ACTIVIST IS A MĀNUKA HONEY COMPANY founded by wife and husband, Gabrielle Mirkin and Luke Harwood. Our shared passion for the earth and natural products can be traced to our childhoods in Aotearoa New Zealand. We specialize in The Ultimate topical and ingestible Mānuka products for beauty, wellbeing and immune support.
Gabrielle’s time in New York City working as a senior Art Director at Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar led to a slowdown, and the pursuit of new interests outside of the fast-paced world of fashion publications. Gabrielle’s love for radiant health, natural healing therapies and food from the earth was a central driver for the development of ACTIVIST. Luke’s love for surfing and the native coastal land of New Zealand led him to understand the important role bees play as environmental indicators and was the founding catalyst for ACTIVIST.
As a family we’ve built a company that works prolifically with natural resources, not only natural resources but ones with an origin from our native country of Aotearoa New Zealand; which is our larger playground and one which we have a deeper understanding with. The ability to build a brand with limited industrial impact was something that was very important to us. In essence we are simply letting Mother Nature, the seasonal cycles, symbiotic relationships, and microclimates, cultivate the basis of our products. It is our role to present these to the world in their highest and unadulterated form with as little human interference and corporate shortcomings as possible.
In gratitude always,
Gabrielle and Luke
SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability is a tough and trendy topic, but what does it mean to us and ACTIVIST? Our personal views on sustainability are driven around conservation. We naturally gravitate to a less is more approach to life and simple living; a lifetime of surfing has been an important teacher of this. Surfers tend to be natural environmentalists and surfing represents the ebbs and flows of life. Over time you become a student of coastal weather patterns and climates while relishing in the beauty of native settings and the natural sculptures that are seen as regional landmarks. It’s hard not to have respect or a greater understanding of the larger living organism that our global environment is when so closely connected to it.
As for business, it’s important to us that each product under ACTIVIST is presented with 100% transparency, sustainability and natural ingredients. Each of our products are created from a genuine and personal story of use and need. We choose to stay away from single-serve style products or packs that create an excessive packaging-waste to intrinsic product ratio. We also don’t think about sustainability as a “cost”; its benefits are its own reward! While we still have a lot of work to do we truly believe that excessive consumerism and human consumption is one of the largest problems that is driving so many issues in the world right now. That is why we stick to the ACTIVIST way of sustainable business practices, organic sales growth and only using what you need — all while being grateful for what we have.
– Gabrielle & Luke
BEE HEALTH
Our hives are located in unique, pristine and isolated regions of New Zealand, which is typically a great start for the bee’s health as these locations are free of GMOs and urban toxins. We keep our hives at lower numbers in these dense locations as it’s thoughtful not to overpopulate locations with many hives.
This encourages the bees to flourish and pollinate for ethical harvesting and productivity, but most importantly bee health. After all, bees are our local heroes and they are truly environmental indicators for what is living and flourishing in the world.
MANUKA
Mānuka itself is a highly sustainable tree and plays a key role in the grand scheme of New Zealand’s native foliage and important plant layers. The Mānuka tree helps to rejuvenate the soil with minerals while working as a natural purifier for waterways and preventing soil erosion. Bees flourish while happily pollinating Mānuka flowers and the tree self-seeds producing rapid new undergrowth year after year.
HARVESTING
Harvesting Mānuka oil is another sustainable part of our process with no conservation issues, as Mānuka is a wild resource and grows freely and abundantly in New Zealand. The leaves from which our oil is distilled, are returned back to the soil following harvest, creating a mulch and underlay to the earth’s ground. This mulch holds moisture, cultivating new growth and acting as an incubator for bugs and insects — all of which adds life and richness back into the soil.
1% FOR THE PLANET
We're proud to be a member of 1% for the Planet, and to be in the company of inspiring, like-minded brands and individuals. Members commit to giving 1% of revenue each year to approved environmental partners — through financial contributions and volunteering, we'll be supporting the hard work that conservation groups take on. We look forward to sharing these initiatives and how they positively impact the planet (and ultimately, the origin of our products).
