12 Jul, 2015 | Permaculture Gatherings
Story by Ross Mars, June 2015
APC13 – Permaculture Expo
Historically permaculture enthusiasts have organised a Convergence, with this term better defining the gathering of like-minded minds. Most other organisations offer Conferences, and in the early years, permaculture did have a Conference which was often an open day for the general public. The Convergence was seen as for only Permaculture Design Course (PDC) graduates.
To save the confusion, APC13 in Perth, 2016, will be offering a Permaculture Expo. This is the one day “conference” where guest speakers will talk about different aspects of permaculture to a largely uninitiated public. We also intend to have hands-on workshops and displays. We anticipate some information booths of appropriate businesses and static displays of interesting projects and case studies.
PDC as entry point for Convergence
The Convergence is meant for those of us who have done a Permaculture Design Course and in light of the growing number of Accredited Permaculture Training graduates we need to include those who may have done at least Cert III.
The issue has always been “how do we police the requirement of a PDC as entry to the Convergence?” Do we need to put a tick on a box on your enrolment form and/or to write the name of your PDC teacher or the year you undertook the course?
There are many arguments to accept those people who may not have done a PDC but have been involved in the permaculture movement for many years and are quite knowledgeable about permaculture principles and practices. Then there is the issue about partners or children (some adults) who have been immersed in permaculture for some time. Is there any opportunity to RPL a PDC? There are no easy answers if we endeavour to be inclusive.
We would encourage anyone who is planning to come to APC13 next year and has not undertaken a PDC, to do so as soon as they can. Perth will be offering a two week PDC just prior to the Convergence, and it may be an opportunity for some of you to be involved – either as participants or as guest presenters.
12 Jul, 2015 | Permaculture Gatherings
Story by Ross Mars, June 2015
Air travel is significant greenhouse gas emitter
Air travel is recognised as one of the highest producers of carbon dioxide, and so contributes significantly to an individual’s greenhouse gas emissions. Most airlines offer customers a chance (and choice) to pay a little more to offset their travel. Unfortunately most people seem to ignore this offer and I also suspect the (small) cost increase in an airfare is really well below the true cost.
APC13 to consider donating fee for carbon offset projects
While it would be great if all permaculture practitioners automatically considered accepting the carbon offset addition to a fare, it may not be possible to do so for a large number of reasons. While all such schemes are registered by the Australian Government and the funds raised are given to legitimate organisations for tree planting and other endeavours, Perth is seriously considering donating part of a participant’s Convergence fee to local organisations to enable worthwhile projects to be funded.
You can go online and find any number of calculators to work out the carbon produced by travel from one city to another and to also give you some estimate of cost. We intend to pursue this and find ways in which we can reduce everyone’s carbon footprint to attend the Convergence in Perth October 2016. Won’t you join us?
11 Jul, 2015 | Permaculture Gatherings
Story by John Mckenzie, May 2015
Camping in a large paddock alongside the Penguin High school – an easy walk to the conference venue — a large building built with ‘Building the Education Revolution’ (BER) funding. It’s moveable walls pushed back to make a huge open space, large commercial kitchen offering up great food.
Saying hello to Bob Brown, catching up with Geoff Lawton, many tables and stalls in the foyer filled with magnificent information and conversations, coffee from East Timor being sold to raise funds for the rewrite of the Permatil Guidebook from East Timor, four magnificent keynote speakers, the AGM for PA, watching the dance and spoken word performance, dancing ourselves, about 250 of us in the Robyn Clayfield choreographed spiral dance, having breakfast and saying farewell to David Holmgren at the Reseed Centre as we departed… so much happened in those few short days.
The site and program was excellent for the purpose. All the facilities that we needed and what I loved was how it allowed so many opportunities for informal conversations. That was the icing on the cake.
Bob Brown inspired and challenged us. He affirmed Permaculure then urged us to do more. He was thanked with a standing ovation that seemed to go on for ever.
David Holmgren offered a range of challenging ideas:
- On advocacy and the permaculture voice… he cautioned about over-focussing on calling for governments to act. He cautioned us about shouting our message but at the same time being totally dependant on the corporate system. He asked two simple questions:
- What is our message? and
- How do we advocate? …then offered some answers.
That we be a mass movement shouting for ‘less’, that we don’t forget we are in a culture built on a mountain of debt, the permie message should be about living frugally, that we should be producers not consumers.
DIY & DIO (do it ourselves) — build your relationships, build your community, build your garden. He talked about how he and Su were intentionally low income earners.
He talked about Permaculture as well suited to being an idea not controlled by an organisation, he said permaculture can propagate and spread as other ideas, like a virus, thus bypassing regulatory processes of governments and bypassing the monetary economy.
He spoke about people being more concerned about loosing their money than extinctions of species. He proposed that the misplacement and corruptions of our thinking had been pushed by the emergence of corporations. He talked about the significance of the granting of person-hood rights to companies some 200 years ago.
Then finally in a riff on the permie mantra about turning the problem into the solution he said, be wary, these things are cyclical “the solution will become the problem”.
