A-DAE: Invite them to the table. The course will address the first four permaculture principles through the framework of African land-based wisdom, (Cherokee) earth-based (non-European) language, and the common uses at Earthaven Ecovillage. However, because I grew up with such an unusual set of resources, I learned to be extraordinarily resourceful, and that is precisely what makes me such a good designer, teacher, and community organizer. Shes been living in rural, land-based community since 1995 and at Earthaven Ecovillage since 2000. Another view, Front Yard Gardens: Rules for Growing Food Out Front, Gaining Ground: 8 places to grow food if you dont have access to land, Regenerating Our Reality through Circular Economy. We will attempt to make a clear critique of settler colonialism here in industrialized North America, and demonstrate how we can simultaneously be both victims and perpetuators of settler colonialism. I highly recommend watching and/or reading this for anyone orienting towards regeneration in their work --> thank you Sarah Queblatin for so generously sharing I do believe that most people wake up in the morning wanting to be good people and to do good work in the world, regardless of their race, class, gender, age, or what they eat for breakfast. We take the cues from the natural systems, whether that be deer, whether that be insects, whether it be water shortages. There are a lot of transactions that limit the access that a person has to food. Judge me if you must, but I did what I had to do to survive. In an American or contemporary agricultural system, the way to access those things is through money or some form of money. In this sense, there is broad overlap between movements for social justice and anti-racism. What Is Permaculture? | Earth Activist Training She said, No, what I mean is you need a pitched roof and a picket fence in front of the house. Self-righteousness is certainly not a principle of permaculture, and yet we divide ourselves so easily, bickering over the details and competing for resources. Decolonizing Permaculture The Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain Through observation and gathering information about the site, its nearby surroundings, and the people who utilize or will utilize the site, we identify zones of use and sectors of energy that influence or affect the site. When I say agroecology is an interpretation, its because agroecology practices are practices without the people. We seek to learn from it, adapt with it, and collaborate, rather than to control, manipulate, and abuse it. Ferguson points out that the mostly homogenous demographic makeup of the permaculture movement is a weakness. All participants are welcome. A-DAE: I think were still dealing with the issue of fences today. Recruitment is disingenuous. Well also discuss how to use these principles to transform ourselves, our values, our behaviors, our projects, and our society by interpreting them through a decolonized lens. A-DAE: Agriculture, as were told in the American narrative, is the delineating line between civilization and the wild Indians. Something to think about. By using this lens of understanding, you can look at these systems and choose your leverage points. A-DAE: There is an assumption that man has command of everything around us, or we are on a higher plane than the living things around us. Scientific inquiry and the scientific field is fairly young compared to the natural systems that were trying to mimic. All of these yearsorganizing Food Not Lawns, writing the book, growing and sharing seeds, traveling and collecting species and storiesall of that has been funded by me doing a lot of crazy shit for money. Cherokee) earth-based (non-European) language, and the common uses at Earthaven Ecovillage. In this important book, Linda Tuhiwai Smith meets a formidable challenge. Decolonizing Permaculture. And as you describe, the thrust is to kill off the pests, kill off the weeds, destroy and kill and create the monocrop. I grew up with my sister and our single mom. As designers of bioculturally diverse ecosystems,[xiv] how can we accomplish our goals of cultural, ecological and economic sustainability without contributing to the erasure of indigenous people and their lived experiences? Those stories are just as important as the practices or the l hoe that I pick up. Indigenous communities embrace the environments that were in. Watson, Jesse. 2016. "Decolonizing Permaculture." , February 20. In contemporary agriculture, there are individualized, commodified resources like land, you can buy water, at one point in our history you could even buy somebodys body and health. of the critical dialogue around permaculture, including its ties with cultural appropriation and white dominance (Watson 2016). Wouldnt you do just about anything for them? ARTY: In your writings and talks, you seem to challenge the idea of mimicking nature, which many people in the regenerative agriculture movement use as a guiding principle. Donate your tuition to support our continued work, 90% refund for cancellations prior to 30 days before the start of the program, 50% refund for cancellations prior to 10 days before the start of the program. Decolonizing Permaculture - Resilience When we write about decolonization, we are not offering it as a metaphor; it is not an approximation of other experiences of oppression. When