AIME and Jack Manning Bancroft stage Human Kind Event at Luna Park

“Here is this incredible woman, one of our co-CEOs from South Africa, Candice Mama,” he says. “When she was six months old, her father was murdered by an apartheid assassin. And then, in her 20s, she took her family back to forgive him. Candice will come and talk about a kindness economy that we are working on together.”

Friendliness is a top priority at AIME – as you can see from the title human kind. This, coupled with Manning Bancroft’s almost casual pursuit of “$100 million,” could prompt some skepticism.

“Yes, well, there should be,” he says. “For example, the skeptic is helpful. But the skeptic should also look at the frame. If the frame of reference is $100 million for an Indigenous group to do something and then you look at some of the funding that Destination NSW is making available to people to just come and host an event that makes a difference day takes…well, $100 million to try and right injustices?”

There’s been a lot of talk about Manning Bancroft, now 36, becoming CEO of AIME at 22, but it’s something he has a complicated relationship with.

“I don’t want to be a CEO,” he says. “I hate this job in so much of its scope. But I have a chance to do well because we are really well connected now. I know all my mistakes and everything I can believe in can be wrong. I know everything is complicated. And I still believe in hope.”

As a result, there is still much more work to be done human kind than an average peak, from what it will offer to what it hopes to achieve.

“I understand human kind as a great laboratory for humanity to solve the challenges of our time,” says Manning Bancroft. “It’s about the network moving in different ways… We need to think differently, design differently and implement differently.”

Human kind, circus tent by Luna Park. 16-18 March.

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