Human Permaculture: Communication as Flow part 2 - The Permaculture Research Institute

Human Permaculture: Communication as Flow part 2 - The Permaculture Research Institute



HUMAN PERMACULTURE: COMMUNICATION AS FLOW PART 2
OCTOBER 8, 2018 BY CHARLOTTE ASHWANDEN & FILED UNDER ALTERNATIVES TO POLITICAL SYSTEMS, COMMUNITY, EDUCATION, GENERAL, PEOPLE SYSTEMS

In part 1 of this article (1), I explored a little how we might use permaculture as a lens through which to visualise communication. By seeing our communication with other humans as an energy flow which could potentially be mapped, we could find efficient and holistic ways to utilise this energy. In this article I will focus on some possible practical applications of this, and how we can communicate in more effective ways to make social permaculture an integrated part of the permaculture we practice in everyday life.

Language Energy


In part 1 (1) I mentioned the possibility of using communication with other people in your chosen system as one of the energy flows which can be mapped using the ‘Sector Analysis’ of the permaculture design process. Since permaculture is generally seen as a design system which is based upon observable phenomena, mapping communication in this way would necessarily require a more subtle touch than, say, that of mapping the wind direction and flow, which you can feel very easily on your skin. However, I believe that it can still be helpful to visualise communication in this way, since it does at least represent a flow, albeit perhaps a less predictable one to those of wind, sunlight and water. The words which flow through the ‘invisible dimension’ (see 2) of air around us cannot be seen, yet their effect can be felt in many profound ways.

How can communication be inefficient?

All of this talk about using communication energy-flows efficiently may sound rather strange. Permaculture design is often focussed upon energy-efficient planning; for the ease of the designer as well as to encourage holistic interaction within the system. Yet communication is just a means of relaying messages; can it really be used in efficient or inefficient ways?


One possible illustration of communication energy-flows being blocked is that of a very common practice in modern society, that of a top-down organisational approach. The communication-flow of such a structure could be visualised as flowing directly from the manager or managers to those lower down in the hierarchy, with little or no reciprocal flow. Such a structure could be seen in some ways as efficient; the flow emanates from one source, and decisions are not confused by input of multiple opinions. However, this efficiency seems to be only truly efficient if all the humans involved have identical opinions, wishes and desires. Since this is almost never the case, we can visualise the communication energy-flows can be seen as flowing straight through the system, much as rainwater flows straight through a flat landscape with poor soil conditions. Ideally in a healthy ecosystem, however, we would want the flow the spread slowly through the landscape, nourishing whatever it touches. In a human landscape, we can imagine ‘slowing, spreading and sinking’ (3, 4) the communication flow in a number of ways.

Regaining reciprocal communication-structures

The above example shows that this concept of communication as flow is not about the particular words you say or who you say them to; though these are important in different ways, what we are looking at here is the invisible structures which surround our communication with each other. Below are two possible alternative structures with a brief definition and possible pros and cons, as well as some other suggestions for changing the structure of how we use that most powerful of technologies, our language.

Communication-flow for agreement: Consensus decision-making

Consensus decision-making is a fairly popular alternative to hierarchical decision-making, which is used by a diverse range of companies and organisations all over the world. As you might guess from the name, it is based on consensus, or mutual agreement.

Consensus decision-making is a very old process probably first developed back in the 16thcentury (5) by the Quakers, a peace-loving sect of the Christian religion (6). Giulio Caperchi offers this concise definition of how it works:

“Consensus decision-making offers a procedure through which participants of an assembly may take decisions collaboratively through deliberation. The decisions taken through this process are not necessarily ones that all individuals support wholeheartedly, but ones that everyone can live with.” (7)

In practice this usually looks like a circular decision-making process where everyone has input into what gets done. No decision can be made until everyone agrees, which means that if even one person dislikes a proposal, that proposal needs to be changed until mutual agreement is reached.Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Pros of consensus

Consensus decision-making has been recommended as part of social permaculture by others before me, such as Looby Mcnamara in the excellent book ‘People and Permaculture’ (8). The advantages are that, rather than all communication emanating from one place, everyone in the organisation gets an input. This means that there is more cycling of the ‘flow’. Those involved also perhaps feel more ownership of a decision if they were involved in creating it, and so are more likely to uphold it.

‘Everyone agreeing’: open to manipulation?

Possible disadvantages can come from the way that we react to language. If the proposal needs to change in order for everyone to agree, it could be that those who get to change it are the ones who can most eloquently articulate what they desire, thus persuading the others to agree. This is not really any different to use of promotion or advertising which we encounter in day-to-day life, but if it is a circle of supposed equals it can be off putting or unnerving to those members of the circle who are not so skilled at orating or articulating, since even if they have ideas to input, they cannot persuade anyone else to go along with their ideas. Equally, those most susceptible to persuasion may end up going along with ideas they did not necessarily agree with, just because they are swayed by words. A possible way to counteract this if it occurs within your communication flow could be to include education on critical thinking and/or articulation of ideas along with the theory of consensus.

Communication-flow through circles: Sociocracy


Another possible alternative communication structure is that of sociocracy. This compound word comes from the Latin socius ‘companions’ and –ocracy ‘to govern’, so it literally means ‘to govern through companions’ (9). It was first developed in the nineteenth century (9) and has many different evolutions all over the world, the most recent being the development of ‘Sociocracy 3.0’, whose framework was launched in 2015 (10), and the educational format of ‘Sociocracy for All’ (11). The way decisions are made using sociocracy is that everyone has the right to contribute to the decision-making process, and final decisions are reached through consent. One may think that this is very similar to consensus decision-making, but advocates of sociocracy usually make a clear distinction between consensus and consent, as put by Sociocratisch Centrum co-founder Reijmer:

“By consensus, I must convince you that I am in the right; by consent, you ask whether you can live with the decision.” (12)

Sociocracy pros

One advantage which is immediately suggested in light of this distinction is that sociocratic decisions are less likely to be affected by people’s ability to persuade or susceptibility to manipulation. Sociocratic decisions are usually made in ‘circles’ (9) (either physical or metaphorical), suggesting that all involved are equal and agree to see and be seen. This means that communication-flow can cycle easily from person to person.

