SAMOA KOKO TOUR 2024 – Fanua ma le Sami (Land & Sea) – EOI to admin@livingkoko.com
Koko & Konnect
Saturday 11 Nov, 6.00pm – 7.30pm, NEW HARVEST, 111B Nepean Highway, Seaford, VIC, 3198
In Samoa, Koko (Cacao ) is offered to deepen social connection – with deep listening to your community, your tino (body), fatu (heart) & māfaufau (thoughts)
The Koko & Konnect is a sensory experience created by Fipe Preuss from Living Koko. We will take you on a heart led journey through the Pacific Islands taking some time too gently check in with ourselves, connect with our breath and mindfully taste the true offerings of our Samoan plant medicines. Cacao and Kava. This event is a wellness event, that connects our stories, helps us reflect gently on our own stories and our families stories.
Sampling a variety of cacao products created by Living Koko, a zero waste cacao manufacturing space based in Melbourne that has a family lineage for over 8 generations in Cacao farming and processing in Samoa, over 170 years documented. You will not only get to try the Living Koko cacao creations we will also share the deep stories of cacao from our homelands and indigenous cultivation practises still used today.
Join us for a night of cacao, connection and deeper understanding on fa’a Samoa (the Samoan way of life.
Reimagine Melton – A Celebration of Art and Culture
Friday, 06 October 2023 | 05:00 PM to 10:00 PM & Saturday, 07 October 2023 | 05:00 PM – 10:00 PM – More information here
Join us as we watch Melton come alive for a mesmerising celebration of Art and Culture. Showcasing a mix of performance, music and visual arts, this two night event transforms the heart of Melton Town Centre into a vibrant hub of creativity and family entertainment.
This all-ages event will light up Melton’s amphitheatre and Bakery Square, with a series of visual art including animated projections by artist Isobel Knowles, family friendly interactive exhibits, roaming entertainment, live music and more.
Living Koko will be there serving up our non-alch Penina Beer, our warm and loving Head and Heart Drinking Cacao & a few other treats. Come find us, we are in the portable shop area – Shop#2
This is a free event run by City of Melton Council.
Venue: Melton Town Centre Amphitheatre and Bakery Square, 47 Bakery Square, Melton, 3337
Heart Nourishing Workshop
Saturday 14 Oct, 1.30pm – more info and tickets here
Come join Fipe and Freya for an afternoon of Heart nourishment with Living Koko Cacao + Pasifika Dance + Yin Yoga + Meditation
To nourish the heart is to return to the body and our true self. We invite you to join us for a day of nourishment from the inside out. You hold the key to your journey, to releasing emotions that no longer serve you, and to your healing.
Combining Pacific Island plant medicine cacao with chant and movement we will open our heart centres and release what no longer serves us. A slow and healing Yin yoga sequence will nourish our Heart meridians and help us to turn ‘yinside’. We will connect through cacao, poetry, chant, mindful movement, and meditation. We will attune to a state of soul rejuvenation & elevation.
This Heart Nourishing Workshop is for those looking for a deeper connection with self and community. Let us all learn and practice how to walk, talk and dance gently and graciously in alignment with our planets seasons.
❤️ Fipe Preuss – Cacao Cultivator, Creative, Artist, Activist ❤️
Co-founder of Living Koko, a no-waste cacao/chocolate manufacturing space that supports rural economic opportunities in her homelands of Samoa. Fipe shares cultural knowledge and understanding of kincentric relationships through Traditional Pasifika movement and natural resources.
A Community Cultural Development Practitioner, Pasifika movement guide, Space Holder and Cacao Creative with intergenerational connections with our cacao offering.
❤️ Freya Bennett-Overstall – Mother, Teacher, Author, Creative, Chiropractor ❤️
Freya has been practising various forms of mindfulness and meditation for over 40 years. She started with a regular practice of yoga, dance, and tai chi as a child. She is a registered yoga teacher and a registered mindfulness & meditation teacher.
Author of “Wonder Full Women. Attune & Bloom. Eat, Move & Meditate with the Seasons.”, Chiropractor, a mother of 2 boys, a grateful gardener, and an eternal student.
Blind Spots within the BCorp Journey
I have heard the saying “ignorance is bliss”…but in my cultural upbringing I have seen ignorance create the most intensely embarrassing situations for a family and for business both situations difficult for others to forget and credibility impacted.
It is easy to turn away from those experiencing things you don’t understand. It is easy to create a framework that only takes into consideration one way of thinking and in a business world that has a dominate culture of capitalism along with a pretty healthy ego it is easier to be complacent and value transactions more than relationships. We can fail to recognise other governance forms and social currencies that better serve indigenous communities.
So in a world ruled by monetary transactions how does a heart led global indigenous businesses explain the social capital that comes from working within and for the benefit of their community. The endless hours of community consultation to ensure its a shared valued approach and everyone along the supply chain feels honoured.
How do we acknowledge in the “tick the box western business focussed scenarios” the governance of elders groups that support us. They are not our board members, they are not our shareholders – but they help steer our va’a (canoe), provide us with Mana (support/strength) and remind us of the cultural values we must uphold.
A little while ago Glen and I had the opportunity to talk to Michelle Sutherland – founder of Definitii.co an organisation that assists business to complete the B-Corp Certification about our current journey with B-Corp and why we are still B-Corp pending – hit the link to listen to our B-Corp Journey so far.
Alofa atu, Fipe & Glen
WAHINE TOA – A womens strength
Saturday 19 Aug, 10am – more info and tickets here
‘WAHINE TOA’ is a womxn’s** day retreat, reconnecting with self, and sisterhood supported by Pasifika and Maori indigenous knowledge and plant medicine.
After moving slowly through the winter months ‘WAHINE TOA’ brings us together to help clear out the stagnation of winter.
Nga wai purea (the sacred waters) the life source within all of us this retreat is created to replenish ourselves and re-ignited our inner fires in a safe and nurturing space.
Our traditional tongan kava ceremony will introduce our wahine sisters to the grounded elevation of our Pasifika Indigenous practises. “Kava Kuo Heka”: the Tongan plant medicine Kava and “Koko Samoa” Samoan cacao plant medicine will be a featured peace elixir for our wahine. Brought forward in ceremony with collective movement and chant. We bring forth the awareness of our movement of energies to help prepare our circle to deep connection to self with Aro-ha (love).
ARO (Attention too)
HA (the breath) with deep meditation.A full day event to ignite your inner strength.
(Together we will honour and respect the land, each other and ourselves with Tongan Kava & Ceremony Pasifika Movement, Breathwork and meditation, Delicious vegan food and Our favourite Koko (Cacao)
**womxn is a gender and non binary inclusive event activated to support and guide those that connect with feminine energy.