Earth Fellows
A cohort of leaders in whenua, kai & community housing
A Fellowship Rooted in Restoration
Earth Fellows is a year-long Fellowship hosted by Mangaroa Farms in partnership with Biome Trust. It brings together experienced kaitiaki, growers, builders, healers, and knowledge holders who are restoring life to land, food systems, and communities across Aotearoa.
Each Fellow is nominated by their peers and invited to join a circle of care, wisdom, and shared inquiry. Together, they carry intergenerational knowledge, place-based practice, and visions of a regenerative future.
The core intention of this Fellowship is to strengthen the relational weave between earthcare leaders in Aotearoa, and create a space of refuge, acknowledgement and togetherness for those who are doing incredible work.
Strengthening the Regenerative Movement in Aotearoa
In December 2025, we welcomed the very first Earth Fellows cohort – ten regenerative leaders from across Aotearoa, each deeply rooted in whenua, food, and community.
The 2025–2026 Inaugural Cohort
Focuses on three core domains of regenerative practice:
Land care & biodiversity
Food systems & sovereignty
Eco-village design & earth-building
Meet the Fellows
Pā Ropata / Rob McGowan
Pā Ropata has spent a lifetime immersed in the forests of Aotearoa, restoring rongoā Māori knowledge and nurturing deep relationships between people, plants, and whakapapa.
Donna Kerridge
Donna has walked a lifelong journey of rongoā Māori, guiding whānau and communities to restore their relationship with healing, whenua, and whakapapa.
Dr Jessica Hutchings
Jessica has walked a path grounded in kaupapa Māori food sovereignty, Hua Parakore, and indigenous ecological leadership, advocating for soil, climate, and community wellbeing across Aotearoa.
Robina has spent decades cultivating regenerative communities across Aotearoa and abroad, weaving permaculture, participatory education, and earth-based wisdom into practical pathways for collective flourishing.
Robina McCurdy
Greg has decades of experience in regenerative farming, community storytelling, and land stewardship at Mangarara Station, showing how whole landscapes and whole communities can heal together.
Greg Hart
Zola Rose
Zola has moved through life shaped by intentional community, social ecology, and the practical crafting of village-scale systems that nurture belonging, resilience, and shared stewardship.
Sam Lang
Sam has walked a path of regenerative land use, rural innovation, and systems design, weaving practical ecology with community-led change across Aotearoa.
Angela has journeyed through years of championing local food resilience in Aotearoa, weaving together farmers, communities, and national strategy to strengthen the connection between people, place, and kai.
Angela Clifford
Lisa Warbrick
Lisa’s work is rooted in kai sovereignty and butchery craft, reviving traditional practices and community-based food systems that honour both animal and whenua.
Delia Bellaby
Delia has followed a path through natural building and architectural design, crafting structures that honour earth materials, ecological intelligence, and the human need for beauty and shelter.
Honouring the Challenge
GATHERING THE LEADERS
Creating support & nourishment for the journey ahead - together.
Reflections from Angela Clifford - Substack
“Our time was spent in community with each other, over-heating in the sauna (until Donna and Jess found the temperature gauge), bathing in the forest, singing and drumming in the fire circle, practising yoga and Qigong.
While there were massages under beautiful trees, there was also serious conversation about our global predicament and the importance of te ao Māori (worldview) to lead us back to communion with the natural world.”
“The timing could not have been better. For anyone working in the environmental space it’s been a brutal few years - watching gains turn into losses and the grinding, never-slowing march towards catastrophe. It can feel over-whelming and hopeless. This time of year is exhausting as well, and we all hold on, edging closer to a period of rest.
Ultimately, the long weekend was a reminder that the answer is community. When we weave each other together we are strong and resilient. As the storms arrive we’re able to hold tight.
- Angela Clifford
From Substack