In this way sociocracy can be seen as a useful tool for encouraging communication flow.

Sociocracy – too many possibilities?

One possible disadvantage of sociocracy could be that although it is based on simple concepts, the many different iterations all have different principles and focus on slightly different aspects of organisation. This could be confusing for people attempting to try out sociocracy for the first time. There also appear to be a number of different ways you could put sociocratic principles into practice. This can help to ‘Use and Value Diversity’ but it there is also the possibility of people manipulating the system to ends which are not necessarily in line with companionship.

I do not have much personal experience of sociocracy in action so I welcome comments on these ideas, and plan to explore the world of sociocracy further in a later article.



Monitoring the inner flow

Finding alternative organisational structures to aid with communication flow can be effective in encouraging more channels of communication, and thus, hopefully, more open and transparent relationships, so that everything becomes easier. However, as we have briefly explored, even if the structures exist to aid communication flow, there is the possibility of those involved within the organisations to manipulate the communication channels in ways which are not always mutually beneficial.

Such actions are not necessarily ill-willed or even conscious. But we can only be open with our communication flow with others if we are already practised at opening our communication with ourselves. This may sound a little mystical for some but it actually comes down to the basic structures of our language and how we use these structures to create channels – or blocks – in our own minds. The final part of this article will explore some techniques for engaging in ‘mental permaculture’ by looking at our inner communication flows.




References

Ashwanden, C, 2018. ‘Human Permaculture: Communication as Flow part 1’. Permaculture News,23/5/18. https://permaculturenews.org/2018/05/23/communication-as-flow-part-1/– retrieved 2/10/18
Abram, D, 1996. The Spell of the Sensuous. Random House: New York. Chapter 7: “The Forgetting and Remembering of the Air”.
Lancaster, B, 2013. Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain into Your Life and Landscape. Volume 1, 2nd Edition. Rainsource Press: Tucson, USA (distributed by Chelsea Green: New York, USA
Ashwanden, C, 2017. ‘Water Farming part 2: Practical Ways to Harvest your Sky Fruits’. Permaculture News, 18/4/18. https://permaculturenews.org/2017/04/18/water-farming-part-2-practical-ways-harvest-sky-fruits/– retrieved 2/10/18
Rhizome, 2011. ‘A Brief History of Consensus Decision Making’. Rhizome Network, 18/6/11. https://rhizomenetwork.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/a-brief-history-of-consenus-decision-making/– retrieved 2/10/18
Quaker Information Center, 2018. ‘Welcome’. https://quakerinfo.org/index– retrieved 2/10/18
Caperchi, G, 2011. ‘“Real Democracy”: Negotiating Difference Within Consensus’. The Geneaology of Consent Blog, 13/12/11. https://thegocblog.com/2011/12/13/real-democracy-negotiating-difference-within-consensus/– retrieved 2/10/18
Macnamara, L, 2012. People and Permaculture: Caring and Designing for Ourselves, Each Other and the Planet.Permanent Publications: Petersfield, UK.
Sociocracy, 2018. ‘Origins of Sociocracy’. https://www.sociocracy.info/about-sociocracy/origins-of-sociocracy/– retrieved 2/10/18
Sociocracy 3.0, 2018. ‘History of Socioracy 3.0’. https://sociocracy30.org/the-details/history/– retrieved 2/10/18
Sociocracy For All, 2018. ‘Sociocracy For All’. sociocracyforall.org– retrieved 2/10/18
Quarter, J, 2000. Beyond the Bottom Line: Socially Innovative Business Owners Greenwood Publishing Group: Westport, USA. pp. 56–57.

Featured Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

alumna Rosemary Morrow - Transforming devastated landscapes with permaculture - The University of Sydney

Transforming devastated landscapes with permaculture - The University of Sydney

Transforming devastated landscapes with permaculture
21 September 2018
Working to avoid looming hunger
--------------
The humanitarian crises that most of us only read about are often witnessed firsthand by alumna Rosemary Morrow, as she travels the world to help refugees and displaced people grow food.



Alumna Rosemary Morrow.

In June this year, the Iraqi government banned the country’s farmers from planting their summer crops due to a disastrous water shortage. While the blame game played out in that damaged country, Rosemary Morrow (BSciAgri '69) spent two weeks “on a vinyl sofa in sweaty Hanoi”, waiting for a visa to allow her to get over there and help.

It wouldn’t be her first visit to Iraq. But this time she had business near Mosul, the northern city so recently the scene of ISIL atrocities and of a merciless battle that had rendered it a virtual dust pile. Morrow had been asked to come and teach skills to a group of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) who were being sent back to their levelled neighbourhood.

“These are ordinary people just like us,” she explains. “Ordinary, good citizens now living with their families under canvas in a place that can be minus-15 degrees in winter and 50 degrees in summer.”

The skills that Morrow teaches are in permaculture, a term coined in Australia in the 1970s to describe a set of design principles for creating permanent, self-sustaining food production systems by mimicking nature’s ecosystems. The principles also apply to water, shelter, education and technology. It is, in effect, ecosystem rehabilitation with a social dimension.

This means Morrow could help the Iraqi farmers squeeze more out of their water-starved land, regenerating it in the process. “In Mosul, we’ll discuss food, water, housing, solar energy and feeling safe,” she says, with the assurance of someone who has confronted many similar situations. In fact, her dedication won her a 2017 Advance Global Award that recognises exceptional Australians working internationally.

Morrow started this work in Vietnam in the mid-1990s, when the Vietnamese government was establishing a program called Doi Moi, meaning ‘Reconstruction’. She was approached to make that trip by Quaker Service Australia, later becoming a Quaker herself, moved by the religion’s humanity, service and dedication to peace.

