decolonizing permaculture

Decolonizing Permaculture Workshop Series Program This workshop has five two-hour sessions. Decolonization allows for a framework of relevance as long as we have the courage to heal our White Fragility[ix] and face the realities of a white supremacist economic-political system. In the sense of some kinds of strict land management and home economics, its kind of true. Id like to think we can err on the side of survival, however temporary it may be in the big picture. Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences! The conversation about decolonizing agriculture is about examining the agricultural system and concepts that allow for those injustices to happen. Its important to keep in mind that food is an indicator of the health of a society. Good luck! EarthShine also includes her Eco-Hood Design-and-Build Project along with Soulstice, which introduces young folks to careers theyve never heard of. Once, during a presentation I said, Permaculture allows us to remember how to be indigenous to a place. It was a meme I had seen elsewhere, but I instantly felt skeevy after repeating it and vowed to never say it again. Commitment to Decolonizing Permaculture . Bioneers 2023: Transformation, Regeneration, Celebration, Bioneers Statement on 2023 Conference Dates, 30+ years of leading edge/inspiring talks, conversations and shorts. Think of it as regenerative design that heals and repairs ecosystems while at the same time producing beneficial yields. A-DAE: One of the things that comes to mind is food safety. And while that seems progressive or cosmopolitan, are there instances where design principles or techniques associated with permaculture were misappropriated from indigenous peoples without their permission? Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature. I studied food safety law when I got my LLM [Master of Laws Degree]. Cherokee) earth-based (non-European) language, and the common uses at Earthaven Ecovillage. If you have access to land use, permaculture allows you to design perennial systems of regenerative food production that are much more resilient than annual-based agricultural systems of food production. My own history is of extreme poverty, marginalization, and struggle. Decolonizing permaculture June 2, 2022 Public domain The dreamcatcher is one of the most widely appropriated symbols. Something to think about. 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. Perhaps this article already has you feeling triggered, frustrated, defensive? 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. Or perhaps its designed to function exactly as its functioning now: to keep the poor and disenfranchised firmly separated from the elites, and to maintain this oppressive distribution of power. Dear Friends, A school on the Standing Rock Reserve surrounded by a garden of traditional foods and healing herbs, where students can learn immersed in nature Each of these peoples have their own practices and stories that go along with these practices. I reached out to my close friends and eventually we found an article titled Decolonization is not a metaphor.[iii]. I think we learn that through our relationships with other humans that not everything is meant to be sold. While its a challenge, its also a tremendous opportunity. ARTY: What does it mean to decolonize agriculture and how does that pertain to regenerative agriculture? How do you organize and convince White, Black and Yellow people into giving their land back to the Red Nations from which all this land was stolen? 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. Copyright 2023 Permaculture Women's Guild & Heather Jo Flores. I became aware of the topic of decolonization a year ago. By using this lens of understanding, you can look at these systems and choose your leverage points. Science rather than trying to count carbon, should work to explain to the Western scientific world why these stewarded places are so important and why these practices should be continued. Permaculture is a fantastic curriculum and a beautiful pedagogy a wonderful system of knowledge that has been distilled down from a much larger traditional ecological body of knowledge originating all around the world and I think many of us within the movement acknowledge that. In light of Earth Care, People Care and Future Care, how can this be a valuable concept? In an indigenous community if you had a person who hunted, if you had a person who could plant a seed, if you had a person who knew how to gather, then you had access to food. Our award-winning radio and podcast series highlighting diverse voices of grassroots leaders. Really, what does that mean? A-DAE: Thats a loaded question because the whole idea of agriculture puts a contemporary spin on the conversation. That was my choice and I dont regret it, but the burden of those loans is crippling. Recruitment is disingenuous. Isnt nature our best teacher? My grandpas response was: Were farmers. Reposting Policy | Privacy Policy, Building a world of resilient communities, http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/view/249/116, Empire not only made the colonies. Decolonization is about upholding longstanding treaties, adherence to international law, and the return of genuine sovereignty and the administration of land use to First Nations peoples. So, I sit on the board and it helps that Im a brown face in a very white community. But the real remedy is more diverse above-and-below ground living systems. In this article we will seek to answer the following questions: What is decolonization? We have to have reverence and respect for those unknowns. Because some people have more financial means than others, we have created a sliding scale fee system to accommodate a range of economic realities. 