Elizabeth Murray is a surfer, humanitarian, and founder of A Liquid Future, a not-for-profit company based in Tuapajet, Mentawai Islands.

The most prominent aid company in the Mentawai is SurfAid who focus on medical and health issues. A Liquid Future distinguishes itself by teaching locals social and environmental skills.

The rush of Westerners to the island chain isn't abating, land camps are abounding, and with them a new and foreign culture is gradually influencing Mentawai life.

It's in this changing environment that Elizabeth Murray works.

Swellnet: What was the genesis of A Liquid Future?
Elizabeth Murray: Since I was a child I have always wanted to reach out and connect with others from different backgrounds to myself. I am a naturally curious person and growing up living and travelling around the world as a child fuelled a notion of how we are all the same but just live in different environments and therefore develop different knowledge, skill sets, and orally speak a different language, yet the language we feel on our inside is very much the same.

I realised that by learning from each other and sharing our knowledge we can find best outcomes to challenges we face. I grew up using collaborative knowledge as a tool to adapt and this is essentially what A Liquid Future does in the Mentawai.

The first time I visited the Mentawais it was very apparent to me the gap in understanding and connection between tourists and the locals, and the desire of the locals to be able to engage and comprehend this new culture that was arriving on their doorstep and influencing their lives so profoundly.

They asked me to teach them English so they could bridge this gap. So, in essence, they asked me to help them. I responded to their wants and needs.

Do you have a fixed goal for A Liquid Future?
Ha ha! No, I don't have a fixed goal for A Liquid Future. Life is all about change and how we adapt to change. We need to be flexible, responsive, and fluid hence the name A Liquid Future. The horizon is forever changing and so responding in the most effective way to those changes to facilitate positive social and environmental impact is what A Liquid Future is all about. 

What on-the-ground methods do you use to achieve outcomes?
We collaborate and share knowledge from both sides with the local communities. We listen to their wants and needs, learn how they do things, then see how we can usefully incorporate new knowledge and practices in a way that is effective and adopted.

Because we are responding to their wants and needs we just need to provide a framework for that to happen in. Motivation, enthusiasm, new ideas come from them. We want the Mentawai people to be the decision makers and caretakers of their islands and their future. Our Collaboration Centre provides the base from which to do this. We employ locals from the community to work with us so all we do has an input from both sides into it and learn from each other in this way.  

How does A Liquid Future differ from other NGOs working in the area?
Well we are a small, grassroots non-profit only operating in the Mentawais. We live there, we live with the locals. All the staff we employ are from that village. We are a part of the community. So there is a permanent outside influence and input but it is not an 'outsider' coming in for a period of time to achieve something and then leaving. We want to grow and adapt with the communities we live and work with. We are in for the long term! 

What projects are you currently working on?
At the moment we are running our English programme. We have over 200 students age 6 to 56-years old who attend classes five days a week at our Collaboration Centre. We have General English courses, English for surfing vocation, English for work, and English for academic studies in response to the needs of our students. Our classes use a communicative and interactive methodology, building confidence in speaking and engaging.  

We run a Collaboration Programme whereby we act as an on-the-ground facilitator assisting other non-profits in implementing their objectives. We recently collaborated with Waves For Water bringing water filters and rain water tanks to two villages.  t was wonderful! We are all about connection and collaboration.  

Also, we've just launched Anak Pantai, Proyek Konservasi or "Children of the Beach Conservation Project". A group of 12 local youths age 16 to 27, all of whom are surfers and intimately connected to their local beach, have become ambassadors for environmental awareness and best practices. They lead by example keeping the local beach clean, providing metal drums for rubbish to be disposed in and removed, educate the younger and older community members, hand out information leaflets on the need for environmental protection and conservation.

We are now working on reducing the use of plastic bags in the area and hoping to get a policy change implemented on this at governmental level. They manage their own monthly budget that we assist them with and can buy wax, leg ropes and other surf items to be able to go and enjoy the waves in the environment they are caring for.  

Lastly, we run swimming and surfing classes for children, particularly aimed at the girls, on Sunday evenings in the local estuary.  The first group of girl surfers is emerging! 

Future projects include starting an outreach programme to outlying villages that want to learn English - though we need to buy a local boat, a sampang, to be able to get to them - and backing up this programme with a weekly English programme broadcast over local radio to reach communities throughout the Mentawais.

The big one is a project I'm currently collaborating on with a few highly motivated experts in their field to hatch a trial plan for Sustainable Tourism in the Mentawai Islands supported by the Indonesian Government and local government. It is incredibly exciting and if we can make it happen would really give the Mentawais a shot at remaining the magical, pristine string of islands it is for the locals and visiting tourists to benefit from.

Visit A Liquid Future's website
A Liquid Future is supported by The Perfect Wave travel company