You must know that what you teach works. You can’t play with peoples’ lives when they’re hungry.
Rosemary Morrow


Thinking back to that first trip to Vietnam, Morrow realises what an ordeal it was. “It was as if the people were transitioning from one century to another,” she says. “We were in an old jeep with canvas seats, and the roads were terrible. Today the trip would take about three hours, but then it took us three days.”

She remembers always being sick with infections – stomach, eyes, ears – but says it was the same for the locals. She felt privileged to be among a people working for enduring peace, and remembers moments of transcendent beauty.

“There were no bridges, and so our jeep had just been pulled across a river on a raft,” she recalls. “Suddenly a bridal party arrived, all on bikes – the bride in white, sitting on the handlebars. They invited us to join them, and share their rice.”

Since those early trips, including one to Cambodia where she was caught up in a Khmer Rouge road ambush and someone in the vehicle ahead of her was killed, Morrow has crisscrossed the world at the invitation of humanitarian organisations and governments.

“Recently I’ve moved to the gift economy,” she notes. “I don’t accept money anymore. They pay accommodation, airfares and transport.”



No water, no toilets. Morrow says this Internally Displaced Persons' camp in the middle of Kabul could offer much more to the people who have to live here.

Morrow has worked all over Africa, in Albania when its dictator fell, in Kashmir, and many times in Afghanistan, where she says the soil of the capital, Kabul, is yellow and lifeless. “You’d be shocked at how few plant species, including trees, there are in the cities of these countries and provinces,” she says with a note of despair.

Morrow recently worked in the Solomon Islands, invited there by the Solwata (Saltwater) people who live on the lagoons and have always fed themselves from the ocean. Now they are learning to farm instead of fish, because rising sea levels mean they must soon leave their lagoon homes.

“Everywhere I’ve been invited, the land and the people have been on the edge of immense changes,” she says.

Now Morrow herself is determined to create change. She is deeply distressed by the plight of refugees and IDPs – people who struggle with loss, violence and rejection by the international community – and she wants to do something about it.

“We can transform refugee camps from places of misery, enforced suffering, idleness and degradation of land and spirit into humane, integrated settlements for refugees, run by refugees,” she says.

Morrow knows this is possible. She is also aware there are plenty of government and other agencies that will throw up obstacles.

With characteristic frankness, Morrow tells SAM that she didn’t really like the agriculture degree she completed at the University in the late 1960s. It treated land as a commodity to be exploited, she says, rather than as a resource to be cherished. She was particularly horrified by classes in which students were taught the easiest ways to bring down the greatest number of trees.

As she planned a career working on cattle stations for the Department of Agriculture, she knew she wanted a very different relationship with the land, but she wasn’t aware of any alternatives. Then a friend suggested she look into this new thing called permaculture.



It was a turning point – and it also made Morrow look at her agriculture degree differently. “It gave me the biology, chemistry and physics evidence I needed,” she says. “And people took me seriously because I could talk about them and integrate them. Permaculture is really applying these sciences through design principles.”

Talking to Morrow on the phone, she has the voice of a teacher: modulated and precise. In person, her face gives away more of the joy of what she does, but also the frustrations and the disbelief of desperate situations that she knows need not exist.

She lives simply in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, and has transformed what were once the front and back lawns into a productive and wildlife-friendly permaculture garden, doing most of the work herself using mostly recycled materials. She plans to use the same approach in Mosul: teaching people how to treat the wreckage of their city as the building material for what will come next.

“You must know that what you teach works,” she says. “You can’t play with peoples’ lives when they’re hungry.”

After two weeks of waiting in Hanoi, Morrow had to get back to Australia to teach another course. On the way she attended a training course in France, visited some former students in the French Alps who are learning to be permaculture teachers, and took a side trip to work with a small but dynamic team from Greece, Italy, Spain and the Philippines who have started a program called Permaculture for Refugees.

At the time of writing, due to changes to Iraqi visa rules, Morrow still doesn’t have the visa she needs to get to Mosul. “I’m going back,” she says with a twinkle in her eye. “I’m not giving up.”

Written by George Dodd
Photography by Louise Cooper

========

Permaculture proves profitable, National, Phnom Penh Post

Permaculture proves profitable, 

National, Phnom Penh Post
Post Staff | Publication date 28 January 1994
--------------

Initiatives to solve environmental problems using the new concept of Permaculture are proving successful in Cambodia.

Permaculture is both a philosophy and a practical approach to land use in response to soil, water and air pollution, loss of species, reduction of non-renewable resources and  destructive economic policies.

It aims to design sustainable human settlements and weaves together micro climate, plants, animals, soils, water management and human needs into integrated productive communities.

Australian Catholic Relief (ACR) have already put a first batch of students through an international Permaculture design course. Takeo province workers Trudi and John Muir had invited Australian Rosemary Morrow to come and teach the eighteen women and men.

Trudi Muir is using Perma-culture as a medium for community development since "it builds self-reliance, uses local resources, encourages cooperation and can be applied to any piece of land".  

The course was held at the ACR farm center and attended by farmers, school teachers and community workers. It involved excursions to nearby villages and farms. Videos were shown in the local video shop, attended by anyone interested.

The main tasks for the course participants were to design or redesign their own piece of land and to design a larger piece of land - in this case the local school grounds.

In addition, students had to demonstrate an understanding of soil, water, and
biological conservation whilst achieving food self-sufficiency leading to high yields and increases in income.

"The results were challenging as each day, in the second week, more people came to attend the class. Participants had built gardens and experimented with new design principles," said a spokesperson for ACR.

"(They became) more impressed with the relevance of Permaculture to simultaneously solving problems of hunger and malnutrition whilst rehabilitating the environment from water pollution and soil erosion."

