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. 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. Lee is a sustainability professional with twenty five years of experience envisioning, designing, and living innovative solutions to organic food systems, intentional community, and sustainability education. I dont have time to deal with people criticizing me. I am here to learn how to be of better service to all people. Call me a socialist, but isnt socialism at its heart just a community coming together? How do we organize for that kind of vision or dream? 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. 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. Ferguson points out that the mostly homogenous demographic makeup of the permaculture movement is a weakness. Each of these peoples have their own practices and stories that go along with these practices. And finally, what does the decolonization of Native North America look like? 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. I welcome your feedback and look forward to the conversations that will come of this article and others in this pivotal issue. Decolonizing Permaculture Workshop Series Program This workshop has five two-hour sessions. How do we remember that we are all indigenous to this planet, our Earth Mother, our Gaia? Decolonizing PermacultureExploring the Permaculture Principles through an Equity LensSaturdays, May 22 - June 1911am - 1pm Eastern TimeOnlinehttps://www.scho. Fair Shares, anyone? 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. This critique is offered to make the evolution of our movement cleaner and more respectful of indigenous cultures, and to find a way to balance Leaver and Taker[xi] cultures, maybe even to unify them. I think one of the most important lessons in indigenous epistemology is that natural systems have unknowns, and that man cannot know everything. But we never had enough money for rent. Some open questions I still have revolve around issues of permaculture and its relationship to colonization. We dont kill the natural systems in order to ensure that we survive, which is what food safety does. Recently the Pueblo of Jemez had a lawsuit against the forest service. of the critical dialogue around permaculture, including its ties with cultural appropriation and white dominance (Watson 2016). Download a sample from the Decolonizing Permaculture issue here (19MB). Right now it doesnt make a prominent habit of eating white cis-dudes because its busy making a habit of disenfranchising people of color, women, queer peoples and all those others. But as these brittle industrial systems fall apart as a result of climate change or energy shortages, those others can always be redefined to include me or you. 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. 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. So, my definition of regenerative agriculture is one that includes a true history of land and the environment and peoples health that starts prior to contact. So, this idea that Indigenous People would be welcomed in the organic community was one that I was really hopeful for. Can you talk more about reverence versus exploitation? A-DAE: I think were still dealing with the issue of fences today. These are a few thoughts Im left with. kcet.org/shows/tending-nature/the indigenous science of permaculture. In historical terms, science has been used to dispossess a lot of Indigenous Peoples of land. 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. 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.". Its a tall order, but I hope that you will embrace the challenge. When I was a little girl in second grade, we were asked to draw a picture of our house. Marina Nobre: Reforestation is more than plantingtrees. 9/15/20 - Turning Fire Into Water: Fire Preparedness through Forest and Watershed Restoration. Join us on-land or online by livestream, this Introduction to Permaculture will give you all the basics of design, ethics, and principles in the first 2.5 days. So instead of making a statement like Permaculture allows us to remember how to be indigenous to place, we should choose other language. Website + Marketing Support by Viking Mountain Marketing, Exploring the Permaculture Principles through an Equity Lens. Something to think about. Youre part of that system. A-DAE: At the heart of the concept regeneration is wanting to renew and correct some of the missteps that have taken us to the point of environmental damage and degradation. Arty Mangan Food and FarmingIndigeneity Article. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. All permaculture design begins with 'Observe and Interact', but even this step doesn't taking into consideration the history of the land, its peoples and the. Permaculture Womens Guild by Heather Jo Flores As Published in issue #98 of Permaculture Design Magazine, November 2015 First of all, I want to say that I do not represent anyone but myself, and though I have vetted this article with several peers and mentors, I do not presume to know the needs and desires of anyone else. We need small, steady change built upon strong, healthy connections. She is now focusing on her writing and on EarthShine, a business that exposes children and teens to the wonders of the natural world. A-DAE: Thats a loaded question because the whole idea of agriculture puts a contemporary spin on the conversation. Shes been living in rural, land-based community since 1995 and at Earthaven Ecovillage since 2000. 