DEAR WISE EARTH
Meet the Von Hildebrands, the family who is in defining the new normal with a project that goes beyond sustainabilty. A family with a vision for the future.
The Von Hildebrand Family Photographed by Santiago Sierra Soler
Tell us a little about you.
We always work on escaping from social constructs that divert us from a deeper human experience. We’ve both grown up questioning so many things about the systems in place, at times falling into them, and at times out of them, but always aware of situations where there is a lack of integrity and coherence. We fell in love understanding this in each other. We have 3 children that have been experimenting with various educational models, mostly the alternative ones. Lately they have been doing online schooling while we focus to educate them with real life experiences. We’ve travelled quite a lot for different purposes and expose them to so many things and people. We spend most of our time together, we love it! And we love everything authentic, we love nature, people, cultures. We celebrate diversity in every project we do. We love animals too, therefore our family has a very conscious diet, we eat mostly a plant based diet, but the rule is letting each one choose their own.
Where is your interest and passion?
We are passionate about integrality and its alignments. We are always looking for systems that are in harmony with nature or belong to nature, either in the smallest shapes and forms up to the cosmic levels. Life is made of patterns, fractals and scripts that keep repeating themselves in abstract ways, until we evolve and break the puzzle. Then, every time there is a more subtle and elegant puzzle to decipher, making the game of life always more smooth and gracious. We are passionate about deciphering life’s riddles together. That quest and adventure brought us into the Regenerative movement and eventually to start Dear Wise Earth.
What is DEAR WISE EARTH’s mission?
Dear Wise Earth is a Regenerative project focused on transitioning businesses, organizations and individuals into climate ready scenarios. But at the core of it, there is an energy of benevolence and humbleness. Dear Wise Earth is a call for wisdom and for the answers much needed in nowadays narrative.
Gregorio Von Hildebrand Photographed by Santiago Sierra Soler
“You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.” - Buckminster Fuller
Why creating a new regenerative conscience and economy is important?
People have become completely reliant on the nationalist, capitalist and globalized system, they have outsources to the wrong systems all of their needs and then work in excess to buy them back. Food, water, relaxation, inspiration, our own time and freedom, they all have become products and assets most people buy back from the system. But these all exist out there in limitless amounts and readily available if we manage them in a regenerative way.
In other words, we must use the regenerative approach to repair, replace, or reject as fast as possible our participation on degenerative systems. For example, take the water cycle.
You can have or support a business that its activities disrupt the water cycle, this is what we call a degenerative business, or have another one that is less degenerative and compensates for its disruption of the cycle in some way or another, these are usually labeled as Sustainable Businesses. Or you can have a business that brings back water to the life system, that contributes to the ecosystem restoration and the watershed, benefiting the life of all species that make part of it. This is a Regenerative Business and there are some very advanced mechanisms out there to make it happen and keep it that way. These types of businesses need to be rewarded with our support. That’s the principle of a regenerative economy.
Rita Von Hildebrand & Siddhartha Photographed by Santiago Sierra Soler
What do you mean by Transitioning?
There are so many layers to transitioning. At an individual level, choosing your purchases in an informed manner and with consciousness is a first step into the transition, shifting your position from consumer to pollinator. At the other side of the spectrum you have well advanced transitioners who’ve successfully gone entirely off the grid and work locally but have a global impact. At a corporate level, some amazing businesses have transitioned by scaling down and focusing on bioregions, not countries. Others use their presence in multiple markets to fuel the transition, as we have seen in the Agro industry and Finance sector. Look up the Climate Bonds Initiative.
What do you mean by Climate Readiness?
This is a term widely used to describe the act of preparing oneself, business or an entire region for the increasing adversities we experience with climate change. It is not only about adaptation but also about resilience. While building structures that can adapt to extreme climate swings is of importance for any family or company, it is equally important if not more, to have the hard skills to become resilient in as many ways as possible. Being climate ready is like planting a garden for all seasons. You learn, adapt, invest and plan accordingly to all the scenarios that may happen, from extreme drought to freak storms, to pandemics and mass migrations. Climate Ready silver lining relies on the fact that these efforts and plans are not going to stand the challenge if they are not designed for the common good. And this is what many corporations are starting to understand now. People over profit. Companies and organizations that havent started transitioning toward climate readiness are missing the train big time.
What is Ecoliteracy and why is it important?
Eco-literacy refers to the set of concepts and words we all need to navigate the Anthropocene. Being ecoliterate is updating your own mental operating system to be able to address systemic issues. Our global leaders aren’t ecoliterate and the public isn’t either, so the narrative is not finding the needed linguistic-scape to solve the global problems. If we don’t transition to become eco-literate, we will not have the vocabulary needed to discuss and develop more elaborate ideas in order to bring long lasting solutions to our planetary problems. At Dear Wise Earth it is one of our goals to help millions of people to become eco-literate.
Why is it important for us to take action and define The New Normal?
It’s so amazing to start seeing the idea of The New Normal reach further and settle into peoples minds. This is the moment in history that we will look back and see a massive collective transition, people have been waking up to the systemic failures, not just the symptoms and soon action will follow. We need to set the bar higher as what is it that we accept as a society. The New Normal will no longer accept imaginary narratives that continue aggravating the earth, water and mineral crisis.
Sofia & Aurora Photographed by Santiago Sierra Soler
Tell us about Dear Wise Earth?
Dear Wise Earth is a Regenerative Project born out of the cultural urgency to transition into action and lead the climate-based movement that transcends disciplines. We implement diverse skill sets and experts to unify knowledge and deploy nature-based impact strategies in response to centuries of degenerative business principles.
What can we expect to see from Dear Wise Earth in the near future?
We have a growing team working on the vision. We recently launched our DWE Agency for the creation of regen-content and for providing consultancy services. We are also working on creating a Living Lab in Costa Rica which will be a basecamp for the Regeneration. It will be the first of a series of Living Labs we aim to build.
What is the vision medium to long term?
We envision contributing to the creation of regenerative dwelling systems all over the world, giving the support needed for living labs to emerge and fully blend into all sorts of landscapes. We will contribute to create secure and climate ready lifestyles where everything you know has been reintroduced into nature’s flow in a regenerative and fun manner.
What is the importance of creating a Community online and offline?
Because the only hope we have left is the power of people to take action and transition, building communities on and offline means for us creating vessels for the transition to flourish.
What are your personal and family goals?
To become resilient, to have food and water security, while having fun. And to inspire others to do the same as we co-create a healthy inspiring environment for our children to live in.
Interview and portraits by Santiago Sierra Soler
for The Waking Ape, 2020
Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.
CONTACT: DEAR WISE EARTH
IG: @dearwise.earth
