We established Seventythree Foundation in solidarity with remote and small-island communities who face a precarious future as a consequence of climate breakdown, and the rapid shift to mineral and land-based energy systems on terms over which they have no say.
Over the many years we have worked with such communities in regions such as eastern Indonesia, we have learnt that they are best able to anticipate change, and defend their shared inheritance, when they are self-organised, able to meet their own needs, and networked with each other.
We have learnt, however, how very easy it is to demotivate communities when we work in ways that project our shadows onto them and – often unconsciously – tie them into relationships of dependency on our external aid and initiative. In spite of our best intentions, we can get in the way of their ability to participate, shape a better future for themselves, and hold their government and leaders accountable.
In working with communities, we have learned that we need to start, not where we want people to be, but where they are at now. That includes how they experience life today, how they remember the past and how they see their own future. We respect their ways of being from the outset.
We have found that our most meaningful contribution is as companions in reflection and dialogue to make meaning of these experiences and memories. We work to create and facilitate safe spaces in which people feel confident enough to share their stories, and name the things they are most anxious about, without fear of judgement.
Rather than provide answers, we pose questions so that people are able to work with each other to figure out why life is the way it is; and agree on what they can do, together, to make their own lives better.
The scars inflicted by colonial violence, histories of forced relocation and assimilation, and communities’ struggle to survive in the cash economy, mean that these are not easy conversations to hold. We bear a duty of care to facilitate them with care, patience and humility, knowing that we also struggle with legacies of domination and violence in our own contexts. We seek to do so using the best available methods.
In the first instance, such conversations often result in simple acts of organising such as a community garden where folk see this as a way to reduce dependency on nutritionally poor, bought food, and get themselves out of debt.
These are, however, important stepping stones in re-learning what it takes to hold a community together, care for its shared inheritance and reassert control over its own development. If a community garden makes a real difference to people’s ability to make ends meet, it can quickly grow into something bigger or different, such as a cooperative that produces and trades goods and services.
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