Method swapped a successful financial career for the fields of his childhood village in Zimbabwe’s Bikita district, where he is discovering the value of traditional farming with Indigenous seeds for climate change resilience. We are in awe of Method’s natural capacity to rally communities with the team at EarthLore Foundation, through a passion rooted in lived experience.

Simon can often be spotted from afar thanks to traditional textiles like the pink shuka he wears above, decorated with beadwork that’s been revived by the Indigenous clans he accompanies in Kenya’s ‘Land of the Bees’. He co-founded the Society for Alternative Learning and Transformation, where he works alongside fellow Practitioner, Agostine.

Niall is custodian of ancient and sacred knowledge systems having apprenticed with African teachers for three decades in ancestral and nature spirits, divination and medicinal herbalism. A sangoma, medicine man, ceremonial leader and doctor of the law, he and his brother, Colin, consult, lecture and work all over the world.

Gertrude admits she has always asked questions, even as a child, and it is this instinct for unearthing deeper truths that has made her Earth Jurisprudence journey such a personal one. As well as finding her purpose on this path, Gertrude has become Co-Director at EarthLore Foundation, alongside Method. Her experience in agroecology, development theories and communication enable her to support diverse communities across sub-Saharan Africa.

Sam advocates for Indigenous Peoples in the Congo Basin and beyond. He has become particularly embedded with Baka communities, facilitating dialogues to ensure their rights are recognised and respected by authorities. He is passionate about holistic forest management, and well-positioned for engaging with government policy makers having consulted for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Rainforest Foundations, Rights and Resources Initiative, Global Greengrants Fund and Synchronicity Earth.

Carlotta originally trained as a lawyer but soon became disillusioned by a system destructively out-of-step with our living ecosystems, and swapped screen for scythe as a grower and facilitator at Schumacher College. She now collaborates with The Gaia Foundation, weaving together this legal background and experience of transformative education, guided by her love for the natural world.

Liz co-founded The Gaia Foundation in the 1980s, spending many years in the Amazon where she was “initiated” into indigenous ways of seeing the world that resonated with her own. Together with partners and communities, a methodology was developed for reviving traditional lifeways that Liz has since seeded across Africa, rooted in Earth Jurisprudence.

Colin and his brother, Niall, are two of only a handful who were accepted, taught and initiated by Africa’s wisest pre-industrial knowledge holders. In 2000, they were initiated as Sangomas into the Fondo sangoma lineage, and have remained devoted to knowing and sharing indigenous healing practices.