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People of Samara

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Who We Are

(in alphabetical order by last name)

Roz Savage

After spending 11 years working in an office as a management consultant, an environmental epiphany in Peru led me to a radical career change. A crazy idea took hold of me one day, and wouldn't let go - to row solo across the world’s “Big Three” oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian), using my adventures to raise awareness, and hopefully inspire action, on our ecological crises. So I did, and since then have continued to use my unique selling point to talk and write about motivation, resilience, and the relationship between humans and our planet home. 

Looking back now (and as of April 2021 I've just completed a doctoral dissertation unpacking this) I can see that I was enormously naïve in my early campaigning. It's really hard to inspire behaviour change when the systems within which we live are pulling in the opposite direction. So over the last 5 years I had homed in on the fact that we need to redesign our economic model in such a way that we can have happier humans and a healthier planet. I had already been designing my own currency (called the "yin"), and then I discovered SEEDS - and so here I am. 

 

Irina Stoica

I have always known in my heart that the world is much more than what I am being told and what I am seeing around myself. There was something inside of me waiting for a sign. Slowly a world of all sorts of possibilities started to arise, in many forms and opportunities, such as permaculture, living systems, intentional communities, a world of harmony with myself, others and nature.

This new world wasn’t fitting any more in my standard corporate life. I embraced the change and stepped into the unknown. It proved to be more amazing than expected. I feel now that I am able to bring more of my gifts into the world and contribute to the vision of a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

 

Joachim Stroh

Joachim Stroh is Hypha's project lead for the DHO (Decentralized Human Organization), prior co-founder of DigLife where he defined Cooperation-as-a-Service, prior founder of Sceenius, where he explored immersive online knowledge expeditions, prior co-founder of Change Agents Worldwide, a boutique consultancy that created new ways of work, prior knowledge management practitioner at Towers Watson, a leading HR professional services company. 

 

Justin Joseph Taylor

 

Roderick des Tombe 

Life in the times of 'La Coronita' haven't been easy.  It's as if The Universe is sending humanity another wake up call, and this one has been a big one.  Finding SEEDS was a breath of fresh air.  I have been working on something similar for several years now, while dedicating the majority of my time and energy to stewarding physical regenerative hubs.  I believe strongly that in order to help humanity evolve, we need an online platform that connects physical hubs around the world, and people to solutions.  

Since I was a kid I've loved nature, and have felt drawn to protecting it and enjoying it.  At 24, I decided to ditch the resume track of high level consulting in Indonesia with a focus on the political economy, and after 9/11 and some deep introspection and reflection on the history of our world, planted Bucky Fuller's quote on the new models to render the old ones obsolete, deeply in my soul and set out.  

I started with the mission of building a model of paradise / heaven on Earth.  How could we embody solutions to some of the world's biggest challenges in the form of an eco lodge and village nearby a big city?  I went to work on building this on two micro islands in the Java Sea (www.pulaumacan.com).  For the last decade, it has become one of Jakarta's favorite weekend getaways.  

A friend challenged me one day that solving the world's problems on a beautiful tropical island might not be a comprehensive solution, and recognizing the truth in that, I set out to also build a model of a city based hub.  I stewarded a bamboo restaurant and bar for many years, and eventually opened up Jakarta's branch of the Impact Hub (www.impacthub.net). 

In my spare time, I scoured the world wide web for a global movement that would connect all these rural and city based hubs, and the many millions of people like us hungry for a way to collaborate on shifting the course of history to ensure survival of our species, and to build the foundations for a thriving civilization.  I found the Venus Project, the Thrive Movement, the Occupy Movement, Zaadz, Numundo, the New Earth Project, the Earth Nation and others - but none of them seemed to hold the necessary ingredients.  So i decided to work on my own.  

Then I found SEEDS, and have since decided to pour everything that I've learned along this path to building SAMARA, and to learning and collaborating with all of the other amazing people showing up here.  During these very difficult times in the world, SEEDS and SAMARA has been a source of great hope, excitement, and light.  We are up to something beautiful.  We are tapping into an Ancient Seed of Divine Love.  And the great wisdom embodied here by this team gives me great hope that we can build something that will last, and help turn the tide of history.  

But that's not where the story ends.  It's where it begins.  And that story isn't complete without you.  Samara, in some mystical and beautiful way, is almost like the spirit of Mother Earth calling out to each of us to know that we are loved, and to know that She can see our love for her, and that we are here to work in partnership.  La Coronita is Mama Gaia's way of waking us up, and bringing us together.  Samara, in my view, is one of the ways She is doing this.  Calling together a tribe of evolutionary Jedi's, and preparing us for the grandest adventure of our lives.  

 

Alan Vogl

Strategist with a successful history of business strategy development and connecting high-profile business partners. Skilled in holistic analysis and strategy development for China, business networking, international relations, and problem solving.

I came to Samara through a lot of chance and good fortune. I found out about Seeds through a chat group in September and joined Samara in mid January after I was asked whether I would be interested and like to contribute. I have experienced the forming of an entirely novel entity, which started from nothing other than the desire to grow the Regenaissance and an idea! Samara changed my thinking by giving me honest hope towards new ideas and dreams, which I would not have trusted to succeed, before."