The school venture saw the school gardens and fishponds supplying food for children, models for the villagers and income for the teachers.

The school environment is set to be improved by shade, settlement of dust and some micro climate modification from the ponds. The ACR center has also been transformed and has gone from being "a place of bare compacted earth, wind blown and low in biological resources, to an oasis with chinampas, rainwater tanks, fruit trees, herbs, canals, fish-duck aqua culture, shade and windbreaks," said the spokesperson. " In only six months the transformation is amazing."

Other Permaculture initiatives have been taken by the Women's Association of Cambodia who requested a course in Pursat province.

Funded by the Quaker Service of Australia and AIDAB the course .is running as part of the UNICEF family food production program.

The Australian Embassy has funded a one month course at the Jesuit Refugee Service Farm.

The 30 attendees were Cambodian employees from expatriate and Khmer
NGOs. A draft Permaculture manual in Khmer will be a result of this course.

Other results will be more Permaculture gardens designed for and tested for sustainability in Cambodia and people competent to teach Permaculture courses in Khmer.

The ACR spokesperson said: "Permaculture is spreading fast throughout the world and is everywhere in great demand."

"In Cambodia, it appears to be fitting easily into existing organizations and
complements present practice and knowledge." 

Permaculture Pioneers: Book review - Milkwood: permaculture courses, skills + stories

Permaculture Pioneers: Book review - Milkwood: permaculture courses, skills + stories

Permaculture Pioneers: Book review
August 16, 2011 | Off-Farm goings on, Publications | 0 comments | Author :Kirsten Bradley




Permaculture Pioneers is a new book looking at the trajectory of permaculture in Australia from the 1970’s until right now. It’s an amazing and humbling read. And it’s launching in Sydney next week on August 25th, with David Holmgren presenting.

At the same event there will be the Sydney premiere of Anima Mundi, a new doco on the future of this planet of ours. Anima Mundi features Vandana Shiva, Noam Chomsky, the Melbourne Permablitz crew and many more thinkers and doers. Sounds like a good night to me!

The launch and film night is on at Chauvel Cinema in Paddington, Sydney on 25th August. The evening starts at 7pm with David Holmgrenpresenting Permaculture Pioneers, and is then followed by a screening of Anima Mundi, a new film by Peter Charles Downey.

If that’s not enough, the screening will be followed by Costa Georgiadispresenting a short shake-up on why Coal Seam Gas is everybody’s business (with risks like contaminating our entire continent’s ground water, for example), then it’s on to organic finger food, drinks, and discussion. Whew.

>> You can book tickets to this event here. I believe the organizers would be greatly relived if you pre-booked. All proceeds go to the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. I’ll see you there.Permaculture Pioneers: Table of contents: click to enlarge

Some of the contributors...

I think Permaculture Pioneers: stories from the new frontier is an important book for a couple of reasons.

This book gives us young-uns a sense of what has gone before. We all (Milkwood very much included) ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’ in all that we’re trying to do and achieve when it comes to permaculture and regenerative agriculture theory and practice.

And while we regularly honor the sources of the info and knowledge and skills we’ve been passed on, i like the solidity of this object, and it’s ability to un-smudge the origins of some ideas and parts of the permaculture movement.

The book is a kind of catalog of esteemed Australian permaculturists, each telling their stories in their own words. Many people we’ve had the honor to know, work and teach with are here (Bill Mollison, David Holmgren, Rowe Morrow, Geoff Lawton, Russ Grayson) and many MANY more besides.

While not every significant Australian permaculturalist of the last three decades is in here (Darren J Doherty didn’t get a look-in, for example), I don’t think this book is designed to be a definitive overview; rather it’s designed to give a sense of the depth and breadth of the Australian permaculture movement up to this point. And I think it does that very well.

For better or for worse, there seem to be some schools of learning within permaculture education that do not make a focus of ‘opening up’ students to the work of other teachers and doers as much as they could. Which is a shame, because diversity equals stability and abundance, in all things.

This could be partly due to how we access info these days – each online search leads you through a thread of links and inter-connected nodes, and before you know if you’re in a particular branch of the permaculture tree, so to speak. Some branches are more inter-connected than others.

I think this book is most important in that it joins dots and connects people you may not have known learned from, or alongside, each other. I would have liked to see a fabulous web-like map included in this book showing how each contributor related to each other, but maybe that’s a job for an enthusiastic reader (any takers?).

Who got inspired by who. Who worked where in relevance to when. Whose projects influenced which initiatives. Why we have the structures we have today. What has been lost. What has been found.

Reading this book brings back something we were talking to David Holmgren about in May, the subject for his talk at the dinner we held then in Sydney: the idea of ‘waves of permaculture’, like the waves that ripple through any movement, whether it be activism, literature or industry.

This book is an acknowledgement and an atlas of some of those waves and their side-ripples. It makes me proud to be part of something with so much thought, passion and intelligence gone before, and so much possible yet to come.
Buy Permaculture Pioneers from PermaculturePrinciples.com



As for Anima Mundi, I’m looking forward to seeing it. John Seed, one of the protagonists of the film and it’s Sydney showing in particular, is a very deep thinker.

Add to that the interviews with Vandana Shiva (alltime Milkwood hero), Noam Chomsky, Stephen Harding, the fab founders of Permablitz and even Michael Reynolds (Mr Earthship), and you have a lot of possibilities for goodness.

If you’re like me and a little shy of esoteric wrappings, I think maybe set that aside, and venture forth regardless with this one. It’s got some great contributors and we need more docos and an ongoing discussion around the possibility of ‘Earth as organism’, in my view.

All in all, I’m really looking forward to this one. Food Connect Sydney are doing the organic snacks, there will be info stalls with interesting groups, and no doubt plenty of firey and meaningful conversations to be had.

Hope to see you there, Sydneysiders. I’ll be there with bells on.

