Hey fellow change maker,

Happy New Year from snowy Copenhagen, and from this katsura tree named Heart Tree (yes, that is HER name). ❤️🌳

Yesterday, our family of four sat down for our annual retrospective - to reflect on the year’s moments of joy, difficulty and celebration - and on what we are carrying forward in the year to come.

As we drew the timeline of all the beautiful moments of our family life, one thing was clear: how deeply the ancestral stories are becoming woven into our family’s life and ceremonies. We are the carriers of our ancestors’ living ethos, and I am reweaving it in my life - and my work.

So I want to share with you how I am reorienting my work towards and bringing forward the living ethos of my ancestors. The work began way before I was even born.

In 1876 in Trieste, my great-great-grandfather, Anton Trobec, and his fellows established an association called Edinost (Unity). It was a political and cultural association and a fortnightly newspaper, established to unify, educate, empower, and support the Slovenian minority within a multi-ethnic environment (German, Italian, and Slovenian).

During that time, Trieste was a part of the Austrian Littoral - an area under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Kingdom of Italy annexed it after World War I, and it remains part of Italy to this day.

Edinost was not only a political association and newspaper, but a living hub for political, cultural, economic and social life - and for a time, it was housed in my ancestors' family home, later inherited by my mom. Besides the family, it also housed a library, a reading society, cultural youth groups, music associations, social initiatives, and, after World War II, my grand-uncle’s outpatient clinic for the local community. As the movement grew, its needs grew larger, and it was moved to a different location in 1904, burned down by the fascists in 1920, and first rebuilt after World War II.

Edinost, the newspaper, was shut down by fascists in 1928, but its spirit, its political thought, and its social activities survived and continued to evolve in different ways.

So when we convene as a family, it is important to me that we are in conscious relationship with these and many other stories of those who came before us. We are carried by ancestral dreams, ethos and lived values.

Edinost was born out of necessity - a systemic marginalisation of Slovenian identity, culture and lack of political influence. It filled a gap and fulfilled its purpose in the service of a bigger vision, a cause for the entire community and the Slovenian people in the region.
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This work continued for several generations, and my grand uncle Vladimir Martelanc, Antonio Gramsci's comrade, wrote articles for Edinost (and many other papers), and here is what he said in one of his writings:

“The aim of life is to devote oneself to a great cause, for the good of humanity as a whole.”

― Vladimir Martelanc
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What the spirit of all this means to me today is that I want to be part of cultivating unity - across divides of different kinds - during a time of rising fascism.

This is one part of why I am sensitive to systemic oppression, colonialism, marginalisation, and power-over dynamics. The memory of it is carried in my DNA. It has taken me some time to alchemise these stories, pain and gifts. And what emerged is the clarity I bring into the year ahead: my business and work are vessels that honour my lineage story, the dreams, gifts, and cause entrusted to me. It is an ancestrally rooted ethical stance.

Regardless of where I am or what work I am doing, what really carries me through this world is my lineage and my family, and an awareness of my place and my contribution in the family and our shared human tree.

And with this knowing vibrating in every fibre of my body, I turn outward towards the cause I am in service of: the relational, ethical and regenerative worldview and our collective liberation.

We all carry ancestral stories: some are loud and forceful, some quiet and gentle. Some are demanding, and some are yet unseen, waiting for us to discover them. I am wondering what yours are and how they may be grounding you in these crazy, shifting times.

And I am curious:

What gifts and causes were entrusted to you by your lineage?

And, how will you carry them forward in your life?

In dreams of unity,

Martina 🕸️✨❤️

Hi, I'm Martina. I coach creative leaders, change-makers and teams through defining transitions. My approach is relational and focused on growing vibrant, trusting cultures full of life. Our work together serves a systemic paradigm shift towards a regenerative, life-affirming worldview. ​ I am committed to anti-racism and decolonisation, and all my paid client work enables me to support impact leaders and communities of the global majority through scholarships or pro-bono work. ​ And as for me - I am wildly intuitive, ancestrally rooted and happiest in treetops. 🌳 ​

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