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Mirthquake
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The Foundation will assist programs driven by indigenous peoples, with a view to expanding and protecting the whale and dolphin ‘dreaming’ heritage that has been so depleted over the past 200 years. Wherever possible, the Foundation will seek to empower indigenous groups who are striving to maintain the traditions underpinning the fabric of their lives. An important aim of the Foundation is to challenge existing preconceptions about the reality of cetacean consciousness. Living in complex communities, cetaceans experience emotions and are sentient and sapient beings. Indigenous communities, whose relationship with whales and dolphins is central to their lives and their history, understand instinctively that whales can transfer information from one group mind to another and as difficult as it may be to absorb, relay wisdom to us.

If we lose the wisdom of the whale and dolphin dreaming heritage, we will have lost our lineage and our ancestry. Wisdom and knowledge are gained over thousands of years, they are a sediment that builds and we are at risk of letting this be erased from memory. It provides the key to living with and from nature. We lose cetaceans through killing, poisoning, plastic ingestion, sonar….. we lose our oceans.Then we ourselves are lost.

Mirthquake Foundation has Charitable status in the UK and seeks funding for a series of educational, cultural, environmental and entertainment events to raise awareness about the central role of cetaceans have played in the history of Man.

What

Mirthquake seeks to fund initiatives in the following areas:

Work focusing on creative, cultural and environmental initiatives, with emphasis on indigenous peoples’ current and historical connection with native species – notably cetaceans.
To reveal and publish the profound and ancient relationship between man and cetaceans, and the role of this relationship in revitalising and restoring our fractured harmony with nature
Endeavours directly or incidentally benefiting the lives and safety of cetaceans
Support indigenous groups whose cultures are historically based and dependent on relationships with cetaceans
Initiate educational and entertainment projects which bring further understanding and knowledge of cetaceans
Improve public awareness of the issues involved in the health of the oceans, environment and associated human issues
Support other registered charities or individuals that promote the welfare of cetaceans.

Why

Within the myths, legends and history of mankind runs a recurring theme.

From time to time, at certain crucial turning points in our cosmic odyssey to self-awareness, there has occurred a cyclical, mystical, mysterious and remarkable communion with the beings of the seas – the cetaceans- the whales and dolphins.

Whenever this has happened, a resulting spark of inspiration has illuminated the ensuing phase of the civilising process, only to fade gradually from conscious memory, blending with the chatter of myriad other myths and legends – until the next time.

Whales and dolphins – the ancestors of the ancestors.

The record of our inspiriting communion with cetaceans, this space contact between the two great intelligent mammalian races sharing this unique blue speck, is deeply encoded in myth, legend, art and anecdotes, poetry and literature, handed down for many generations.

Whales and dolphins are revered the world over.

As we pass through the current crisis of civilisation, toss about in the creative chaos of the cusp between ages, a door of perception is opening again, driven by new knowledge, new insights and the new medium of modern communication.

Once again cetaceans present themselves, as they always have, to assist us.

These ancient mythic tales take on dramatic new meaning as science begins to plumb the depths of the cetaceans’ meaning and significance.

Popular imagination is fired with cetacean inspiration.

Why We're Different

Napier Marten grew up on an estate in South West England where he discovered a deep interest in ecology, the environment, sustainability and man’s relationship with nature. Napier is a craniosacral practitioner with a varied career including estate management, theatre, professional helicopter pilot and forestry. He sold his business to pursue his developing interest in cetaceans and their connection to Man.

This was augmented by meeting Dr. John Lilley in Maui, a remarkable and somewhat divisive scientist, after which he travelled to the Nullarbor Plain, South Australia, where at the Head of the Great Australian Bight, he met with the Mirning, a dispossessed group of ‘whale dreaming’ First Nation Australians, declared extinct in the mid 1950’s. Their appropriated land and expulsion meant they lost their connection with the Southern Right whales, the Mirning ancestors, with whom they had had a continuous, remarkable and profound relationship for thousands of years.

Napier has met many other First Nation ‘cetacean’ people around the world, catalyzing his future direction; he understood the urgent need for global recognition of this profound and ancient relationship with cetaceans, sharing intelligence, wisdom and a greater understanding of how connection with our oceans is fundamental for our long-term survival. There were many remarkable encounters that served to convince Napier a profound message was being given to mankind and that this needed to be made accessible to everyone by whatever modern media methods available.

Napier has produced a number of films including, WhaleDreamers (2006) which won awards at the Monaco Film festival and Best Film Byron Bay Film Festival. Mirthquake Productions is currently developing the script for Katherine Stewart’s seminal book A Croft in the Hills. Mirthquake Ltd. is currently in the process of releasing an album Legends & Tales of Dolphins & Whales by inhouse group, The Sounding. The album is an eclectic mix of ambient, jazz, dance riffs, each track celebrating a cetacean story.