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Comments


5 responses to “Permaculture Pioneers: Book review”

ronnie says:
August 16, 2011 at 7:15 am


for anyone permy folk living on the south coast of NSW – David Holmgren will be at the South East Permaculture Convergence (which kicks off this saturday august 20 – http://scpa.org.au/pc.html) – and will be launching the book in bega on sunday august 21 ahead of the sydney launch (lucky us!) – the convergence promises to be a top event for anyone who has had an introduction to permaculture via the PDC or simply and intro weekend…. check out the details via the link and see all you south coast permies there!

milkwoodkirsten says:
August 16, 2011 at 3:46 pm


Have fun down there, ronnie!

permaculturetv says:
August 16, 2011 at 1:56 pm


Two words really define the essence of permaculture; perennial polyculture, as a design system, a craft movement and as an institution. The inter-pollination and inter-mingling of all these pioneers during the various stages of the social changes are what have made it one of the most dynamic international grassroots sustainabiliy movements. Attempts to re-unify the many varieties of permaculture now, would be an imposition of a monoculture.

Three cheers for Costa, finally a permie who has the guts to follow-up on the idea, “that permaculture is more than a gardening system”. Following Bill’s lead on the Permaculture People’s Party idea at APC9, we all must realize that “positive solutions only” often require the full range of powers of citizenship. Permaculture and politics are not mutually exclusive, as I am sad to say, I expect the Transition Towns Totnes folks will discover as they inevitably are co-mingled with the Conservative Big Society.

milkwoodkirsten says:
August 16, 2011 at 3:52 pm


Good points, ptv, tho I would say there are many, many permaculturalists that live and work by the premise that “permaculture is more than a gardening system” (not that Costa isn’t tops)…

after having spent 2 days in May watch David Holmgren teach our PDC students his permaculture principles with a focus on just about everything except gardening, I would say many are moving beyond that expectation these days?

yes, permaculture is political… always has been, and will be more so as we approach greater disruption and the need for alternative systems of thinking and doing to ensure a regenerative future…

Rowe Morrow. Toward a Good Relationship with Earth — Silver Wattle Quaker Centre

Toward a Good Relationship with Earth — Silver Wattle Quaker Centre

Toward a Good Relationship with Earth
Friday, September 21, 20186:00 AM
Monday, September 24, 20184:00 AM
Google Calendar ICS


Led by Rowe Morrow.

Download detailed course flier here

Are you feeling distressed by global warming? Not sure what makes the biggest difference? Looking for spiritual direction through action and testimonies? This course discusses what works, using permaculture principles and a global and cosmological framework. You will learn:


Ways to live effectively


What has worked in other countries and situations where people are struggling more than we are in Australia.


A larger view of life and the spirit

For keen gardeners, consider staying on a few days to participate in the Spring Gardening Week (24-30 September).



In the 1980s, Rowe Morrow discovered permaculture which provided a powerful basis for Earth restoration. A Concern was born. She considers permaculture ‘sacred’ knowledge to be carried and shared with others. Since then Rowe has travelled to meet many people anxious and concerned to restore their environments. As a teacher of permaculture Rowe has been inspired for many years by Parker Palmer, the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) and non-violent resistance. She works in difficult places, choosing people who have been disempowered and who would not otherwise have access to permaculture. Most recently she has been working in Afghanistan, and then with Syrian refugees in Mosul. Rowe delivered the 2011 Backhouse lecture and is a member of Blue Mountains Meeting.

Cost: $372 (Single)/ $342 (Shared) includes accommodation and catering

Note that Quakers may also seek support from their Local Meeting or Regional Meeting. Funds are set aside for this, so don’t be shy – it is an investment in the spiritual health of the Meeting.

If you need to be picked up from the Bungendore train station ($10 fee) or Canberra airport ($35 fee) please contact admin.office@silverwattle.com.au

If you are not ready to commit to the course but want to let us know you are interested, please contact us here.

Towards a Good Relationship with Earth
Thursday September 20, 2018 4 pm to
Sunday, September 23, 2018 1 pm
with Rowe Morrow
Author of
Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture 

• Are you feeling distressed by global warming? 

• Are you yearning to live a life connected to the needs of all of Earth’s communities? 

• Not sure what makes the biggest difference?

 • Looking to do work that is spiritually truthful?

 • This course discusses what works, using permaculture principles within a global and
cosmological framework. 

You will learn: 

• Ways to live effectively 

• What has worked in other countries and situations where people are struggling more than
we are in Australia. 

• A larger view of life and the spirit
For keen gardeners, consider staying on a few days to participate in the Spring Gardening Week
(24-30 September). 

Rowe Morrow discovered permaculture provides a powerful
basis for Earth restoration. 

She considers permaculture
‘sacred’ knowledge to be carried and shared with others. 

Rowe is widely known and sought after to run courses,
worldwide. 

She has travelled to meet many people anxious
and concerned to restore their environments. 

Rowe has
been inspired for many years by the work of Parker Palmer,
the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) and non-violent
resistance. 

She often works in difficult places, choosing
people who have been disempowered and who would not
otherwise have access to permaculture. 

Most recently she
has been working in Afghanistan, and then with Syrian
refugees in Mosul. 

Course Costs : Single room $372 Shared $342
Includes all meals, accommodation and course materials. 

Transfers: Airport $35, Bungendore train station $10
For more information see www.silverwattle.org.au
Registration Online: https://www.silverwattle.org.au/course-registration

==============

An interview with Permaculture Pioneer Rosemary Morrow

by Oliver on January 29, 2014 in News

A little bit about Rowe

Born in Perth, Rosemary Morrow (Rowe) was claimed early by the Earth; plants, animals, stones, weather. Some years in the Kimberleys as a young girl confirmed it.

