TreeSisters are delighted and honoured to announce that we will be in Hawaii between the 27th and 30th of January as guests of The Fountain and welcomed by honourable Hawai'ian Grandmother Tutu Manulele for a "Creator's Lab". This meeting with a select number of The Fountain's close partners aims to share ideas and ways of working that bridge scientific and business approaches with Original Principles derived from the ancestral wisdom of cultures that have and are living in harmony with the earth.
TreeSisters Business Partnerships Programme Manager Miriam Holmeide and Strategic Alliances & Pathways Consultant Rebecca Lefton will represent TreeSisters at the 3-day event in Kauai, part of the Hawaiian archipelago. They will hear from local elders and representatives from other Original Nations, assimilate teachings on decolonisation, and participate in group dialogue on how to bring (and bridge) these conversations into tangible routes for organisations and businesses to better care for the earth and all its inhabitants.
Governments and environmental organisations are often rightly criticised for not effectively working with Original Peoples. Those who have successfully tended to the earth for millennia are often left out of climate change conversations. Yet, those with the money to invest get more say and influence in the direction of research, development and the proposed solutions. TreeSisters is proud and grateful to have worked closely with The Fountain for several years, collaborating on work such as the Ethical Tree Growing Framework. We have also undertaken deep listening and knowledge sharing on areas such as decolonisation, ancestral knowledge and living in alignment with nature which influences every part of our organisation, vision and mission. We are therefore profoundly grateful to join delegates in person to continue this learning, cross-collaborate and further strengthen our alliance with Original Peoples.
TreeSisters also recognise that while the same colonialist and capitalist methods that brought about the destruction and commodification of the earth are presented as the solution, this listening, learning and sharing is necessary for co-creating approaches that are aligned with life. We look forward to working together to navigate conversations around the monetisation of nature, carbon credits and financial systems aligning to Original Principles, among much more. We aim to bring back these insights to TreeSisters to apply them to our long-term strategy for businesses and consider how to pass on the intelligence of meaningfully caring for our planet to future generations.
We look forward to sharing more when we return. For now, we thank Grandmother Tutu, the people of Kauai for hosting, The Fountain and everyone involved for holding and inviting TreeSisters into these vital conversations for our future and the ongoing conservation of our world.