJK blocks; in his words,
'to hide the ugly buildings’.”
Isa’s thesis is titled ‘Shared Lunch: An Ethnography of Food Sovereignty in Whaingaroa and Beyond’. It’s an ethnographic
study focussed around local food providers in Whaingaroa (Raglan) and other settings in New Zealand, exploring the
complex interconnectedness of food and its links with the social and political, values and practices, tradition and
innovation, wealth and poverty, at global, local and personal levels.
“I looked at the culture, customs, habits, and differences of alternative food networks, mostly based in the Raglan area
where there’s a community of small-scale local food providers,” Isa says.
She spent time with, and interviewed local food providers who have opted out of the mainstream food system finding out
how they operated, the issues they faced to establish and sustain their operations, and how they overcame their
challenges, often finding alternative solutions to conventional economic systems.
“I worked with a cross-section of people and businesses and non-profit initiatives. They included community gardens,
small-scale organic and permaculture farms, and other community groups and businesses focussed on producing and
distributing local food, such as cafes and bakeries, as well as those minimising waste and environmental harm.”
What Isa found was that small-scale local food initiatives are often connected. “I found that the economics of local
food systems is dependent on relationships and trust, which means that shared resources, land for example, can enable
people to grow and share food and experiment with new ways of doing things. They showed what’s possible and achievable
even with minimal resources.”
Emeritus Professor Ritchie will be attending Isa’s graduation and says she’s extremely proud of her granddaughter. “Her
research is relevant, and I think will become more so as people become much more conscious about food safety, security
and food waste. As Isa worked through her doctorate, I enjoyed hearing her talk about her research and writing, and I
couldn’t help comparing it with my PhD done back in the 1950s.”
Meanwhile, after years of study, Isa is living in Wellington with her 9-year-old daughter Tesla, working in public
policy for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. “I’m also writing,” she says. “My novel Fishing for Maui will be published next year and has food related themes that draw on my doctoral research.”
Isa is graduating on December 11 at Te Kohinga Mārama Marae at 10am.
ENDS