HUMANS OF ŌTAUTAHI: MICHAEL
“I have two daughters. I want them to feel empowered and strong as females in this world. That’s really important to me. It’s actually the feminine energy in this world that will save us. We actually need more males to acknowledge that part of their personality – to start creating balance in the world.
“I 100 per cent believe that things need to shift in a very short space of time. We can’t keep waiting for somebody else to do it or invent the technology to do it for us. We need leaders in our cities to step up and show us the way. That can be individuals or shared leadership models; we have seen it to some extent in post-earthquake Ōtautahi.
“It’s an active service to our community. To the city, actually, because we need it. Someone needs to or a group of people need to demonstrate how to do things differently. When you are working in a community, one of the biggest things is working at a relational level. To be able to very quickly build relationships with people and a sense of connection. That’s when people feel invited to be part of it. To be part of the creation process, and that builds a sense of ownership.
“With Roimata Food Commons, we can witness that within three years; we’ve completely and utterly changed the dynamic and the experience of that shared public space, to me, that is amazing. It’s taken a lot of hard work, commitment and patience. But there is a lot of joy and learning too.
“It’s actually really important that these stories – not necessarily mine – but all of these leadership stories get told because a lot of this community leadership goes really unnoticed. There definitely needs to be conversations at a societal level about supporting leaders; people that are willing to be the champions, that are willing to lead a life of service and sacrifice working for the change that needs to happen.
“I’m definitely more patient than I used to be. Nature’s really good at teaching you to be patient because there’s a time for things to happen. There is always a season for things.”