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.. Permaculture certainly appears to have been assembled from toolkits from all over the world and throughout history. 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. Lee Warren There are stark differences between agricultural systems in indigenous communities and agricultural systems in contemporary communities. It leaves the common farmer and the common Indigenous person outside of understanding, and thats a problem. 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. We have really strong seeds. 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. In this sense, there is broad overlap between movements for social justice and anti-racism. Think about the friends you currently cherish. 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. See the link below for her article and invitation to. How do Native voices become authentically included in the regenerative agriculture conversation? And this is a metaphor for what we, the permaculture community, are attempting to do with nature. How do we incorporate righting this egregious, unresolved, and ongoing historical crime into our culture jamming work? May 22: Decolonizing Permaculture Overview, May 29: Principle 1: Observe and Interact, June 5: Principle 2: Catch and Store Energy, June 19: Principle 4: Apply self-regulation and feedback. 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. Tuition includes instruction and lifetime access to the class recordings. EarthShine also includes her Eco-Hood Design-and-Build Project along with Soulstice, which introduces young folks to careers theyve never heard of. would love to hear your thoughts on this! ARTY: Relationships in indigenous ways are central. 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. In order to do that, we need to include Indigenous People. 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. How does indigenous farming develop relationships and nurture life? Our intention is to invite proponents of western ecological agriculture (e.g., regenerative ag / permaculture) to go deeper and encourage their peers to go deeperto not just 'take' practices from Indigenous cultures without their context, but to also encompass the deeper Indigenous worldviews inspiring a consciousness shift that hopefully will She said, No, what I mean is you need a pitched roof and a picket fence in front of the house. We need people to understand why its important to have healthy soil and why its important that you have a healthy root system that sequesters water. Commitment to Decolonizing Permaculture . [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. But the real remedy is more diverse above-and-below ground living systems. For example, she One of the design methods used in permaculture that takes place early on in a site design is Zone and Sector Analysis. Decolonizing Permaculture - A Letter From Starhawk Please give generously to support a more resilient and regenerative world. Also, places that have been stewarded and kept by California indigenous basket-weavers, those are the places where carbon is probably its most healthy. Dont use the ethics and principles for excuses to avoid difficult conversationsuse them as tools for navigation. 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. [xi] Daniel Quinn, Ishmael (Bantam/Turner, 1992) and Beyond Civilization (Harmony, 1999). We need people to understand that. I thought it was fascinating, the idea that you pretty much kill everything so that nothing living goes inside your body as a preventative to making you sick. Remember the permaculture principles: Respond to feedback; Designer limits the yield; Problems are solutions; Mistakes are tools for learning. You serve on the National Organic Standard board. 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. 9/29/21 - Dirt Time! 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. 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. Life is not just an idea that lives in the head, or a feeling that lives in the heart. A-DAE: Agriculture, as were told in the American narrative, is the delineating line between civilization and the wild Indians. How should this principle inform the actions of ethical people who benefit from skin and gender privilege in general? Indigenous people, in general, dont use pesticides. In order to be successful farmers, we have to learn how to adjust to those environmental changes from the beings in that natural environment. Wouldnt you do just about anything for them? We cant sell everything. 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. Cherokee) earth-based (non-European) language, and the common uses at Earthaven Ecovillage. You need to become embraced in that system in order to create not only a healthy food system, but also healthy people, a healthy environment, and a happy mental state. In light of Earth Care, People Care and Future Care, how can this be a valuable concept? Before that, people werent considered agriculturalists. This article is meant as a primer on decolonization in a contemporary North American context, written specifically for permaculture designers, teachers, activists and gardeners. So saying something like Permaculture allows us to remember how to be indigenous to a place makes a metaphor of indigeneity and thereby erases the lived experience of real peoples who are actually indigenous to Native America and who still resist the campaigns of genocide and expropriation of land and resources that continue to this day.
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