5/7/22 - Our Permaculture Community Comes Together - A Reflection on Weekend One of the PDC. Though there isnt enough space to properly tackle the subject in this article, it still warrants a brief mention here. How do Native voices become authentically included in the regenerative agriculture conversation? Remember the permaculture principles: Respond to feedback; Designer limits the yield; Problems are solutions; Mistakes are tools for learning. He helps facilitate PDCs with Lisa Fernandes of The Resilience Hub. She is now focusing on her writing and on EarthShine, a business that exposes children and teens to the wonders of the natural world. colonizer). When I was a little girl in second grade, we were asked to draw a picture of our house. She served as garden educator and camp director at the Truly Living Well Center for Urban Agriculture for eight years. In my work regionally in the Northeast Permaculture network, one proposal that has emerged is that we consciously refrain from self-applying the term indigenous if we are not actually indigenous to Native North or South America. 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. And again, if somebody has enough money, they can play the buffoon and get away with it. They are not extinct. Think about what it means to be a true friend to somebody. It informs how I think about what part I can play to heal historical traumas. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak outBecause I was not a Trade Unionist. How can we expect to be designers of ecological culture if we dont have a clear understanding of our past? Think of decolonization as another form of enlightened self-interest. A-DAE: Yes. I maintain a permaculture design/build practice for residential and farm clients. Ive tried. Im here to learn how to be a good ancestor. It is an ethically bounded framework of ecological design that can be used to design everything from landscapes and farms to business enterprises and other cultural projects, on nearly any scale. While I get excited about the National Agroforestry Center looking into Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) with the interest of transitioning tillage-based agriculture to perennial agricultural systems, I cant help but notice the potential for inadvertent colonial appropriation. We have to embrace the bacteria and the microbiome that make our community because thats the only way our bodies adjust to our environment. 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. They identify any person who owns land in a place to which they are not native as a settler (a.k.a. It doesnt include indigenous people because only colonizers and settlers are considered farmers in America. 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 yard. So, this idea of a fence is just antithetical to the way we view the world. Special thanks also to gkisedtanamoogk (Wampanoag nation), Canupa Gluha Mani (Lakota nation), and Ana Oian Amets (Aquitainian proto-Basque ancestral recovery) for the same. How can we tend our own council fires in service to the community? In the 1930s and again in the 60s, The National Resource Conservation Service came in and put in elk and deer-proof fences. My mom, of Cree/Scottish heritage, who was beaten as a child and had me when she was 19, worked full-time-plus, at minimum wage, in a wide range of jobs. [xi] Daniel Quinn, Ishmael (Bantam/Turner, 1992) and Beyond Civilization (Harmony, 1999). How we behave and interact with our ecosystems matters. 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. Have you been able to provide some indigenous perspective to that process? Each session runs from 11 am to 1 pm on these days: May 22: Decolonizing Permaculture Overview May 29: Principle 1: Observe and Interact June 5: Principle 2: Catch and Store Energy June 12: Principle 3: Obtain a yield When that happens, people are disconnected from society and from the collective resources that go into making food. The Pueblo of Jemez said that the Caldera has always been sacred to the Jemez people, and they have always had continuous access. Friendships require vulnerability, compassion, patience, and most of all, effort. As I reflected on how I could be relevant to communities of color close to where I am located in rural Maine (which is mostly white), I started thinking about making bridges with Native American communities to the north. So instead of making a statement like Permaculture allows us to remember how to be indigenous to place, we should choose other language. Accurate and contemporary information about Indigenous science, media, and curriculum for social change, Free eBooks packed with wisdom and insights from visionary voices in the Bioneers community, Our newsletters provide insights into the people, projects, and organizations creating lasting change in the world, Visionary Plant Consciousness & Psychedelics, The Fight Against Climate Change in the North, Farming with the Wild: An Interview with Jo Ann Baumgartner of the Wild Farm Alliance. 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. I recognize that these issues need to be studied and dealt with through an intersectional lens. Document access and instructions can be found here. In an American or contemporary agricultural system, the way to access those things is through money or some form of money. With individualized, commodified resources, the whole dynamic of society changes. 