A Festive Future
As our action-packed year draws to an end, we’re counting down til our holidays begin and, as always, we’re full of hope and inspiration for the future.
The tail end of November took the Curative Crew out of town and down to Wellington, for an action packed extended-weekend of future-filled thinking.
Our epic little field trip was largely due to Festival for the Future, an annual event bringing together a diverse range of thinkers, change-makers and doers to spark world-changing ideas for a better New Zealand. For two days, we all flitted between keynote speeches, workshops, films and performances around Te Papa, triggering a bombardment of inspiration and ideas that we found ourselves marinating in days later.
Stellar speeches we all loved included Kiritapu Allan's one on being a lawyer making change for young Maori, and the one by Weissenborn guitar musician Thomas Oliver, who also crooned us with a lovely performance by festival's end.
But I’d have to say, my favourite was definitely Martin Leung-Wai's talk on The Roots. As an architect, he has empowered communities by combining sustainability and art in his beautiful installations. This talk made me ruminate on the thought that all of us have certain skills or inclinations and how these can be seen as gifts which, when fully expressed, actually benefit the world. One of the quotes I really loved was from the festival film Who Cares, which sums this thought up beautifully:
“Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~Howard Thurman
Different versions of this thought echoed through the weekend, confirming the idea that charity starts at home; that the best way to effect change is to begin the journey inwardly, then as we build relationships around our communities, we can spark something in each person we touch that will help them recognise their own gifts, their own potential. In most of the change makers we’ve heard during this weekend, the common theme was of the individual sparking change when they recognised, acknowledged and brought forth innate strengths in the community. This profound thought will be one of many we’ll carry with us as we move forward with our work.
Our final day in Wellington made us bring all of our thinking and dreaming from Festival for the Future into our Curative strategy sesh - a day of play while sparking ideas, visualising possibilities on what Curative could be in the future. Despite dividing into teams for much of the day we freakishly realised, after reconvening by the end of each exercise, that we are all on the same page on how we envision Curative years down the line. It was pretty exciting, to get to that sort of depth in our exchanges, collectively looking at this beautiful entity we're part of and being able to evaluate how we can help in its growth.
We seriously recommend taking a day (or in our case a whole weekend) away from the day-to-day doing, to check in and re-set the course, or make sure that you’re all still heading in the same direction.
As always, we know it sounds like it’s all fun and games here. But it’s the fun and games that power us through all of the work that we have going on.
One of which is launching the new website and video for The Tindall Foundation. With nearly two decades of doing good work strengthening New Zealand communities, The Tindall Foundation approached Curative to help them tell their story and the family values that drive them. This is something they haven’t previously done to this extent, being very private about themselves and their work. Working with the family and team was definitely inspiring to say the least. It is crucial that the The Tindall Foundation has a vibrant and accurate online presence, being the foremost thought leaders in NZ philanthropy, as they move towards becoming philanthropic global players in this increasingly connected world.
Another piece of work we're really proud to release is the second video for Complex Care Group, putting the spotlight on Jo and her beautiful son Harvey, and the life they lead living with complex needs. It is truly heartening being able to help share their amazing story.
As we nearly wrap up the year, looking back on how incredible 2013 had been, we set our eyes on what's yet to come on the other side of the holidays and beyond. Every exciting growth spurt and change we've all gone through together just affirms the adage that life just gets better as it goes on.
So here’s to the future - to more adventures, more solutions for our communities, more positive ripples to send out to the world, and, relationships forged and strengthened, as we create more beautiful and meaningful work together. Taking time out to shift the focus inward definitely makes the view ahead that much clearer.
You can check out photos from our weeked away here.
And with that, have a lovely holidays everyone! xxx
Meghan (& Aria)
x
P.S Our good friends from One Percent Collective featured Curative directors/besties Jade & Eddy on their monthly Generosity Talks. You can read all about it here.