Celebrating six years in October, the Wao Summit takes place annually in Wānaka. It is six days of inspiration dedicated to bringing people together to connect, share ideas and put in place initiatives to support regeneration through community activism.
In this Q&A we catch up with Monique Kelly, one of the founders of Wao. A strong advocate for change at a local level Monique (or Mon as everyone knows her) is one of those people who puts theory into practice, and words into action.
MK: Born and raised in Invercargill, I’ve worked for a number of years with the International Labour Organisation in Geneva before coming to New Zealand in 2014 to be closer to my parents and give my kids a taste of the kiwi way of life.
MK:The mindset shift has been massive. Back in 2018 when we started Wao, most organisations and individuals did not even have climate change impacts on their radar. We’ve seen a shift from thinking not only of reacting to the challenges of increased warming, but beyond that to taking up the challenge of thinking about what a regenerative future would look like.
MK: Collective Action! It’s going to take all of us to work together to come up with innovative solutions and build resilience. Each of us has a role to play.
MK: If we think of where we are now, we are in deficit in our global accounts. According to a recent study, six of the nine planetary boundaries have been exceeded. From a social perspective, climate and conflict are putting pressure on social goals such as eradication of poverty, food resilience and education. Achieving a sustainable society is like having zero in the bank. Our outgoing expenses equal our incoming and we are in balance with our planet and people. Regeneration is where we help create a system that is designed to give back more than it takes away, essentially putting money back into the account. We not only reach balance, but go beyond to create a thriving planet.
MK: We have two key challenges – mitigation and adaptation. If we think of a coconut in a vice that is slowly closing, the first thing we need to do is stop the vice from closing any further. This is mitigation. To stop further damage, we need a systems shift in society. Grassroots is where change begins and momentum builds to shift systems. Our actions ripple upwards to influence the government, not vice-versa. The stronger we act, the quicker they will react. Second adaptation. The negative impacts of climate change will be felt strongly at the local level, whether it be acute events such as floods or fire or longer events such as drought or food resilience. We need to build resilience locally to adequately deal with these events.