we plant corn, we dont plant just for us, we plant for the environment around us too. ARTY: Relationships in indigenous ways are central. Some open questions I still have revolve around issues of permaculture and its relationship to colonization. I most often hear the term decolonization used in discussions about race, class, and privilege. ARTY: What are the differences between an indigenous perspective of agriculture and a non-indigenous perspective? I think we learn that through our relationships with other humans that not everything is meant to be sold. And a true friend gives all of this back to you, and so much more. Tyson is a two-hearted and two-spirited person descended from the local indigenous matriarchy called the (A-ni-gi-lo-hi) based here in their aboriginal territory most commonly known as the Great Smoky Mountainsides. Good luck! As a principle for ecosystem design and care he talked about shifting the burden to the intervenor.[vii] So that when we decide to fall trees or sheet mulch so that we can plant forest gardens, the responsibility of managing the consequences of that disturbance falls to the gardener who intervened. Let's Talk People Care: Decolonizing Permaculture - Medium At the same time, the permaculture principles carry important messages that encourage us towards right-awareness, right-relationship, and right-consciousness with both the human and more-than-human world. Decolonizing Permaculture Workshop Series Program This workshop has five two-hour sessions. He suggests that the response to this weakness should not be one of recruitment or tokenism, but rather requires some deeper reflection on how we can be relevant to communities of color. He helps facilitate PDCs with Lisa Fernandes of The Resilience Hub. Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, Culture Jamming and Meme-based Communication. https://depts.washington.edu/ccce/polcommcampaigns/CultureJamming.htm, [ii] Rafter Sass Ferguson, Critical Questions, Early Answers, Permaculture Activist 93 (Autumn 2014): http://liberationecology.org/critical-questions-early-answers/, Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility, The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 3, no. In places like the Amazon or here in California where the Mono people are still doing traditional burns, or places along the rivers where Indigenous People are stewarding the salmon and the salmon burial grounds, those are some of the healthiest soils. The tragedy is that such thinking offers permaculturist white people the opportunity to replace those indigenes and complete the project of settler colonialism, without those permies realizing that theyre doing so. A-DAE: We need to challenge, as a community, the historical narrative of this country that begins with this idea that the farmer is the true American, and that agriculture is really how our continent was started. My own history is of extreme poverty, marginalization, and struggle. Jesse Watson is a permaculture designer, teacher and builder living and working in Midcoast Maine, occupied Penobscot territory. Indigenous People have created the idea of the unknown and the sacred and reverence for where we are as the youngest entity in this place. In an ideal process here in North America, determining the future of settler people would be a separate process of negotiation between the newly repatriated indigenous governance structure and the settler peoples. Well explore how the concepts of colonization, power-over, and dominator thinking have pervaded modern culture and offer suggestions about how to move towards a more holistic, equitable, integrated, and life-centered mindset. Rather than being burdened with that task, the idea that we respect the unknown helps people deal with it. I have tried to work on group certification for tribal communities, but again these are systems that are massive, and it takes way more than me to make really lasting change. Think about what it means to be a true friend to somebody. Think about the friends you currently cherish. It is a process of unlearning racist and white supremacist ideas and behaviors, some of which I wasnt consciously aware were in my head. On a deeper level, permaculture is about the conscious design of ecological cultures. While its a challenge, its also a tremendous opportunity. This article was originally printed in Permaculture Design Magazine (formerly Permaculture Activist) issue #98, Winter 2015. On the surface, permaculture is often about designing eco-groovy, perennially edible landscapes, gardens and farms. I dont have any firm answers, but I know that asking these difficult questions causes an uneasy and unsettling feeling. I googled it and found a powerful, provocative body of work centered around a 2012 essay by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang. I dont have any answers, but I do care deeply about being a good neighbor and a good ancestor to my descendants. kcet.org/shows/tending-nature/the indigenous science of permaculture. Decolonization is also about sovereignty. Indigenous people are stewarding healthy systems. But it is very much the opposite of what agricultural systems are today, which tries to kill everything except the plant that you want to grow. Decolonizing Permaculture: Bridging the gap between privilege and ARTY: The late Joseph Campbell, professor and author of books on