Why us and why this...

Why a Body-Positive Trust Grows Food Forests with Youth

At first glance, a body-positive arts trust and a youth food forest program might seem worlds apart. But for us, the connection is crystal clear:

The most important body of all is Papatūānuku.

What body has been more objectified, exploited, and colonized than hers?
Yet despite it all, she continues to astound us with her generosity — offering abundance, beauty, and life itself, year after year.

When our young people learn to tend the Earth — to plant, to harvest, to witness her cycles — they begin to understand something sacred:
If her body is still worthy of reverence after all it’s endured, maybe theirs is too.

Our youth programs use ecotherapy and land connection to help young people — many carrying the weight of intergenerational trauma — heal from systems of colonization, consumerism, and disconnection.
When they grow a food forest, develop bush survival skills, and complete rights of passage, they don’t just learn about sustainability — they learn that nature is constantly changing, always creating, and infinitely magical.
They realize they are part of that magic.

We do this work with dirt under our nails, ears tuned to the teaching moments nature offers — unpolished, real, and reverent.

We owe it to Gen Z and the generations after them.

Older generations partied hard, trashed the house, and expect the kids to clean up the mess. Natural Leaders is how we get off the couch and join them — shoulder to shoulder — to put things right. Maybe even better than before.