Gabrielle Mirkin
Founder of Activist, turning raw Mānuka into a ritual of healing.

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Gabrielle Mirkin is exploring how honey can be a genuine form of healing rather than a passing indulgence. After a career in New York City as a Senior Art Director at Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, a sudden health crisis in her thirties led her toward radiant health and natural healing. Together with her husband Luke Harwood, whose love of surfing connected him to the vital role bees play in New Zealand's coastal ecosystem, she founded Activist. Working with local beekeepers in Aotearoa, New Zealand, Gabrielle sees Mānuka honey not as a commodity, but as a living practice rooted in land and relationship.

Semaine What’s important to you right now?
G.M. Right now in this moment, slowing down and being present in the day to day with my children, family and friends. Spending time with the ones I love. Making memories with my kids. Regulating my nervous system. Building a conscious organic growing business. Conserving the land in my homeland of Aotearoa New Zealand, the ocean, the Mānuka trees and the bees are always important to me. Supporting our local community, bee keepers and farmers in New Zealand that harvest our honey and beautiful raw Mānuka Oil is important to me.

Semaine If you were an object, what would you be?
G.M. A seashell – tumbling in the salty sea all day long and bathing under the sun… maybe winding up at a different beach everyday would be nice too!

Semaine Describe your taste in one word?
G.M. Eclectic.

Semaine Where would you like to be right now?
M.B. Exactly where I am right now – Folegandros Greece.


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"An eco-friendly coastal community developed in the 1960s, widely known for its unique timber-frame architecture designed to blend directly into the wild, windy landscape."
Sea Ranch
San Francisco, United States
Sonoma County, San Francisco, California, United States
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