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. Decolonization is also about sovereignty. Faculty Sometimes its public benefit; sometimes its through actual cash economy transactions. 9/15/20 - Turning Fire Into Water: Permaculture Approaches to Fire Ecology, Preparedness . Each session runs from 11 am to 1 pm on these days: This is an introductory level workshop. In that sense, I think there is some awareness that there needs to be more inclusion of non-white people in the organic community. 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. would love to hear your thoughts on this! Perhaps it is the willingness to play the superior that is the root of the problem? This matters because an injury to one is an injury to all. Lillian Jackson created a an inclusive safe space at the In order to do that, we need to include Indigenous People. I most often hear the term decolonization used in discussions about race, class, and privilege. Ancestral Organics in Colombia is committed to the magic of nature, consciously-grown food, and regenerative farming. 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. . 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. Decolonizing Permaculture. These are systems that have been perfected because of relationships with other living beings, plants, animals, the land and everything that surrounds it; those relationships take time. And we dont want you to feel bad about it. In order to be successful farmers, we have to learn how to adjust to those environmental changes from the beings in that natural environment. The two-week curriculum has been offered by thousands of teachers in every part of the world and has been adapted to the specific and particular contexts of small farmers everywhere. Why didnt I just market my seeds, produce, and skills as a professional, and make ends meet that way? The biggest difference in contemporary agriculture versus indigenous agriculture is the idea of money. 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. Pomo people do different things than Navajo people. Whether we turn our observational gaze to food systems, energy systems or economic and political systems, they are all overdue for a radical ecological revision. The conversation about decolonizing agriculture is about examining the agricultural system and concepts that allow for those injustices to happen. We dont need a Hero. Working at the permaculture edge and to provide information useful to people working on the ground. . 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. 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. Not to say that racism, sexism, ageism and other -isms dont cause problems, but ultimately it is the control and ownership of money and property that allows people to abuse their other privileges. This article is meant as a primer on decolonization in a contemporary North American context, written specifically for permaculture designers, teachers, activists and gardeners. Self-righteousness is certainly not a principle of permaculture, and yet we divide ourselves so easily, bickering over the details and competing for resources. Podcast: Decolonization & Sudden Oak Life By Melissa Ott Fant February 15, 2021 Education broadacre permaculture, decolonization, permaculture design course, Sudden Oak Life, traditional ecological knowledge Current PDC student Danielle created two podcast episodes from audio recordings at our Broadscale Permaculture weekend in February 2021. A-DAE: Invite them to the table. Some open questions I still have revolve around issues of permaculture and its relationship to colonization. This article was originally printed in Permaculture Design Magazine (formerly Permaculture Activist) issue #98, Winter 2015. To me, it boils down to two things: A view of oneself as somehow superior in knowledge and ability to others, and a lack of the sincere trust that one needs in order to build authentic relationships. For me, it is a process of learning how I passively benefit from my racial and gender privilege. Please consider your needs and resources to determine what might be a stretch, but not a strain. Think about the friends you currently cherish. The World Needs an Anti-Harassment Movement: So Does Permaculture. I have been on my own since then, and have been generally self-reliant, unless you count student loans, which I accepted in order to access an education that was unavailable without them. I highly recommend watching and/or reading this for anyone orienting towards regeneration in their work --> thank you Sarah Queblatin for so generously sharing Exploring the Intersection of Permaculture and Decolonization. The interactions between climate change, energy peak and economic contraction mean that the stakes are very high. I googled it and found a powerful, provocative body of work centered around a 2012 essay by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang. 