Soil of Cultures
Reimagining our Food Systems through Art and Action
Our Vision and Mission
Our vision is to decolonise and reimagine our food systems, embracing and honouring Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge. By prioritising ecological well-being and social justice, we strive to integrate earth-based systems that restore harmony between nature and humanity. We are committed to actively unlearning the damage of colonialism on our worldview as we shape our future.
Our mission at the grassroots level is to generate an abundance of culturally-appropriate food based on generosity, care, and respect through the principles of agroecology and the lens of our creative imagination. We aspire to co-create solutions in the form of participatory workshops, community exhibitions and educational programs, guided by the knowledge and voices of marginalised communities, advancing our collective journey towards healing, liberation, and ecological survival.
Our Values
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We embrace the multiplicity of realities, perspectives, and ways of being across human cultures. We challenge systems that perpetuate patterns of homogeneity, valuing the coexistence of diverse biocultural practices, social, and historical contexts.
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We challenge the myth of self-sufficiency, understanding that genuine sustainability requires working and relating with others. We prioritise collective action, solidarity, and empowerment within our communities. Sustaining the interdependence between human and non-human communities, much like a thriving forest, requires multispecies collaboration within our ecosystems.
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By nourishing a sense of joy and play through radical imagination and intuitive ways of creating and doing, we become catalysts for transforming society into a more thriving, just, and equitable place. As we embrace this journey as a learning experience and let the spirit guide us, we allow everything to flow, knowing that together, we have the power to shape a better future.
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We advocate for the radical redistribution of wealth and resources to the historically disenfranchised communities, acknowledging that seeds, food, air, water, land, and knowledge belong to the commons.
Consolidating the Alternative
The time has come to listen to ordinary people. They are constructing a new world for sheer survival or in the name of old ideals. Capitalism cannot stop or revert its self-destruction. But that does not automatically imply an opportunity for emancipation. Instead, it could mean falling into barbarism…bringing all of us to an abyss. Survival of the human species depends now, as always, on rediscovering hope as a social force. That is what ordinary people are nourishing today with their extraordinary behavior. And hope, for them, is not the belief that something will happen in a certain way, but the conviction that something makes sense, whatever may happen.
Today, there may not be any room for optimism, but we can still be hopeful. Arundhati Roy is right: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. - Gustavo Esteva
Contact us.
cultivate@soilofcultures.com
Kamo, Whangārei
Te Tai Tokerau, Aotearoa New Zealand