Inclusive Cocreation and Interbeing
In traditional Māori knowledge, as in many cultures, everything in the world is believed to be related. People, birds, fish, trees, weather patterns — they are all members of a cosmic family.
Whakapapa
This linking was explained in tātai (genealogies) and kōrero (stories), collectively termed whakapapa (meaning to make a foundation, to place in layers). Experts recited the whakapapa of people, birds, fish, trees and the weather to explain the relationships between all things and thus to place themselves within the world. This helped people to understand the world, and how to act within these relationships.
From Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
One morning a couple of years ago I was in Te Paataka Koorero o Takaanini (Takaanini Community Hub and Library) at about 5am for the breaking ground ceremony; this is the first bilingual community hub at Auckland Council, a significant step. We walked around the inside of the building touching the walls, relating to them. A Māori colleague had explained to me that this is because everything has mauri, or lifeforce, inside it. The walls are made of concrete which comes from nature, the same as we do.
This is an ancient worldview that resonates with Thich Nhat Hanh, A Vietnamese Zen master’s view of interbeing, which is also grounded in ancient wisdom from a different part of the world; all cultures understood interconnectedness at some time.
It is just after summer solstice, it is a time of renewal for me, and new insights. Our western knowledge and organising system has traded in interconnectedness, chopped holism into a thousand pieces, many departments, many subjects and fields; while these have their uses they also ask a great cost of severing interconnectedness and relationality between things. We’ve violently forced many others onto this path through colonisation and cultural destruction. Our consumer and service delivery lives and systems have made us lonelier, more isolated and more passive than ever. Neoliberalism and new public management have pitted community organisations against each other in competition for contracts, straining their resolve for solidarity and collaborative effort towards shared goals.
But an organic response has begun to emerge from citizens in neighbourhoods everywhere, creating innovative every day projects through peer to peer connections. I am noticing how the inclusive cocreation system and approach developed by Participatory City to support this emergence, that I’ve spent the past few years sharing, testing, and developing in Aotearoa, is a radically inclusive pathway into interbeing for many.
Maree Beaven, Kaiya Irvine, and I tested this approach in the Strengthening our Streets initiative in Manurewa, Auckland, through a series of “street cafes” cocreated with residents. Maree, a local community development practitioner, is working with residents in different streets to bring street cafes together collaboratively, with tables, seats, tea, coffee, and a gazebo; perhaps the simplest and most inclusive invitation for neighbours to come together, and a start point for stimulation and connection, which may lead to further cocreation.
The spontaneous cocreation by residents that happened off this simple “sandpit” was remarkable: one turned into a swap meet, another a feast with many bringing food, another to organise many kittens that had sprung up on the street after a tomcat had gone visiting. One story taught me how this facilitates interbeing. There was a table. Residents put different foods on the table. “You should try these jelly babies they’re really good”. “You should try these spicy peanuts they are really good”. Little signals of different people’s identities contributed to this central trestle table. Identities being mixed in a safe, low stakes way. An experience for everyone there that might start to build a shared story, a collective identity for neighbours on the street, social cohesion, interbeing. I am not only me. Now I’m also just a tiny bit your jellybabies and you are a tiny bit my spicy peanuts.
I feel so priviledged to have been blessed with great friends and this journey. I wonder what the new chapter in the new year will bring.
