Love and Compost December 2025

Love and Compost: 5-7 December 2025
Life in decay

We are living in a great unraveling—systems decaying, patterns collapsing, earth warming beneath our feet. Within this decomposition, something is stirring.

Love and Compost is a weekend wānanga for those ready to compost the old and tend to what wants to emerge. Guided by mātauranga Māori, embodiment, the more than human and deep systems thinking, we invite you to feel your feet on the whenua, and your heart in the decay of this moment.

What happens when we stop trying to fix dying systems—and instead start listening for the new life already pulsing beneath them?

Join us for a weekend of grounded exploration and joyful fermentation.

Day 1 | Letting rot ground us
Friday evening

We begin by arriving—into our bodies, onto the whenua, into the unknown. We breathe together. We make space for all that swirls, the grief, the fatigue, and the numbness. We remember that death and decay is a beginning. Together we prepare the ground.

Day 2 | Feeling into life
Saturday

We deepen into practice. We learn from the unseen life beneath our feet—from microbes and ancestral knowledge. We listen to the more than human, to atua wāhine and to our bodies. We explore the systems and metaphors that shape how we live, lead, and relate.

Day 3 | Growing forth
Sunday

We emerge. Tenderly, slowly. We ask: what is alive in me now? What wants to grow? How do we stay with the trouble and stay with the joy? What does restorative system change feel like in my body, in this community? What do we yearn for next?

Who is this for?

This is a space for anyone yearning to feel part of a living, loving system again. You don’t need to bring a strategy or a job title. You just need to bring your whole self.

What you’ll experience

• A weekend imbued with mātauranga Māori, led by wairua, whakapapa, mauri, maramatanga, mana, and te ao turoa.

• Embodied dance, meditation and art in motion

• Systems thinking rooted in ecology, not efficiency

• Spaciousness to feel, reflect, unlearn and reweave in relation to ancestors and descendants

• Delicious wairua-nourishing kai

• Connection with the more-than-human world

• A circle of care and courage
  

About the facilitators

Moko Morris (Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Te Ātiawa)
Moko is a sister, daughter, mother, grandmother and has been breathing in the Kai motuhake spaces.  She has been learning and growing ways in which knowledge and connections support our taiao,  so that all our contributions move us towards a food secure, just Aotearoa. With a long career working with communities on holistic sustainability, Moko is Pou Maaori at Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective. For more visit, https://www.zerohunger.org.nz/

Kaia Hawkins (Ngā Ruahine, Ngāti Pahauwera)
He tuahine, he whaea, he tamāhine, he hoa, he kare ~ Kaia moves at the intersections of decolonisation, embodiment, and collective care. A teacher of movement and unlearning, they work with dance as a practice of remembering ~ of body, whenua, whakapapa, and possibility. Their mahi asks how we compost the old patterns of supremacy and disconnection, and nourish futures rooted in justice, aroha, and belonging. Kaia teaches locally and internationally through Open Floor Art in Motion and Manāhau Embodied Movement, and offers supervision to teachers and practitioners exploring cultural sensitivity and decolonisation in their work. For more visit, www.kaiakindness.com

Rebecca Sinclair 

Rebecca is a mother, sister, daughter - helping her fellow Pākehā come back into the flow of life, and let go of colonial patterns that separate us from ourselves, each other, and te taiao. She is fascinated by the intangible, the improper and the in-between and how everything is always so much more extraordinary than we might think. She is an experienced tertiary educator, Co-founder of The Pākehā Project, Haumanu coach, and Honorary Research Fellow at Toi Rauwhārangi, College of Creative Arts, Massey University. For more visit, www.pakehaproject.nz

Sarah Hopkinson

Sarah is a daughter, sister, mother and wife. Anchored in her front yard food farm on Te Ātiawa ki Kāpiti whenua, Sarah is inspired by the invisible, loving ways in which the life-giving systems of te taiao provide useful guidance for how we might thrive together, particularly in education. Sarah has an extensive background in curriculum and facilitation. She explores Pākehā identity, reconciliation and Te Tiriti led futures through her writing and is trained in non-violent communication and deep ecology. She is currently co-researcher in The Tīpuna Project and Head of Learning at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. For more, visit www.sarahalicehopkinson.com

To learn more about our commitment to each other and this work, read our Declaration to Each Other, at

Workshop prices

Inclusions: 

Two nights single twin share accommodation at Omori Lodge, Taupō - linen provided

All meals and snacks for the duration of the wānanga

Guided sessions with the facilitators across the breadth of the weekend 

Exclusions:

Transportation to and from Omori Lodge, Omori, Lake Taupō
Any additional costs of optional extra activities, such as entry to Tokaanu Hot Springs

Option A $500
This is for you, if you: 

• own the home you live in or

• have investments or a retirement account or

• can access professional development budgets from your workplace or organisation for this workshop

Option B $400
This is for you, if you:

• have a relatively high degree of earning power due to level of education (or gender and racial privilege, class background, etc.) Even if you are not currently exercising your earning power, we ask you to recognise this as a choice or

• travel recreationally or

• have access to resources in times of need or

• work part time by choice

Option C $300
Please note, these tickets will only be on sale once all Option A +B tickets are purchased and the weekend wananga is financially secured. 

This is for you, if you:

• Are limited in your ability to make ends meet 

Option D
If you are unable to select any of these options, and would like to attend, please be in touch.

For more information visit us www.loveandcompost.earth