Later she trained in agriculture science with which she was very disappointed, then moved to France where she lived in the L’Arche community. Later at Jordans Village in England she realised she would become a Quaker. Back in Australia in the 1980s Rowe’s Permaculture Design Course provided the basis for a concern for Earth restoration. She considers permaculture to be ‘sacred knowledge’ to be carried and shared with others. Since then, when asked, she has travelled to teach the PDC to others who, due to circumstances, could not access it any other way. This took her to immediate post-war Vietnam as well as Cambodia, Uganda, Ethiopia and other countries.

Rowe’s present concern is to make teaching sustainable and encourage others to succeed her as teachers.

A Permaculture Pioneer

Rosemary Morrow is one of the 26 contributors to Permaculture Pioneers – stories from the new frontier. In this short interview, introduced by co-editor Kerry Dawborn,  Rowe talks about the limits that permaculture has to deal with the problems of the world. Permaculture can provide skills and build confidence to adapt to changing environments, but a changing climate illustrates that migration may become necessary in extreme situations.

Rowe’s advice? “Apply the design principles as closely as you can you’ll end up with wonderful production of good systems, and that there isn’t a whole lot of room to innovate… creativity is applying principles, it’s not in going much beyond the palate that we have of principles for designing well.”

10% of all sales of Permaculture Pioneers whether in print form, or eBook form, continue to go to Permafund, supporting Permaculture projects around the world especially those that assist with resilience in the developing world and in places of extreme need. So why not purchase a copy and dip into the stories of these inspiring early adopters. Permaculture Pioneers is now available on iTunes.

15 The 12th International Permaculture Conference

The 12th International Permaculture Conference

Day One | IPCUK


Day One


PRACTICE. Case studies from existing exemplary projects and reports on the latest research evidence, helping describe what a sustainable society could look like in 2030.

The future has already arrived: What are the inspiring, far-sighted projects of today, that show us how a future sustainable society will look?

Also see Day Two sessions.




Amazing communities


Building Community Resilience through Collaborative Action
Trathen Heckman

Grow It Yourself
Richard Webb

Speak Street Language Cafe - People Permaculture
Joanna Bevan

An introduction to permaculture


Virtual Tour – Bullock’s Permaculture Homestead, Orcas Island, WA, USA
Dave Boehnlein, Paul Kearsley

Permaculture - a design science for all
Aranya Gardens

Implementation of the Permaculture Institute of Italy's design
Pietro Zucchetti

Creating change


European Citizens Initiative for the Rights of Nature - a Whole-Systems Approach to Environmental Law
Mumta Ito

Soil, Seeds & Social Change – Learning from the Permaculture Movement of El Salvador
Naomi Millner & Karen Inwood & Reina Mejia

Permaculture in Timor Leste - Influencing Intergenerational Change
Lachlan McKenzie and Gisele Henriques

Criminal justice


Permaculture and Prisons
Nicole Vosper

Hydroponic Growing by Ex-Offenders: Applying Permaculture Principles
Jules Bagnoli

Day one workshops


Enabling Change
Kat Wall, Emilia Melville

Thinking like a plant
Jonathan Code

How can we build an evidence base for permaculture? British Ecological Society (BES) Agricultural Ecology SIG
Naomi van der Velden, Les Firbank

The 'Ecosystem' of Community Action
Joshua Msika

Permaculture thinking into business realities
Julia Kiessig

In your backyard
Alison Taylor

Farm scale permaculture


Permaculture as Grasssroots Network and Farming System: 5 Years of Research
Rafter Sass Ferguson

Farm scale permaculture; Establishing Ridgedale Permaculture in Sweden
Richard Perkins

The Why, What and How of Securing Farm Land for Biodynamic and Permacultural Food Growing
Marina O'Connell

Food from the forest - perennial productive plants


Real Life Polycultures - How plants and people interact in the forest garden
Tomas Remiarz

Plants For A Permaculture Future
Chris Marsh

Ancient food future food, Foraging in the forest garden and seeing everywhere as a forage garden
Jo Barker

Forest gardens


Bringing the Forest Garden Indoors
Jerome Osentowski

A Baseline Survey of Temperate Forest Gardens
Chris Warbuton Brown

A Garden of Complete Being
Sagara

House building


Learning to Build with Passion – Training the Natural Builders of the Future
Eileen Sutherland

CANCELLED: Rethinking Nature: a Biomimetic Perspective
Richard James MacCowan

From Permaculture to Passive House: Cutting Edge Construction to Save Our Planet
Tedrowe Bonner

Our re-emerging woodland culture
Ben Law

Inspiring enterprise


Lush Cosmetics
Simon Constantine

Designing Successful Enterprises For People & Planet
Maddy Harland

Scaling-up/Professionalizing the Permaculture Movement
Andrew Millison

Permaculture and the new story


Permaculture and the New Story
Declan Kennedy

Smallholder farming in Africa


Restoring Degraded Ecosystems by Unlocking Organic Market Potential: Case Study from Mashonaland East Province, Zimbabwe
George McAllister

The Benefits and Limitations of Permaculture in Central Malawi (by Skype)
Abigail Conrad

Unlocking sustainable livelihoods: keyhole gardens in Africa and beyond
Send a Cow

Smallholder farming in Asia and Australasia


Lessons from a peri-urban, organic permaculture farm - the food forest
Annemarie Brookman

Permaculture from Rainbow Valley Farm to the Village
Trish Allen

Permaculture in Timor Leste - Theory, technique and skills toolkit
Herminia Pinto, Ego Lemos

Permaculture in Timor Leste - Impact on Subsistence Farming
Andrew Mahar

Smallholder farming in Europe


A Matter of Scale - The productivity of UK holdings of 20ha and less
Rebecca Laughton

CANCELLED: Arctic Permaculture. Case study in Iceland - Growing food at 66ºN
Paulo Bessa

Permaculture in Portugal: Socio-technological niches enhancing innovation and identity at the local grassroots level.
Hugo Oliveira

Water


A Paradise called Marizá
Marsha Hanzi

Closed-Loop Aquaponics: Aquaponics With Applied Permaculture
Jay Markert ("Jay Ma")

Community Drought Solutions - Connecting the Drops from Rooftop to Riverbed
Jeremiah Kidd

Case studies of real world functional landscapes - created using permaculture design principles
Jay Abrahams



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Day Two

PROCESS. An exploration of the transformational processes, including permaculture design, that can help bring about the necessary changes.

