100 People & Organizations in Circularity to Follow in 2025: Part 10 of 25

To have a truly circular economy, it is essential for us to listen to #Indigenous voices. #Circularity is not something new, it is the core principle that nature has always run on. Indigenous communities have millennia of knowledge and experience in how to create circular and #regenerative systems. That is why in this tenth post, I am highlighting five incredibly inspiring individuals working to amplify Indigenous voices and to give Indigenous practices the attention they deserve.

37) Damien Melotte and Paul Paton co-founded Dinadj. Dinadj is a First Nations majority owned consultancy. The consultancy works together with public, private, and NGO organizations to develop circular, regenerative, and relational models. It acts as a systems innovation lab, where Indigenous Peoples and others work together to design and develop better systems that respect both nature and communities. Damien and Paul have both worked to develop the “Country Centred Circular Economy” (CC-CE) framework and an “Indigenous Doughnut” economy for Australia. Their “Indigenous Doughnut” draws on millennia of Indigenous knowledge and treats the economy, society, and environment as a single inseparable unit.

38) Maria Cleto works at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Through her talks and writing, she has helped to raise awareness about how the traditions and practices of many Indigenous Peoples embody the principles of the circular economy by default. Maria is a strong advocate for learning from communities and their centuries of experience in local adaptation, in place of forcing external models on them. She believes this can “lead to more resilient, culturally appropriate, and effective circular economy transitions”.

39) WarīNkwī Flores is the founder and principal consultant at Kinray Hub: Indigenous R&D Think-Do Tank. He is an advocate for the “relational economy” that focuses on care, regeneration, and shared responsibility and is founded in the belief that “[c]ircularity is built on relationships with the land, water, and all living beings”. Through his work, Ňkwi works to ensure that Indigenous perspectives are imbedded into international frameworks on environmental governance. He also works with the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium to protect Indigenous data sovereignty and push for ethical research practices.

40) Rebecca Hui is the founder of Rurban. She works to showcase the sustainable and circular knowledge of Indigenous communities. This year, Rurban brought overstock fashion to three Indigenous villages in Asia and asked them to reimagine the garments using their techniques and knowledge, thereby showing how circularity and culture heritage go hand-in-hand.

🔔 Stay tuned to to see the whole list of 100 people and organizations to follow unfold on LinkedIn, our blog, and our app.