Hello! Kia ora! It’s great to be acquainted with this community. I feel it’s only fair that I make a mark of my existence here, particularly since I’m nomadic and experiencing a lot of disruption in my personal world. Finding this community feels like I have a chance to base myself somewhere digital, while the learning and the working that I’m called to enact reveals opportunities one by one.
I come from New Zealand and am European politically through my deceased Dutch grandad. Currently I’m based in Stockholm and doing remote Social Permaculture work in India.
I am calling to collaborate, and to meet collaborators.
What skills do I bring to the picnic?
Since I’ve prioritised authenticity over image for the majority of my adult life, my knowledge is generalist, varied and mostly experiential - I haven’t completed any formal higher education and I haven’t felt called to coding. Yet since falling into networks of ‘change-makers’ (of which I regard this community as the berries on the bush), I’ve found a few key roles valued by academics, social entrepreneurs and designers, which I can offer; facilitation, connection and storytelling.
I have hosted events, parties, cafes, tea ceremonies and most notably a co-working, co-created experimental space in the city where I’m from (Homies Cosy Teahouse, in Wellington).
By working in hospitality for 7 years I have discovered this crucial point of transformation between our food distribution systems and our sense of culture, community, self and belonging. I tapped into this curiosity by taking a PDC in 2016 and have since been studying and practicing permaculture. I love the tools in permaculture but I also know that it’s not everything, so I have started to dip into holacracy, sociocracy, agile design, responsive org, Teal and every other relevant socio-ecological work that I can find.
I want to weave opportunities for empowerment.
Following what I have come to realise about distribution of power, education, healthcare, food, technology and natural resources (I know you know it so I won’t elaborate), I’m now driven toward a project which enables grassroots action effectively through hijacking the model of startup incubators. Along the way I hope to demonstrate the potentials for homegrown and local food, medicine and energy, to bring a global sense of alliance and attention to local heroes and to cultivate mindfulness in the communities that I connect to as I move around the planet.
More generally, I want to open gateways between the local and global divide and I see food and community as the keystones to my part in this play.
What am I doing on Edgeryders?
The future is not something anyone should build alone. I’m here to meet you all, to engage with your projects and to find co-conspirators for mine. I’m here to lend, learn, build and share. Currently in the beginning stages of my project, I am researching deeply as see this network as somewhat of a key study in demonstrating the relevance and effectiveness of the network that I’m weaving. That means that I want to be here when it’s messy, when it’s loud, when it’s dull, when it’s quiet. And I want to see how I can be of use to the collective.
I trust this gives some idea of the person behind the avatar, when you see me around the forums giving winks and nudges. Give me a bell if anything here resonates with you and freely ask any questions or favours.
Love in advance,
Naomi