More about Storyweaving from Ndanifor, to Kapwa, and to the Heart of the World
Joining us for this special event will be:
IN PERSON
Sarah Queblatin
Before attending the World Economic forum in Davos, Sarah Queblatin will be joining us at Hawkwood. Sarah is a regenerative design and development specialist weaving experiences in the fields of peace building, biocultural heritage, environmental education, mental health, and humanitarian innovation for around 20 years. Her life-long practice is in restoring and re-storying narratives of place and belonging with a trauma informed approach to ecosystem regeneration and leadership. She is currently a freelance consultant on regenerative strategy, facilitation, and learning. Her current project is leading the development and delivery of a bioregional governance training for the Asia - Pacific region.
Sarah founded Living Story Landscapes, harnessing cultural memory and imagination in climate and conflict vulnerable communities weaving the arts and culture with traditional ecological knowledge and permaculture. Prior to that, she started Green Releaf Initiative in the Philippines working with regenerative design in disasters and displacement. She serves as an inner council member for UNDP’s Conscious Food Systems Alliance, wisdom council for Global Ecovillage Network Oceania and Asia, founding member and advisor for Permaculture for Refugees, among other regenerative networks and movements. Sarah also serves as a juror for the LUSH Spring Prize and the Voice for Regeneration award by Unearthodox.
Mamerto Lagitan Tindongan
Mamerto Lagitan Tindongan is from the Ifugao tribe in the Cordillera region in northern Philippines. He is an eighth generation Mumbaki, native priest of the Baki spirituality, and he was initiated into this role by his father in 2011, though he grew up with the tradition since childhood. Baki is Ifugao’s spirituality, which is the ancestral Filipino way of relating with nature spirits, deities, and ancestors. He spent over 20 years in the United States, and continues to travel worldwide to teach and guide students in the indigenous lifestyle and simple living of the Ifugao. He has been a woodcarver since childhood and now lives outside Banaue, Ifugao in a small town close to where he grew up. When he is not traveling and teaching, he is working to regenerate abandoned rice fields using organic practices, and documenting the traditional healing rituals of the region through the Ifugao Center for Living Culture.
Konkankoh Joshua
Konkankoh an indigenous environmental leader who weaves networks that enhance South-North Partnerships as a social entrepreneur and consultant providing advisory services in trust relations for quality and impact in community development, education and social governance. He founded Better World Cameroon and Bafut Ecovillage which became a UN-recognized reference center for sustainability, a model of environmentalism “the African Way”.
ONLINE
Ati Seygundiba Quigua Izquierdo
Known as Ati Quigua, is an indigenous Colombian activist, environmentalist, politician and pacifist, she is Arhuaco (one of the 4 communities of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta: Kogui, Arhuaca, Wiwa y Kankuama). She has dedicated her life to propose solutions to the situation of vulnerability, exclusion, violence and discrimination of rural areas, ethnic groups, especially women and children through the formulation of public policy guidelines; such as guaranteeing the minimum vital amount of water for more than 256 thousand people since 2011; implement food culture, establish indigenous public policy, develop the general statute of environmental and water protection, contribute to the regional integration of rurality into the city, promote the district water plan, design educational strategy.
Abuela Daira Quiñones
Abuela Daira Quiñones, ancestral wisdom keeper, entrepreneur, founder of Amdae (school of ancestral knowledge) also working with displaced women in the recovery of the traditions of the Afro-Colombian peoples. Born in Tumaco where she was threatened by her fight in defense of the land. From Bogota and recently from her rural project, she has shared her knowledge around agriculture, health, and music. One of its most recent initiatives is the banana festival, "A space to share ancestral knowledge (especially those related to food, seeds, harvesting, processing) from different regions of Colombia where the banana is the thread driver. From each territorial collective experience we want to give the necessary strength to the communities to allow us to dream and return to autonomy and sovereignty.
Sonita Mbah
Sonita Mbah serves as Communications Coordinator at The Pocket Project and holds a Masters in World Heritage Studies. She is a passionate food grower, Permaculture designer and facilitator. For over 10 years, she was the Administrator of Better World Cameroon and co-initiator of Bafut Ecovillage, an off-grid learning center North West of Cameroon. As Executive Secretary of the Global Ecovillage Network Africa, she brings regenerative community and social enterprise development to several African communities. In 2017, Sonita received the Gender Just Climate Solutions Award by the Women and Gender Constituency for empowering women on the earthen cook stove technology and in 2021, the One World Award for her work on fostering Organic / Agro-ecological practices within the Ecovillage Movement.
Sonita holds a Diploma of Applied Permaculture Design from the German Permaculture Academy. She is a trained Regenerative Development Practitioner and has taught Permaculture Design Courses (PDC), Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) and Permaculture Teachers Trainings (PTT) across more than 10 countries in Europe and Africa. Driven by her passion for healing colonial trauma, Sonita took the Principles of Collective Trauma Healing course with Thomas Hübl.
Margarita O. Zethelius
Margarita O. Zethelius is an activist for life. She works to create places, programs and life change experiences that bring together care for Mother Earth and the wellbeing for humans. Biologist with MSc in Conservation and Rural Development. For the last 25 years she has been involved in the development of several alternative programs, including ecotourism, environmental education projects, creation of new private reserves, ecovillages, networking and educational strategies developed by local communities in the face of Climate Change and highly violent environments.
She has served on the boards of directors of the Global Network of Ecovillages GEN, the Council for Sustainable Settlements of America Latina CASA and GAIA Education. Organizations supporting the design and implementation of sustainable community development initiatives. Founder and co director of Falun Natural Reserve in the Andean region, the UBUNTU Center for Experimentation and Training in Regeneration in the Rosario Islands, and the organization Alianzas para la Abundancia, in Colombia. Currently she is one of the representatives of CASA Latina in the Global Ecovillage Network GEN.
