A whisper of ancient wisdom, a spark of social innovation
Origins of Collective Futurecrafting
Some say there was a whisper in the wind.
Whispers of ancient patterns and rituals we've long lost. A soft song carried on night breezes, reminding us of times when we knew how to sit in circles, to listen deeply, to weave futures with the threads of shared stories and collective dreams.
But really, it started with questions:
What if what we need is already here? Scattered like seeds in the wisdom of the land, in our social bodies, in the quiet knowledge of local communities, and in the dreams we dare to share when we gather together?
The whispers grew louder.
In October 2023, four Earthians sat around a virtual tea garden table in the Tethix Archipelago. The government wanted input on Australia's science and research priorities. Big stuff. But instead of getting tangled in the BAU of Horizon 1, we found ourselves dreaming bigger as the whispering circles wove magic in our minds.
In these gatherings we sketched out something different. Not another top-down framework, but a way to bring together the old and the new.
To bring back the circles where humans have always done their best thinking and crafting - around fires, in gardens, at community gatherings and even around virtual tea garden tables like ours.
Australia faces unprecedented challenges, from existential ecological overshoot to social inequities. All of this, the story of where we’ve come from, where we are today and where we are headed, is situated within a rapidly changing environmental, sociopolitical and socioeconomic landscape. We are not, nor can we be, separated. We are part of an interconnected and interdependent whole across human and ecological systems.Origin consultation submission
The original submission to the Draft National Science and Research Priorities consultation was stark and bold.
Welling from deep knowledge across disciplines and lived experience in systemic change. And drawing on diverse work, from that of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, to polycentric self-governance and indigenous knowledge and Challenge Based Learning and much more.
Read the original submission →From seed to radicle
After that submission, it was crickets from our Government. Which is pretty standard for consultations that are usually nothing more than token gestures to civic engagement. But in the months that followed something deeper shifted. The idea would arise every Futurecrafting Friday in the fertile ground of the Noosphere. Whispers were shared with other Earthians - community leaders, elders, young activists, everyday people who felt the same pull toward a different way of doing things.
And so here we are. Not with all the answers, but with an invitation to remember what we've forgotten and imagine what we might become. To sit in circles again. To listen to the whispers. To craft futures worthy of our children's great great grandchildren.
A living system
Collective Futurecrafting is a provocation emergent from the intersection of ancestral wisdom and social innovation, creating new possibilities for how we might live, learn, and flourish together.
Learn more about the emergent craft →