The Understory

The Understory.

I often get asked where I've been, who I've met and what I learn from. So, I created this place to share some of the books, writers, innovations, gatherings, networks, and people that shape how I think and work. Nothing here is a recommendation; but each of them have planted seeds in my mind and given energy to my work and life.

books

a reference shelf of texts I return to.

Cornerstone
This One Wild and Precious Life
Sarah Wilson

Fundamental to who I am, how I read, how I move and how I plan my weeks, months and years around prioritising time with people and in nature. Also makes me feel less crazy for rejecting the need for ownership.

Financial Reference-point
Doughnut Economics
Kate Raworth

If you can see Kate perform in person, truly even better. But if not, do start your uncovering of the invisible value, and invisible impacts that exist within the way we perceive our economy, why so much of what we are taught is fundamentally wrong, and how you might create a new reality. Simply put, useful for board-level debates on value.

Recent. Relevant.
Burnout from Humans
Aiden Cinnamon Tea

On the human cost of systems that ask too much. A sharp read when the work feels unsustainable.

Gift It · Read many times
Islands of Sanity
Margaret Wheatley

A beautiful tool for navigating your role in complex and unsettling times. Read this and gift it many times. Wonderful for your team.

writers

Writing I love.

Essays · Climate Solutions
What if we got it right?
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Specifically - ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/p/book-excerpt-a-note-on-hope

Poetry · Power & Purpose
Old and new systems of power
Margherita Pagani

The tree map guides my understanding of who, and what, I surround myself with and why.

gatherings

Places I've found connection, heart-ache, information and active hope.

May · Amsterdam
Katapult Future Festival

Truly a festival of impact, creative, deep and expansive. The community dinner was an evening that gave me space to truly challenge my own thinking, and learn through conversation, in a way conferences rarely do.

June · England
Groundswell Festival
Regenerative Agriculture, Hertfordshire

A celebration and connection point for regenerative practices.

June · Dorset
Realisation Festival

Getting Real. Becoming Real. Making Real. The reflections and reckoning with reality that occurred here for me changed me on a deeply personal level.

Sep · Helsinki
Waves25

A gathering to wrestle with the complexities of shifting societal systems through shared inquiry and practical action.

networks

The people we return to are how we learn, and unlearn, together.

New Zealand
Future Farmers NZ
Curious people who give a damn about the future of food and fibre

Convening the next-generation leadership across Aotearoa food and fibre.

New Zealand
Future Whenua Collective
Indigenous land and food futures

Indigenous land sovereignty and food systems work in Aotearoa.

The Understory is a living thing,
keep an eye on it in case it grows.
Samantha