mythology, said that Indigenous Peoples refer to the natural world and all in it as thou, as sacred. Decolonizing Permaculture: Bridging the gap between privilege and oppression by Heather Jo Flores A low-income community in Indiana, coming together to build a shared garden in somebody's front. The middle of the scale reflects the value we believe the program holds and the low-end offers a more accessible entry point. How do we organize for that kind of vision or dream? And if we have privilege and agency within that unjust and atrocious system, we must commit to using that access to dismantle that system. Decolonizing Permaculture: Bridging the gap between privilege and [vi] And while settlers of color may experience systematic oppression at the hands of the currently designed economic-political system, they are also settler people and not members of the First Nations. A-DAE: Absolutely. I wrote about sovereignty in my work on the Heroines Journey, in relation to the age-old question, what do women want? I discussed the possibility that a womans heroic journey might have less to do with slaying the proverbial beast, and more to do with understanding, befriending, and co-existing with it. How can it be a misappropriated concept? Opening a heartfelt dialogue with life-A film review of Into The Soil, Start Where You are: Discovery at Zone 00, Explaining regeneration and its expansion beyond the limits ofculture. How do we remember that we are all indigenous to this planet, our Earth Mother, our Gaia? For example, she What is Permaculture Design? She served as garden educator and camp director at the Truly Living Well Center for Urban Agriculture for eight years. Disclaimer: The problem with this type of list is that it asks the privileged reader to discover a sense of empathy based on altruistic inclination: I am asking you to forego the privilege that seems to benefit you, and to give up some of your power and position, in order to build a more just society for everyone else. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue. 9/15/20 - Turning Fire Into Water: Fire Preparedness through Forest and Watershed Restoration. There are many reports that say carbon sequestration is happening in indigenous stewarded lands. Alas, it doesnt seem as if people who own land will start signing deeds over to sovereign nations anytime soon, and in my most candid moments, I would probably say that theres not much point in continuing a discussion about equality until people are willing to do way more than just talk about it. Decolonizing Permaculture The Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain Permaculture and Indigenous Wisdom December 6, 2021 Decolonizing Permaculture: Steps Forward in Acknowledging the Past By: Meg Toben A few months ago, I posted a request to Facebook for an indigenous permaculture co-teacher for our Permaculture Foundations Certificate Program. Celebrating some of the best moments of the Bioneers conference through the last three decades. Sometimes its public benefit; sometimes its through actual cash economy transactions. would love to hear your thoughts on this! Is it possible that we can subvert patterns of abuse and oppression by forming honest, lifelong friendships across the divides? As a bridge to the challenge of bringing a decolonization framework into permaculture practice and pedagogy, I would like to start by mapping those same questions onto permaculture itself. Friendships ask for justice, equality, non-violence, respect, and communication. If permaculture has as its ethical foundation Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share or Future Care, what do those words mean in this light, given the fact that people like me passively benefit from systematic forms of oppression and genocide that continue today? I think one of the most important lessons in indigenous epistemology is that natural systems have unknowns, and that man cannot know everything. This is the work. No portion of the original content on this website may be reproduced, in any language, without express written consent. Permaculture is ecological design aimed at creating systems that meet human needs while regenerating and healing the environment around us. These are a few thoughts Im left with. But for me, the central problem that divides the permaculture community is class. This lack of discernment is a blind spot. Pomo people do different things than Navajo people. Watch keynote addresses, panel discussions, performances and more from visionary innovators. : Episode 95 Geneen Marie Haugen. Permaculture allows us to design productive loops of synergies between our technologically built environments and the surrounding ecologies within which we live. Agriculture is usually the delineating line where people talk about civilization and non-civilization or hunter-gatherers and yeoman farmers. In that sense, I think there is some awareness that there needs to be more inclusion of non-white people in the organic community. As a community steeped in the ecological design model known as Permaculture, Earthaven is taking a good long look at the ways in which the "Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share" movement has fallen . It requires different skill sets when youre managing collective resources versus individualized land plots. Its a very broad term. For instance, my grandpa would take me to the field and