The pathways to transformation: How do we get from where we are now to where we want to be?

Also see Day One sessions.




Children and schools



Designing our Global Education Systems using Permaculture Principles
Robin Clayfield

Permaculture your School and Transform your Town
Robina McCurdy

Permaculture and Children: A Future City Model
Marcia Amidon

Climate change



"Permaculture Inspiring Climate Change Adaptation" Book
Gil Penha-Lopes

Cool Communities: Ecovillages that Change the Atmosphere
Albert Bates

Climate change adaptation tools for smallholder coffee farmers
Peter Baker

Community building



Quaker meets Permaculture: community designing by the community
Laurie Michaelis, Ed Tyler

Empowering Transformational Cooperation with Sociocracy 3.0
James Priest

The Intricacy of Social and Organisational Design: Chaordic Governance?
Katy Fox

Community energy



Energy Revolution - your guide to making it happen
Howard Johns

Day two film showings



Permaculture in Schools
Robina McCurdy

Design for life - Permaculture & The Food Forest Story
Graham Brookman

Day two workshops



Building alliances for community-led action
Claudian Dobos

Making Permaculture Legible for All: Integrating aesthetics and education into all of your designs
Paul Kearsley, Dave Boehnlein

Regenerative Enterprise and the 8 Forms of Capital
Ethan Roland Soloviev, Gregory Landua

Designing Self-Sustaining Motivation Systems
Cat Richards

Sing the Change You Want to See: Propagating the Permaculture Narrative
Charlie Mgee

Farming systems



Biodiversity, productivity, and scale in resilient food production systems
Naomi van der Velden

Permaculture on a Commercial Farm: Using the Sustainability Assessment Tool SAFA for an Initial Evaluation
Fiebrig Immo

Can Arable Be Permacultural?
Federico Filippi

Higher education



Permaculture's Place in Higher Education - A Global Initiative
Graham Brookman

Measuring permaculture



Developing participatory methods and metrics for the assessment of agroecological farming systems and food and nutrition security
Julia Wright, George McAllister, Chris Warbuton Brown, Anne-Marie Mayer

Measuring sustainability – practical techniques for designs and enterprises
Graham Brookman

Using Ecosystem based design to enhance our Sustainability Outcomes
Dr Wendy Seabrook

Permaculture and Development: A Global Case Study
Monica Ibacache, Tiffany Grell, Denise MacDonald, Abigail Conrad

Permaculture in India



The Hans Foundation; Food Security, Mass Reforestation, Large Scale Poverty Alleviation
Shaan Bhargava

Permaculture in Indian Agriculture
Narsanna Koppula

Food and Income Security in Rain-Fed South/Southeast Asia
Ardhendu S Chatterjee

Personal livelihoods



Savingspool
Petra Stephenson

Financial (Oikos) Permaculture
Mario Yanez

Other peoples money
Andrew Langford

Research



Research as Social Change: Permaculture as Design Methodology for Participatory Action Research
Tom Henfrey

Holistic research of holistic practice
Isis Brook

Anthropology, Permaculture and Earthship Ironbank
Dr. Keri Chiveralls

Rethinking money



The Moneyless Man
Maddy Harland, Mark Boyle

How to build a better money system
Fran Boait

Oil to Soil, Permaculture Investing
Warren Brush

Soil



Introduction to soil biology and the soil food web
Joel Williams

The Answer Lies in the Soil
Graham Bell

A Permaculture Approach to Soil
Chris Warbuton Brown

Ecosystem Service Replication on Damaged Land in the Maya Mountains of Belize
Christopher Nesbitt

Teaching and learning



Innovative Tools in Permaculture Education
Tierra Martinez

Learning from doing in sustainable horticulture - how contemplative enquiry transforms learning
Jane Gleeson

Framing Permaculture as enabling Systems-Thinking for Sustainability: are our design tools, frameworks, ethics and principles fit for purpose?
Andrew Reeves

Wellbeing



Walking our way to a better world?
Rosalind J. Turner

Permaculture for Mental Health
Rex Haigh

Sustainable Healthcare systems as a part of permaculture: herbal medicine for the future
Lucie Bradley



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Quaker meets Permaculture: community designing by the community | IPCUK

Quaker meets Permaculture: community designing by the community | IPCUK


Quaker meets Permaculture: community designing by the community


The conference is being held at Friends House, home of Quakers in Britain, the national umbrella body for 480 local Quaker Meetings attended by about 22,000 people.

We will explain how British Quakers "design” themselves, with decision-making practices developed over 360 years. 

We will focus in particular on how Quakerism has evolved recently to include action on sustainability and climate change as a core commitment.

Laurie says: 

"Members of a community are all designers. Much of Quaker practice is about developing individual and shared responsibility/agency, working with our different visions, worldviews and comfort zones, answering that of God in each other and finding unity in a way forward."

We will explore ways in which Quaker and Permaculture thinking can be mutually enriching and beneficial, particularly in the areas of community design, ethics, principles and testimonies.

Laurie Michaelis

About

Current - Co-ordinator at Living Witness, a Quaker charity supporting sustainable living.

Past - Director of Research, Oxford Commission on Sustainable Consumption; environment policy analyst at OECD; lead author on several reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Find out more

www.permaculture.org.uk

Ed Tyler

Edward Tyler.jpg


About

I teach permaculture in Glasgow, Scotland, and am co-creating my local bioregion of West Argyll and the islands of Arran, Islay and Jura, also in Scotland. I am also a diploma tutor. We have recently started Transition Kintyre as a way of growing awareness of our bioregion and are in the process of setting up community woodlands. We already have a network of community gardens across the region.

