Erica Austin is a social entrepreneur, community weaver, facilitator, photographer and Christchurch Ambassador (LinkedIn). She describes her self as a multi-potentialite, or someone with activities in many fields. As we will hear, in Erica's case, this is something of an understatement.I was first introduced to her as the Community Activator in the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, a community of 500+ innovators, entrepreneurs and investors committed to New Zealand as a basecamp for global impact. (I am an Edmund Hillary Fellow.)We have a very rich conversation, touching on many huge themes. One is culture and identity, especially in a place with strong indigenous and colonial heritages plus inward immigration. As her introduction (using the Maori tradition of Pepeha) makes clear, Erica was born in China, moved to Aotearoa New Zealand when she was young. We talk about Aotearoa New Zealand as both a bicultural and a multicultural nation: "acknowledging that, that Maori people are the first people who've arrived in this land, and then comes multiculturalism, to be able to then create a space for all people to thrive". How she is part of something she calls re-indigenisation, not decolonisation.Another theme is neurodiversity. Erica was diagnosed with ADHD when she was young, and really sees this as her superpower, which allows her to connect with other people, and people with places.One consequence is that Erica is involved in many things, and has organised her work according to the Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs).Erica's priorities for the next three years are integrating indigenous practice and knowledge into our modern world, and growing the idea of a learning ecosystem, where people are not just learning in schools, not learning just in the organisation, but actually creating multiple different pathways for them to understand and learn to create better future, the future focus learning opportunity.We did this interview in November 2023, and I remember being energised for days afterwards. I've just re-listened and again have a buzz from Erica's energy, her ambition, her practices of connecting people, and her uses of her superpower.LinksFESTATe Pūtahi Centre for Architecture and City Making E.A.CurationAko Ōtautahi Learning City ChristchurchAlly Skills NZ Leadership Lab NZ Asia New Zealand Foundation Taonga -- treasureTangata Tiriti – Treaty PeopleTreaty of WaitangiMore on the SDG 0 story here.More notes hereTwitter: Powerful_TimesWebsite hub: here.Please do like and subscribe, to help others find the podcast.Thank you for listening! -- David

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