tell a story about the last time he saw conditions like this and what his grandparents did. Yes, Earth Care is important, and many species are going extinct, but we will climb right to the top of that list if we dont get the People Care and Fair Share ethics worked out. Decolonizing Permaculture - School of Integrated Living Decolonizing permaculture also means building relationships with extra-human nature that acknowledges the ways in which they, too, resist the hegemony of corporate capitalism - and this means also acting in solidarity with them. Amakiasu has been an educator for over 30 years. Before that, they were considered hunters and gatherers, which has its own connotations. I could go off on politics and science, but Im just going to end there. As such, I spent much of my childhood either homeless, living in a van, or being dropped off at a relatives house for a few months, to lighten the burden on my mom. My response to that? I submit that the framework of decolonization would also save permaculture from being one more happy-faced, green, eco-groovy front for the project of genocide. I dont understand the other side. How does indigenous farming develop relationships and nurture life? We should listen with humility when we are challenged over our privilege or unexamined racism. Many of them continue to resist the process of settler colonization and assimilation. The list below offers tangible suggestions for how to cultivate real friendships and alliances. It is this facet of decolonization which strikes fear into the hearts of most settler peoples because it offers no firm guarantee of a settler futurity. We want to create systems that are rebirthing a healthy environment. EarthShine also includes her Eco-Hood Design-and-Build Project along with Soulstice, which introduces young folks to careers theyve never heard of. In another sense, a cultural sense, decolonization is about the process of removing colonizing thoughts from your own mind and colonizing behavior from your own lifeway. My economic forms of production include designing, teaching, gardening and construction trades (carpentry, painting). The interactions between climate change, energy peak and economic contraction mean that the stakes are very high. Decolonization doesnt have a synonym.. More importantly, though, permaculture gives us the ability to heal and regenerate ecosystems through right relationship to all the other beings around us: plants, animals (including humans), wind, water, rocks, soils and so on. Lillian Jackson created a an inclusive safe space at the Rez dogs just wander in the community and people feed them. But we never had enough money for rent. That means that when people are talking about correcting agriculture to a time when it was better, were going back to that definition of when settlers came to America and started agriculture. When we talk about decolonizing regenerative agriculture, we are looking at that initial definition. If responsibility falls to the intervenor, how does that affect contemporary land ownership for those who can afford it? Decolonizing Permaculture. - LinkedIn We should respect in reverence and allow those unknowns to happen. Really, what does that mean? In an indigenous community, food shortages mean something within that society is awry and has to be fixed. Faculty and SOIL Co-Founder ARTY: I heard you tell the story of assisting your grandfather filling out an organic certification application and to the question of what inputs do you use, he said prayers, love, river water.. We can whisper the names of the beasts: racism, sexism, ageism, xenophobia, misogyny, hate, fear, anger we all experience these things from time to time, and we see the resulting backlash and judgmental attitudes. Agriculture is usually the point in our American historical narrative where Indigenous People are separated from the rest of civilization. Ive tried. Amakiasu has been an educator for over 30 years. By the time I dropped out in 10th grade at the age of 15, I had attended 19 different schools and lived in at least 30 different houses. But the real remedy is more diverse above-and-below ground living systems. Im here to help make the world a more just and sustainable place for my daughter and all the other children in the world, those alive today as well as those of future generations. In historical terms, science has been used to dispossess a lot of Indigenous Peoples of land. I know that sounds trite and cliche, but thats because its a truism. Im here to learn how to be a good ancestor. He said that Western culture views the natural world as an it that can be exploited and processed. In the sense of some kinds of strict land management and home economics, its kind of true. No previous permaculture experience is necessary to attend. Tyson Sampson I was like: What is this? I am deeply grateful for the space to explore this important topic in these pages, and I am grateful to the other participants in this conversation for their help in unpacking these ideas and figuring out how to apply them to our permaculture organizing efforts. The reason for this relates to a concept in the article Decolonization is not a metaphor, which the authors call settler moves to innocence. A move to innocence is a diversionary attempt by a settler person to absolve themself of the guilt of living on stolen land using some form of