What I am most looking forward to

I am hoping to meet up with other attendees who are exploring and co-creating their own bioregions in other parts of the world, particularly those countries in which bioregional awareness is already strong e.g. USA. Likewise I would like to meet up with those who believe there is a spiritual side to permaculture (spirituality in its widest sense).

I am really excited about the conference at The Light as I am a Quaker and The Light is at Friends House, home of Britain Yearly Quaker Meeting. I am excited about meeting up with Quaker Permaculturists, to explore ways the two movements can work together.
Find out more

bioregioning.com

Conference session:
Community building
Conference strand:
Health and Wellbeing
Land Tenure and Community Governance



Keep up to date

The 12th International Permaculture Convergence and Conference.

Over a thousand practitioners and activists joined from around the world.

Quaker Service Australia

Quaker Service Australia

Links

Links to other Quaker organisations

Australia Yearly Meeting (Australian Quaker website)
The Friends' School, Hobart
American Friends Service Committee
Canadian Friends Service Committee
Quaker Peace and Service (Aotearoa/New Zealand)
Quaker Peace and Social Witness (UK)
Right Sharing of World Resources (USA)
Quaker Peace Centre (South Africa)
Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC)
FWCC Asia West Pacific region
Quaker United Nations Office (Geneva and New York)
Friends Committee for National Legislation (FCNL)
Quaker Centre for European Affairs, (Brussels)
Quaker Service Norway
Quakers and climate change
Quakers United Nations office website
Quaker Peace and Social Witness Central Committee UK
Quaker Peace and Service Aotearoa / New Zealand
Quakers in Australia
American Friends Service Committee 

Organisations focusing on International Development

Australian Government's Australian Aid program
Australian Council for International Development (ACFID)
Australian Institute for International Affairs (AIIA)
Make Poverty History Campaign
Micah Challenge
Make Indigenous Poverty History
Indigenous Human Rights Network

Environmental and Peace organisations

CERES
North Wollongong Community Garden
David Holmgren - Co-founder of Permaculture
Climate Friendly - Calculate your carbon footprint
Housmans Peace Resource
Permaculture research Institute Australia

Other NGOs working in collaboration with QSA

Act for Peace (National Council of Churches in Australia)
Union Aid Abroad (APHEDA)
Church Agencies Network
ACFID

Partner Organisations

Pitchandikulam Bio Resource Centre, (Tamil Nadu, India)
Kapululangu Aboriginal Women's Association, (Balgo, WA, Australia)
Wilurarra Creative, (Warburton, WA, Australia)

The New Internationalist

www.newint.com.au/magazine-guide

www.newint.com.au/magazine-guide/debt.htm

www.newint.com.au/magazine-guide/peace.htm
www.newint.com.au/magazine-guide/sustainability.htm
www.newint.com.au/magazine-guide/human-rights.htm

The Spiritual Basis of Earthcare | Quaker Earthcare Witness

The Spiritual Basis of Earthcare | Quaker Earthcare Witness

The Spiritual Basis of Earthcare

QEW's PROGRAMS and publications stem from a conviction and consciousness that the global crisis of ecological sustainability is at root a spiritual crisis. Even as individuals in our network or our steering committee support political and social action in numerous areas, such as globalization, population, genetic engineering, and toxic pollution, each of us tries to bring awareness of the essential spiritual dimension that can be discerned within any given ecological issue. This can be understood as integral with the belief in being "one in the Spirit" that has made Quakers' peace and social justice work so powerful in the past.

This conviction is closely tied to the principle of Quakerism that our actions necessarily reflect our true core beliefs. Many Friends also share the concern of many mainstream environmental groups that significant changes are needed in legislation, technology, education, and social structures. But without a profound transformation in heart and consciousness, in our fundamental relationship with the rest of Creation, there is little chance, given the destructive powers currently wielded by the human race, of averting a major collapse of the systems that support all life on earth.

Many of QEW's publications have been written by Quakers who have tried to put these convictions, principles, and warnings into words. For example:

Elizabeth G. Watson, in her booklet Healing Ourselves and the Earth, talks about fundamental errors in our theological assumptions, worldviews, and self-identities that are making it difficult to perceive, much less act on, the growing threat to Earth's life-support systems.

Jack Phillips, in his Walking Gently on the Earth, an Earthcare Checklist, includes an inspiring essay, "The Spiritual Dimension-Why We Care for the Earth," which confronts the tragic prospect of losing all the wonders of nature that aren't of direct utility to humans.

TIME GROWS SHORT for humans to come to our senses and realize that humans are not ordained to be masters of the universe but are called by the Spirit to be conscious, responsible citizens of the Great Community of Life. That is to say, eco-spirituality is about the interconnections that we ignore at our peril. While such relationships and values aren't directly accessible to empirical science, they are quite evident from observing the behavior of whole, living systems. These unseen forces have been acknowledged throughout history and across cultures as real and significant.

We invite all Friends and kindred souls to share QEW materials with others that we all may become better grounded in the kind of Earth wisdom that the wider culture is mostly blind to, and then find ways as individuals and groups to be agents for urgently needed changes in the minds and hearts of our fellow citizens. We welcome the writings of all concerned Friends, as articles in BeFriending Creation,the Quaker Eco-Bulletin, or as potential pamphlets.

Deepen Spirituality | Quaker Earthcare Witness

Deepen Spirituality | Quaker Earthcare Witness

Deepen Spirituality

Quaker Earthcare Witness is different from organizations that come from a purely environmental standpoint in that we seek to improve our relationship with Earth by living out right relationship with all of creation. We feel that a spiritual need rests at the heart of our current environmental crises and that by applying Friends’ ways and testimonies, we can bring a voice of connection, reflection, deepening, and right action to today’s environmental concerns.