About Us
Liz Riddiford
Liz is a retired lawyer with a lifelong passion for native plants. In between various lawyering and teaching roles, she ran Plant Ideas in Greater Wellington, a garden design business focused on sustainable planting. As a Pākehā parent, her understanding of the deep interconnection between humans and nature was fostered by Playcentre, and by her third child’s fascination from an early age for all living things great and small.
Jane Riddiford
Jane began her journey into native revegetation in the early 90’s whilst co-leading the establishment of a native inner city forest on three hectares of degraded land, in the Newton Gully in Central Auckland. During that time she learned that growing a forest is about growing a community. In 2004 Jane co-founded award winning environmental education charity Global Generation in London, which was the catalyst for her doctoral study of leadership within community initiatives. Jane is now a trustee of the Aorangi Restoration Trust.
Lucy Riddiford
Lucy is a lawyer with experience in large infrastructure projects. She is currently on the leadership team of Auckland’s Light Rail project. She has a particular interest in values based approaches which enable different parts of the community to come together.
Rod Sugden
Rod is a former primary school teacher with experience of connecting children and young people to nature. He worked in London in both state and private schools as well as community settings for Global Generation and The Listening Space, an organic garden in the middle of a GP Practice that offers a wide range of green / social prescribing activities. Rod lives on Ruamāhanga farm with Jane and our mother Yvonne Riddiford.
Yvonne Riddiford
Yvonne is in her 98th year and about Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation she says, “I am fascinated by this new chapter that is opening at Ruamāhanga Farm where I have lived for nearly 50 years. I have enjoyed immensely meeting all the different people who have come to help us.”
