The Story of Repair Cafés in Aotearoa New Zealand
Explore the history of Repair Cafés, find upcoming events near you, and connect with local repair communities. Whether you want to learn new skills, share your expertise, or fix something broken, Repair Cafés welcome everyone. Interested in starting a Repair Café in your community? We provide resources and support to help you get started.
Our Journey
The Repair Café movement came from the Netherlands to Aotearoa with the first Repair Café, run by the Lyttelton Harbour Timebank at Diamond Harbour School in 2013 as part of the Kura Festival of Learning. The Pt Chevalier Transition Town team organised the second in 2016, and shortly afterwards, Repair Café Auckland was established through an Auckland Council grant.
This funding enabled the purchase of a mobile repair trailer and support for events across the Auckland region. Eighteen events with 12 community partners across 13 locations in Tāmaki Makaurau - from Matakana to Papakura - were supported. Unfortunately, all specialist tools were stolen from the trailer, and key personnel moved on to other roles in late 2019.
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"What we repair, we learn to value again."
Repair Café Aotearoa New Zealand (RCANZ) started in late 2020 to grow the grassroots Repair Café movement and facilitate systemic change through reverse engineering, engaging and empowering communities in repair activities. On 16 October 2021 - International Repair Day - we launched RCANZ and Aotearoa's first "Make it our Right to Repair" petition (check out our launch video here), setting up our two-pronged approach of community repair and policy advocacy.
Today, RCANZ supports around 80 Repair Cafés scattered across the country, providing resources, promotions, advocacy, and capacity building to amplify the impact of repair for local communities. From individual Repair Cafés scattered across Aotearoa, we've grown into local clusters and regional networks that form the Repair Movement in Aotearoa and are transforming how communities relate to repair. By reducing duplication of organisational processes and providing promotional and practical support for event organisers, RCANZ enables local groups to focus on engaging their communities, supporting their volunteers, and providing fun and inclusive events that build connection, support community resilience, and reduce waste.
This includes helping communities set up new Repair Cafés, working with education institutions, the business sector, and local councils alongside community groups. As one of the five pou (pillars) of the Repair Network Aotearoa, Community Repair (RCANZ) works alongside Repair Education, Repair Economy, Civic Stewardship, and Advocacy for the Right to Repair. Like fingers of a hand, these interconnected pillars work together to facilitate structural systems change.
RCANZ operates within the broader context of the International Repair Café movement (established in 2009), the Right to Repair movement, and advocacy for mandatory Product Stewardship in New Zealand. Making products repairable and durable by design is essential for waste minimisation, decarbonisation, and climate justice - goals that RCANZ actively pursues with its collaborators.
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Acknowledgements
Repair Café Aotearoa NZ is umbrellaed by the Repair Network Aotearoa Trust. We thank the Zero Waste Aotearoa (aka Network) for their generous support during our early years.
In the spirit of Repair Cafés and to avoid confusion, we acknowledge Doughnut Economics Advocates NZ (DEANZ) for their efforts in expanding Repair Cafés in the Auckland region since late 2020.