 

Fabi Vukotic

My love for food brought me to Slow Food and the realization that our current food system is broken. Ever since I am on a path to transform the food system and advocating for good, clean and fair food. I have co-founded and am currently leading Switzerland's first food policy council in Zurich, weaving together organizations and initiatives committed to transforming the food system – in collaboration also with the city of Zurich to implement the sustainable food strategy. 

Attracting the right people in the right moments and being able to integrate them into a growing network is a gift that I have – and the extensive network from being active in the space of Slow Food, Collaborative Economies and Festival Scene is becoming an asset as a SEEDS Ambassador. 

I strongly believe that SEEDS will play a big role in the Regenaissance and the healing of our planet.

What has brought me to Samara is the sensed need to make SEEDS and its tools accessible and useful to local communities and to create a space with a different cultural DNA from Hypha to support and nurture these efforts.

What has made me fall in love with Samara and kept me with Samara ever since are first and foremost the people of Samara: authentic, considerate, skilled and motivated individuals for whom I feel deep appreciation. The possibility spaces opening up and the feeling of being at the frontier of a new paradigm is both thrilling and challenging at times. We still have to find and enact rhythms, practices and structures to allow us to work effectively as a decentralized human organization. And we may be decentralized, but we are certainly magically attracted around some core – which may be Samara herself. Even in its infancy, Samara manages to keep attracting the most wonderful people, which is what makes me regain confidence even in times where what we want to achieve seems too big of a task. 

Working for and with Samara has been an experience unlike any other working experience I've ever had. Both highly rewarding and healing and also sometimes frustrating and challenging. I feel that Samara has presented me with a unique offer to grow and learn and become a better version of myself. Something that we want to offer further to local regenerators and changemakers.

 

Tyler Wakefield

Abruptly ended a promisingly unfulfilling career in silicon valley cleantech (really big batteries with really smart algorithms) to "live the questions now" such as, "Are we experiencing civilizational collapse?", "How much meditation is too much meditation?", "Is progressive climate justice Green New Deal activism helping anything?", "What's regenerative culture, and is this SEEDS thing actually going to work?" 

I'm told I'm a good facilitator and good writer so I do that and other things for Samara. Here's 3 minutes of me talking about my experience with Samara while trying to avoid a bee. Currently living "How can we do something 'loco', like pioneer an approach to regenerating an entire deforested, dewatered, and de-indigenized bioregion in Colombia simply by facilitating emergence?" 

 

Bongani Wilson

My parents gave me a name that means ‘thankyou’. This thankyou, housed in an evolving shell, was born in the mountains of Chimanimani, Zimbabwe which means ‘the only path through’. The shell has worn many clothes, but Kumusha (Home, origins) is still Kumusha Pambirii (The Home Inside). In Shona, Kumusha is not as separate from the person and the community. When I ask about you I ask 'how is Kumusha'.

I was cursed with parents who demonstrated a way of living at odds with many of the dominant values housed in the aging systems we find ourselves in. A mother with the soul of an artist and a whole section of the garden dedicated just to edible flowers (!). A father who steeped me in permaculture, holism and learning to let go of all perspectives. Both of them showed me that the only thing more powerful than force is kindness. It’s taken a whole life to start learning this, and I still am.

This winding path led me down every side-path I could find: builder, plasterer, healer, consultant, software evaluator, finance compliance officer, facilitator, tech support, marketing, site manager, project manager, furniture designer, liaison officer. Along the way, ‘to the side’, I fell in love with selfless service (located in slums, and human-heart-palaces, in Africa, India & London!). The ennoblement of spirit, transformation and wholeness that everyday people, living from the heart demonstrated to me, changed my life. Those are the qualifications housed in professional excellence I look for.

Calling to Kumusha. Now I look back and realise those weren’t the edges, but the path itself. All the education, experience and opinions were nothing compared to the magic of not relying on the ‘I know’ deception. When you are ready to throw your hands up in the air; that’s when I want to be there and test the measure of heart and ‘I don’t know’ mind between us.

The season of lock-downs led me to start studying law and sovereignty in a bid to link the financial, legal and governance realms into a picture that makes some kind of sense. Being involved in regenerative agriculture (agroecology) and lucky enough to read and communicate with many projects on the ground makes me aware of the systemic factors that draw all these together. That is why from the first moment I heard about SEEDS I had to know more. Arriving in the space I was soon drawn to Samara. Diversity and heart abounds.  I choose to see the birthing of Samara as prophetic, to inject meaning into a meaningful existence.

Now, my dear other half Francesca and I are looking for land to regenerate, I lead courses in holistic perspectives and habit developmentdevelopment, and Samara is slowly swallowing me whole, if not in time, then in heart, head and hands. In such a mentally challenging space I keep coming back to the practical advice of an Indian farmer I once met: “Head empty, Heart full, Hands busy”.

One could choose to see any beginning as prophetic: I feel like I’ve been exploring the edges in order to find the centre, to ‘walk between the high passes’ all my life. Thankfully I’ve often reluctantly turned into ‘thankyou’, and found much needed pools of humility along the way. This is the way a healthy mind works: seeking wholeness, making connections. I choose to see the birthing of Samara as prophetic, to inject meaning into a meaningful existence.

So,So I'm wondering, Your Wholeness, will you reveal yourself in this space? As a fellow traveller or simply a friend I hope I can see and bow to the wholeness in you. To feel whole, one must have dominion over oneself. Radical responsibility. Deep insight. Effective glasses! May you be blessed with a desire to wear all of these. 



Jared Cordon

Dmitriy

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