catharsis, without actually addressing the difficult societal structures involved. One of the design methods used in permaculture that takes place early on in a site design is Zone and Sector Analysis. Indigenous People need room to tell those stories. How should this principle inform the actions of ethical people who benefit from skin and gender privilege in general? Resilience is a program of Post Carbon Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the world transition away from fossil fuels and build sustainable, resilient communities. I come from a background of union activism, art & philosophy, direct-action environmentalism, public school education, and building trades. In collective resources management, a variety of skills are needed because youre not only dealing with people, but youre also dealing with relationships and how to balance those relationships. But counting carbon and counting molecules is not going to help people understand. If I hadnt been able to hustle up several thousand dollars trimming weed in California last winter (to hire an attorney) I would have lost the Food Not Lawns trademark forever. Decoloniziation For Beginners: Inner And Outer Vision Decoloniziation for Beginners: Inner and Outer Vision Using the land and our tangible environments as the palette of living changes everything. It was a topic whose initial catalyst came from Rafter Sass Fergusons article, Critical Questions, Early Answers, which is an overview of the permaculture movement. When youre trying to move an entire community of white people and as a non-white person, it is really, really hard and tiring. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak outBecause I was not a Trade Unionist. Friends are loyal, honest, and sincere. When we farm, were thinking about natural cycles, and how do we become more embedded into those natural systems. Whether considering energy systems of production and distribution or agricultural systems of production and distribution, when we examine them critically we can see that these systems are brittle and capable of breakdowns at many pinch points. Thats the only way were going to ensure that we are within the cycle of whatever natural systems were a part of. Im asking people to stop and say, Look at how we think about agriculture in America and think about whether it included Indigenous People. The answer is it doesnt. So, that means, I need to plant more. Were adjusting to our environment rather than trying to keep everything out. As a quick thumbnail sketch, permaculture is an ecological approach to the design of whole systems. The reason this matters is because the industrial systems we are embedded within and dependent upon are often deeply flawed and corrupt, in addition to being quite brittle. Permaculture Design Magazine Issue: 98 - Decolonizing Permaculture I consider this principle when recognizing how I passively benefit from the actions that my ancestors probably took to help construct this oppressive and exploitative system. Id like to think we can err on the side of survival, however temporary it may be in the big picture. This article is meant as a primer on decolonization in a contemporary North American context, written specifically for permaculture designers, teachers, activists and gardeners. The conversation usually goes something like this: Settler/landowner: What can I do to help the poor?, Me: Gift me a piece of land, and I will turn it into a seed sanctuary, food forest, and permaculture paradise that will feed and benefit the community for generations.. This is known as the tangled triad of settlernativesettler of color. How can we translate and communicate that to members of our colonial culture who may have forgotten? Blogger, coach and permaculture consultant exploring the evolving edges and intersections of permaculture, social justice, radical ecopsychology and resilience PermacultureWomen Follow How did fences disrupt indigenous food sheds in New Mexico and other places? It informs how I think about what part I can play to heal historical traumas. You need to adjust to them. Maybe human extinction is whats best for the Earth, maybe not. As Moore (2015) points out, "all life rebels against the value/monoculture nexus of modernity, from farm to . And finally, what does the decolonization of Native North America look like? My term is coming to an end, and I hope they replace me with another indigenous person, but thats a political process, which is pretty crazy presently. : Episode 96 Kritee Kanko, What Could Possibly Go Right? So instead of making a statement like Permaculture allows us to remember how to be indigenous to place, we should choose other language. By this definition, just about every landowner in the permaculture community is a settler/colonizer. We need small, steady change built upon strong, healthy connections. More information about our Privacy Policy can be found here. And so the Hero comes blasting into a project, sure that others will fail without his almighty guidance, and proceeds to insult, alienate, and/or disregard the people who are doing most of the work. To decolonize regenerative agriculture, we have to go back and think about the times before European settlement and contact to the times when there was more of a balance in the ecological environments that were trying to correct now.
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