All Mirthquake’s endeavours are directed towards re establishing our broken connection with Nature.

Napier has spent the last twenty-five years cultivating Mirthquake, an organisation seeking to assist in informing individuals, institutions and politicians through music, film, entertainment and the work of the Mirthquake Foundation, of the great beings of the oceans’ call to restoration and harmony of the Earth and all its inhabitants.

Board of Trustees

Lawrence is currently Secretary General of the Be Earth Foundation, a UN Inter-Governmental Organisation advising, assisting and enabling the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals on behalf those countries with which it has Treaties.

He is the Chairman of the Global Strategic Advisory Boards of Dakia Global Enterprise LLC, a Holding Company creating a significant hotel subsidiary, along with other major initiatives, and Rothbadi & Co an Institutional Advisor on leveraging Blockchain.

Lawrence is Chair of Be Energy, a green energy company specialising in the conversion of waste and plantation timber to sustainable energy projects.

He was recently voted by SALT magazine as among the top 25 Most Conscious Global Leaders, and in 2016 received an award at the UN from the Humanitarian Innovation Forum for Conscious Leadership.

Lawrence was appointed the first Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Global Agenda Council on Urban Management and he is a current alumnae of All Agenda Councils.

He is former Chairman of the UN Environmental Programme, Green Economy Initiative, Green Cities, Buildings and Transport Council. Lawrence also served as an active a member of the Corporate Responsibility Advisory Group of the ICEAW.

His passion is to support what is breaking through that which is breaking down in the current system. He considers this action will enable the emergence of a societal model and a society, whose understanding around the interconnectedness of all things will harmonise conscious economics, social wellbeing and environmental responsibility into a healthy, thriving and abundant culture.

Australian film and television producer, Chairman of Youngheart Animation and Youngheart Entertainment, Australia.

After leaving school and attaining a Commerce Degree from the University of NSW, Wayne was accepted into the Australian Diplomatic Corps. Trained in Canberra and London he was then attached to the Australian Embassies in Austria and Germany for five years, working behind the Iron Curtain in trade.

Following his time in the Diplomatic, with partners, Wayne set up Spectrum International Marketing, a unique psychological research and creative advertising company in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

At Spectrum Wayne created probably the most dynamic political advertising campaign ever in Australia, the ‘It’s Time’ campaign, which helped get Gough Whitlam elected as Prime Minister in 1972. He then worked with Prime Minister Whitlam as media advisors for three years.

After Spectrum Wayne moved into writing, focusing on feature film scripts, while living in various locations around the world. He started his film career as Associate Producer of the first Crocodile Dundee film. Dundee is the biggest hit ever from Australia.

In 1986 Wayne established Youngheart with his eldest son and with Producer Peter Faiman, making the animation feature FernGully, The Last Rainforest, distributed worldwide by Twentieth Century Fox, winning Best Film at the 1992 American Environmental Media Awards, the Genesis Award, the One Earth Award given by the United Nations. FernGully donated $4M to environmental organizations. Wayne's film was written about 25 years later in Vanity Fair.

In 1994, allied with legendary founding Chairman of Greenpeace International David McTaggart, Wayne produce two television specials called The Last Whale about the onslaught of commercial whaling, directed by Academy Award nominee David Bradbury. The programme focussed world attention on the plight of the whales, resulting in the creation of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary.

Youngheart produced the television series Human Nature starring Olivia Newton-John about the special contact between human beings and nature. Human Nature was on the Discovery Network and TBS in the USA, ITV in the UK, Network 9 in Australia as WildLife. It was a top-rating show, with 52 one- hour episodes screened in over 50 countries.

In the late 90s Wayne produced media campaigns which helped protect dolphins in US waters, in collaboration with Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye-Smith.

Creative consultant working with producer Ric Birch on the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Wayne is Executive Producer together with co-Trustee Napier Marten of WhaleDreamers, another award winning documentary about the connection of tribal peoples with cetaceans.

Wayne produced the feature documentary The War on Democracy, written by and featuring renowned television, print journalist and author John Pilger. The film was distributed in the UK by Lions Gate, in Australia by Hopscotch, broadcast by ITV in the UK, winning best TV Documentary at One World Media Awards June 2008.

Wayne has been directing the Youngheart team in recent years, conceptualising and creating the development of two new animation ventures: FernGully Friends, a TV and online series to extend the FernGully brand, and DreamBeaming, a TV and online series based on children’s dreams.