Living Manifesto
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Nature is always and continually evolving, so will this document.
It will live and breathe in tune with the needs, wants, desires and purposes of each of us, of our community and of our land.
Our NeighbourGood is a regenerative eco-village that brings together the community spirit of a Marae, the economic model of a Kibbutz, and the abundance of a food forest.
We focus on fresh, homegrown food, happy children, drinkable rivers, a gifting and sharing economy, and a vibrant village atmosphere.
Through consent based decision making and self governance, we harness the wisdom of the village to collaborate on businesses that positively impact our local biome and the wider community.
The current systems governing the world are unbalanced. Ecosystems are being destroyed in the name of profit. Soil, plants, animals, water and air have become commodified and are being sold in a degraded state. NeighbourGood is our solution to meet the scale of these challenges.
Since health and well-being are the centre of a better quality of life, it is time to live in a balanced relationship with nature and acknowledge the interconnectedness and sacredness of life.
NeighbourGood is a community of local and international visionaries, way finders, kaitiaki and everyday people who believe in living in harmony with the land and each other.
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It is a developing network of regenerative villages of 144+ neighbours across Aotearoa, New Zealand. It is a co-creation of an equitable society that values all its members and creates harmonious relationships between humans and nature.
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NeighbourGoods aim to be autonomous and self-sustaining with decision making power shared among all members to harness the wisdom of the village.
NeighbourGoods will thrive through businesses that are socially responsible and ecologically friendly.
Harmony - Within ourselves, with each other, and with nature.
Nature - Celebrating and living according to nature’s principles.
Responsibility - For our personal growth and the planet.
Our new governance model must be able to change course like a river so that our systems adapt to us instead of us being asked to adapt to them. Modern models of top down, power over, centralised government are extremely slow to change, so slow as to make progress halting at best. By their ineffectiveness at solving the most basic problems and their coercive policies, they have given leadership a bad name. The new face of leadership and governance looks like decentralised, collaborative systems.
Sociocracy, a well-established organisation and decision-making model provides everything we need to achieve effective, inclusive governance.
The NeighbourGood recognises that children are born with a purpose and it is the role of adults to create a space for them to remember that purpose and gain all the skills, knowledge and wisdom they need to fulfil it. For that to happen requires a village atmosphere that puts children at its heart. Hence, the NeighbourGood vision is children conceived, born, raised and growing up fully awake and prepared to go out into the world.
NeighbourGood welcomes people of all denominations of religious beliefs as long as they are willing and able to engage in open discussion and join in with the co-creation of ceremonies to celebrate the cycles of nature. Through shared spiritual practice, NeighbourGood aims to cultivate heart coherence between neighbours and hence, peace within our community.
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NeighbourGood embraces a nature-based spirituality aligned with its values and principles. Also known as earth-centred spirituality, it is a spiritual practice highlighting the relationship between humans and nature.
Once we have secured the land for the first NeighbourGood we will architect a village design using permaculture principles that will include: personal living spaces, a shared materials library, organic gardens and food processing, compost production, shared communal spaces and infrastructure for businesses. As part of our mission we want to build homes that are harmonious with the environment and are healthy for the people living in them. Currently we are on track to build the first prototype 30 sq m hempcrete living space in Spring 2024.
We are entering into a new era of conscious business where quadruple bottom line, Earth Equity and Social Enterprise are balanced.
People - Planet - Profit - Purpose
In our NeigbourGood, business is at the head and children are at the heart.
A portion of our enterprise profit is invested back into our community's social and environmental initiatives that in turn benefit our broader community.
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We are currently in the process of developing the first Neighbourgood. Here are our current land requirements informed by our Living Manifesto vision.
It is an exciting undertaking involving putting in place all the supporting frameworks such as
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practising and setting up our communication/decision making systems - DONE.
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forming a charitable trust - DRAFTED
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creating partnerships with people with existing businesses that they may wish to bring into the NeighbourGood and many many more tasks that are involved in birthing such an ambitious creation. - ONGOING
Your Next Steps
You can stay up to date on our regenerative revolution by
joining our NeighbourGood mailing list and can join our team by
filling out our Expressions of Interest form on our homepage.
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