About Leonie Johnsen

This is how Leonie is a Changemaker:
It isn’t possible to bring about change alone. That requires the help and support of many other like-minded individuals. This means that there is a critical need to network for effective change – to work inclusively and co-operatively rather than exclusively and competitively. The intent of my website and Guide has been to begin the process of this network building and development – bringing together eco-conscious travelers with eco-conscious tourism operators so that we might together build a normative culture of economic, social, cultural and environmental sustainability that will lead to the reversal of the current degradation of the environment and of everyday life. A significant part of that process involves the use of technologies that are appropriate to the task – using the web, minimising paper use etc. – but also moving into web2 and wiki technology – giving the network participants the opportunity to shape policies and directions through horizontal distribution of access and power. Changemaking, for me, means making the ability to make changes more available to a wider social world – to previously marginalised and excluded sectors of the public - so that together we might create a better world for our children and grandchildren.

The place for which Leonie feels a fondness or connection:
There are two favourite places in my life and experience. The first is Queen Charlotte Sound at the North of the South Island of Aotearoa-New Zealand; the second is Shetland in the North Sea. Although they are on almost opposite extremes of the planet, they are connected to each other by my paternal great grandmother, who came to New Zealand as a young girl from Shetland. In 1939, she, and her New Zealand born husband and their son (my grandad) built a small cabin in the Sounds, (we call it a ‘Bach’ pronounced ‘batch’ in NZ) that remains in my family to this day and which has been part of my fondest memories and experiences since childhood. The Sounds are fiordic, and waters there are cold, clear and deep. The bach, which is still “off the grid” largely in its original state is within a mile or so of Endeavour Inlet, where Captain James Cook first visited the Queen Charlotte Sounds in 1769. Then, the native fauna and flora were a source of astonishment for Cook and his botanist John Banks. We don’t do anything particularly exciting there, just a bit of fishing from a dinghy, catching blue cod, snapper and gurnard, and watching the weather, there have been the occasions where hundreds of dolphins fill the sound leaping and cavorting doing acrobatics, we chop wood, and bake bread in the woodstove. Access is by sea or float plane, so if you need supplies, the mail boat drops by with supplies from town a couple of times a week. Not a very 21st century experience, but a special place for me filled with memories of grandparents, cousins and family. The other special place for me is Shetland where I went in 1998 to experience a part of my heritage my grandparents had so often spoken to me about. It was a magic time. Like being in “the Zone” for sports people. I went there by myself having first written to distant family relatives who live there to say I was coming to visit. They were a little surprised I think to see me, and not sure to make out why I was there at all! But after initial introductions and some time, we got to know each other, they told me family stories, (and secrets too, I might add) took me to visit other relatives and I can’t describe how special it was. Shetland itself is bleak, barren, full of ghosts and magic, the islanders themselves are quite otherworldly, very quietly spoken with such thick accents to be almost unrecognisable as English. Ancient viking ruins and castles, and the wildest landscape, with a wealth of bird and sea life can be explored. A woman I spoke with while traveling there told me a lot of people come to Shetland to trace their heritage. As a sea faring folk, in a place of great natural hardship, many in the past had emigrated all over the world. Most people, who come back, have only gravestones to look for. I had live family to meet. The old folk have since died, and I am so glad I made it a priority to visit before they did.

The change Leonie passionately wants to happen:
I have traveled in the Pacific Islands, parts of Asia, Britain, United States and New Zealand. I see change happening everywhere – not always for the better. The New Zealand that I knew as a girl – with casual lifestyle, harmonious cultural relations, crystal clear rivers, doors left unlocked, real social equity and access to decision-making seems to me to be disappearing. I work very hard in my life to resist these negative changes, and to reinstate the best values and conditions of my youth. I do this for the sake of my own daughter (now 5) and the children she may have. It seems to me that the need for this is pressing. Wholesome nutritious food, a clean, unpolluted environment and quality social and cultural relations are the top of my list. I do not believe that environmental or social sustainability can be achieved without economic sustainability. Large corporations and Government agencies absorb most of the tourism dollar. I see a need to redistribute the tourism profits to a grass roots level and to create the conditions for social and cultural intimacy that I grew up with as a child.