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. Its a very broad term. Download a sample from the Decolonizing Permaculture issue here (19MB). ARTY: Relationships in indigenous ways are central. The idea of the picket fence fascinated me. This website uses Google Analytics and Meta (Facebook) Pixel to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages. No portion of the original content on this website may be reproduced, in any language, without express written consent. The industrial nation-state is an omnicidal machine, and it eats everything. It made the unequal Britain we see today, Why we should abandon the concept of the climaterefugee, When decolonization meets post-capitalism: the third annual post-capitalism conference, From a Dystopian Present to a Gaian Future, Overcoming Colonial Thinking to Connect With Life, Degrowth, Decolonization and Modern Monetary Theory, Political polarization is pushing evangelicals to a historic breaking point, Why You Dont Hear Trump or Farage Talking About the Tech Revolution, What Could Possibly Go Right? That is so hard for me to understand. Also, places that have been stewarded and kept by California indigenous basket-weavers, those are the places where carbon is probably its most healthy. And because of this they have a stake in the continuity of the colonial project. How can we expect to design a regenerative legacy for our descendants if we havent yet made peace with the ancestors? I know that sounds trite and cliche, but thats because its a truism. She said, No, what I mean is you need a pitched roof and a picket fence in front of the house. 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. You name it: housecleaning, selling jewelry, and, of course, growing and trimming marijuana (which is what probably eighty percent of West Coast activists and artists have done to sustain themselves for decades.). Whenever I get questions about agriculture, I always get a little squirmy because I realize most people are coming from the perspective of the American historical narrative where Indigenous People are excluded. Many of them continue to resist the process of settler colonization and assimilation. I was like: What is this? In 200 pages she presents a cogent critique not only of anthropology, but of the cultural evolution of the entire Western concept of research. Indigenous People need room to tell those stories. 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. Decolonization matters because of mountaintop removal, water mining and fracking. I see an agenda of decolonization coupled with land use based on permaculture design as a positive way forward toward a time of greater ecological and social health, in which we may rediscover how to live in right relationship to a place while simultaneously repairing and healing historic crimes against humanity. I dont have any answers, but I do care deeply about being a good neighbor and a good ancestor to my descendants. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Such a project is nothing more than another form of imposition upon the locals by another foreign interest. How can we translate and communicate that to members of our colonial culture who may have forgotten? To me, again, thats a fallacy. Lee Warren If we genuinely care about the regeneration of ecosystems and culture, we should talk more openly about this tension of owning stolen land,[viii] especially when seeking relationships with contemporary Native peoples. As I ruminated on the difference between recruitment, green missionary work, and relevance, I also started to ask how I could use my privilege and agency (as a white cis-male) to be an ally to marginalized Native communities. It is offered so that we may think critically and philosophically about sustainability and our role in our culture as designers of novel ecosystems. Join us on this exploration of both the celebrations and the challenges of permaculture as seen through the lens of three marginalized voices. All participants are welcome. But for me, the central problem that divides the permaculture community is class. 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. 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. 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. Onward to regeneration of healthy systems! Micmac girl and her grandmother working on a herb spiral built during a permablitz in Micmac country near Presque Isle, Maine. Permaculture allows us to design productive loops of synergies between our technologically built environments and the surrounding ecologies within which we live. The word 'permaculture' was coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970s, from " permanent agriculture," but has come to encompass many sorts of systems: "permanent culture.". So an injury to one is an injury to all should be understood in light of Neimollers poem First they came for the Socialists: First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak outBecause I was not a Socialist. Agriculture is usually the point in our American historical narrative where Indigenous People are separated from the rest of civilization. And when I see nasty, divisive behaviors like interrupting, shaming, slandering, disregarding, plagiarizing, avoiding, condescending, taking advantage of, jacking up the rent and calling oneself King, Duke, or Benevolent Dictator, they are coupled with rationalizations about how doing the work is more important than how others feel about the way that work gets done. 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. We should ask how we can be relevant to their lives, and ask for permission and endorsement of our activities and events. It gives the ethic of People Care teeth. Arent these all of the same qualities we want for our permaculture community at large? Life is not just an idea that lives in the head, or a feeling that lives in the heart. Permaculture is ecological design aimed at creating systems that meet human needs while regenerating and healing the environment around us.

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