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At that time Robbie had decided to apply for an in- disability has been extremely privileged. Don’t get me
ternship at a disability rights organization in Mexico, and wrong, it’s a challenge to be disabled. It’s painful, it’s
through this experience, one of her roles as an intern was uncomfortable, it’s exhausting, but I have a lot of amazing
to help document the human rights abuses being commit- things that have happened in my life often as a result of
ted against disabled people in Latin America. During this being disabled. It’s often a good thing for me.”
internship, Robbie went undercover alongside a reporter The second thing Robbie realized was heavily influ-
from the New York Times and lay witness to people being enced by a line from the song Albertine by New Zealand
institutionalized for their disabilities. There Robbie was musician, Brooke Fraser. The words: Now that I’ve seen, I
exposed to some of the most horrific human rights abus- am responsible. “This was always running through my head
es that one could ever imagine. It was an institution for about having this experience. Now that I have seen, I,
over 300 people that had only two working toilets. The Robbie, am now responsible for being a part of this solu-
people living in this psychiatric institution didn’t have tion. It was at this moment that I realized my privilege
clothes, they were all put on the same psychotropic drugs, meant that I had a responsibility to respond to the injustice
tied to chairs and locked in rooms. This was their exist- that my community was experiencing around the world.”
ence, their reality.
Robbie left that place once the internship ended, A Crossroad to How to Coffee Better
moved by that experience, but also deeply troubled.
“There were two things that came out of that expe- To cut a long story short, Robbie Francis Watane
rience. One was that I lived a life of incredible privilege. finished up her internship and came home to New Zealand
I’ve got a family that supports me, a roof over my head, to do her PhD. She started talking to her fellow students.
an education, people that love me. And my experience of “You know, we were drinking a lot of coffee at university,
and at that time an article had come out in the New Zealand
news about how New Zealanders were willing to pay more
if it were an ethical product and in this trend that we’ve
seen with social enterprise and social environmental re-
sponsibility through what we spend our money on. We that work with social responsibility. There were some That was the centre for how we worked in the beginning
thought ‘Heck! Let’s do something’.” Mexican-New Zealand baristas who I knew. They said: years: building respectful relationships. And that has put
“We wanted to demonstrate the value of diversity ‘Look, we’ll go over there. We’re wanting to connect with us at a bit of a disadvantage when thinking about compet-
in business and something to do with coffee. So we just our roots, we want to introduce our children to Mexican itors who have more resources, more connections, and more
sent some emails out around the world. To be honest, I culture.’ So they moved over and grew the project from networks. But I feel that the relationships we have built are
didn’t feel like we needed to go back to Mexico, that wasn’t the ground up while we grew operations here. And it’s so beautiful and at the heart of everything we do and that’s
a main factor. But I tell you, this email bounced around evolved and it’s shifted and it’s changed, but I think when why we’re still here 10 years on.”
all of these NGOs around the world, saying ‘Hey this is a you’re working with an indigenous population that’s rea- Robbie is committed to thinking bigger when it
bunch of young people in New Zealand who would like to sonably isolated, where poverty and corruption is a factor, comes to the global value chain, not just at the origin or
do something with Disability coffee employment, does for us as Kiwi’s it was really important that we went with at the consumer level, and this can be applied to any
anyone know anything within this area?’ And we got an an open mind and not map what we think how business product or any value chain anywhere. “We want to prove
email back, honestly within a week. An email from an should be done on this community. To listen. And that that we can do an entire value chain, not just certain as-
NGO in Mexico in Oaxaca where beautiful coffee is grown.” was humbling, and we got it wrong a few times. When you pects of that, and I kind of struggle with that. While it’s
This organization worked with disabled people and the get it wrong, you risk blowing the whole thing up. So it great to consider all that we’ve done, if we’re not consid-
conversation aligned. They had been trying a lot of things took a lot of conversations, and a lot of listening until we ering disability rights in every part of the value chain,
to engage with disabled people in this community. They figured out a system that meant disabled people could be have we actually got there?”
had tried this, they tried that, but none of their approach- involved and included, that we would source environmen-
es has incorporated coffee, which was problematic as tally regenerative coffee, and that we had a market for it Not the Ending, but Rather the Next Step
coffee remains the backbone of this society. The people in New Zealand.”
in this region live and breathe coffee. So unless there is a And that road was not cruisy. “I can see why people What Robbie and the crew at The Lucy Foundation
way to engage disabled people with what’s already in the take the easy route and try to go fast, go big, go bold, with- aim for is to shift the narrative around disabled people
social makeup of this community, achieving equality or out developing those respectful relationships with margin- through storytelling; that it actually doesn’t matter who
equity for this population would be futile.” alized populations. I can see the temptation with that. In you are because you are a human and therefore you have
From there the roads were paved. Slowly and at times the fashion world, it’s fast fashion versus slow fashion. For human rights and belong to a community, to a country,
with uncertainty, but always surely and with intention. us, we’re very slow. Very slow, very small, very incremen- and to society. An incremental way that TLF can achieve
“Here in New Zealand, we knew we had a market tal. We have a word in Maori: Whanaungatanga – meaning this is by having an excellent product. “Do not compromise
there for coffee. We partnered with other organizations building relationships. Building respectful relationships. on the quality of the product. This has been integral in our

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