Kia ora
Welcome to “The Change Makers” – our weekly video series.
In this series our Change Makers share their stories, their thoughts, their ambitions and their actions to leave the earth a better place – to be a Good Ancestor to future generations.
Our planet is experiencing catastrophic environmental harm and it requires us to Think Long Term, beyond our lifetimes, to evaluate our choices and to take actions to ensure a sustainable and healthy future for all.
The stories of those leading the change – The Change Makers – those thinking and acting with long-term vision, are inspirational.
Inspired, we can ask ourselves, “what can we do to be Better Ancestors?”
This week, Better Ancestors visits with Ian McLennan & Warren Begley near Ōtautahi Christchurch in the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand.
An ancient Māori proverb “Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua” and in English “I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past”.
This whakataukī or ‘proverb’ speaks of a perspective of time, where the past, the present and the future are viewed as intertwined, and life as a continuous process.
From this perspective, we carry the past into the future, and we have a primary responsibility as a link between the past and the future.
Warren speaks of Legacy and Business. The collaboration between the Restaurants as a business and the Ōtamahua Quail Island Ecological Restoration Project are a manifestation of action consistent with the ethos of kaitiakitanga or guardianship, across time, across generations.
Perhaps this is what we mean when, in the language of business, we speak of the triple bottom line, social, environmental & financial or the three, Ps People Plant Profit?
And perhaps, as Warren suggests, there is a hierarchy. To respect the past and the future requires that environment and the natural-world be regarded as the primary stakeholder?
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Episode 37 premieres next week, Sunday 26th September 2021.
The Change Makers
made possible by Better Ancestors Ltd.