Nicole Foss maintained her ongoing message about the erratic and unstable economic system we live in. She enthused about local cooperatives, and local government as structures we should consider to put effort into to build and strengthen yield and useful return in local systems.
Stuart Hill cautioned us to keep our minds open, to keep a learners perspective. That there is so much we don’t know. He reminded us to care for ourselves, that we filter life through the lens of our personal experience, and often it’s our bruising personal experiences that influence our opinions and thinking. He invited us to be the best permies we can be, the best person we can be, to attend to self care to keep of capacity to emphasis and to keep learning.
Another standing ovation went to local identity Bruce French from Food Plants International. He’d decorated the hall with 100s of photographs of food plants from around the world, an incredible display. Then at 100mph he spoke about his work across many particularly Africa promoting local knowledge and local plants for their better nutrient density and their local availability. He freely distributed his database and it’s also on his website.
Permaculture Australia had it’s AGM and the primary question was asked – Is it worth continuing with PA? A great session of discussion about the shape and direction of PA including a strong affirmation by David Holmgren for PA. The session was well attended, new members joined PA and new subcommittees were formed and a 2015 Board was elected. The conference also provided an opportunity for an informal conversation between PA Directors and Geoff Lawton to build links between PRI and PA.
Permaculture Australia members in discussion at APC12
So many other great speakers, sessions and memorable moments, Permaculture elders were honoured with a gift of a Huon pine plaque, a dance and spoken word piece was offered by Hannah Cooper & Nick from Poatina, Phil Gall offered a full voice rendition of Bet Midler’s ‘The Rose’.
Some great films were screened, two I saw were:
- Deep Listening: a documentary about intentional communities in Australia. Great interviews with long term residents from some of Australia’s most established communities. View the trailer…
https://vimeo.com/76490760
- Tender Funeral: A documentary about a community project at Port Kembla providing services for the aged and their families at the end of life. To live and die in community with dignity.
I didn’t get to stay and do site tours so I cannot report on that, sorry.
Elected board members for Permaculture Australia at APC12, John Mckenzie is second from the left.
11 Jul, 2015 | Permaculture Gatherings
Story by Caroline Smith, May 2015
Tasmania holds a very special place in the permaculture community. It was here that the concept was developed in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It is also the home of the first Organic Festival, with such luminaries as Peter Cundall, David Stephen and Graeme Stevenson. 2015 happens to mark the 40th anniversary of the organic festival and also the 30th Anniversary of the first Permaculture Convergence.
Despite this rich history there has never been a Permaculture Convergence in Tasmania, so it was with great enthusiasm that North West Environment Centre (NWEC) in Penguin put their hand up to host the APC12 to bring permaculture home to its birthplace. Given the history, the organising committee decided that the theme of the convergence should be both to remember and honour the past achievements of permaculture as well as to continue the challenge to find ever more creative ways to transform the future for a sustainable world. With our planet now in such a dire state we were interested in a ‘big picture’ look at the place and role of permaculture. Our way of doing that was to place a strong focus on deepening our understanding and ability to work across the seven interconnected ‘petals’ (domains) of the permaculture flower.
To help people develop their presentations we suggested they respond these questions:
- Taking stock. Where is permaculture after 40 years and what are its continuing challenges?
- What are the critical future global and local challenges we are facing and how can permaculture provide solutions?
- Where is the cutting edge of permaculture thinking and action?
- What are areas where permaculture hasn’t worked and why?
- What can permaculture really achieve? Are we expecting too much of permaculture?
- What are some models of effective leadership in permaculture?
- Working at the edge with the mainstream – what are permaculture people doing and how can we do better?
- The permaculture flower represents permaculture as an integrated system – what is missing/not well developed?
- What would a permaculture design for a community look like?
- Permaculture and scale – what is the optimum?
- Where does permaculture fit in a consumer society?
- What is the history of permaculture design and how has it evolved over time?
The event attracted some 200 permies, of which more than 50 were presenters. We had participants of all ages and from every state and territory. There were Elders of the movement as well as first time participants. International folks too from Italy, France, Brazil, New Zealand, Taiwan – many of whom worked brilliantly as volunteers. (I hope I haven’t left anyone out).
One of the highlights of the event was the welcoming dinner, with Bob Brown as the speaker. What a wonderful sight to see two giants of the environment movement – Bob and David Holmgren, appearing together. David presented Bob with a copy of Permaculture Pioneers, signed by all the ‘pioneers’ who attended the convergence. Sadly, Bill Mollison was not able to attend because of ill health, but he was acknowledged and honoured in a moving closing ceremony facilitated by Robin Clayfield.
David Holmgren and Bob Brown at the welcome dinner at APC12, Penguin Tasmania, 2015
The history theme was beautifully taken up by Robyn Francis, who gave an amazing overview of the development of permaculture from the 1970s. What a story we have to tell! There was also an Honouring of the Elders — 18 of our Elders received a beautiful hand-made wooden plaque made from native huon pine and blackwood by a local artist. This highlight is set to continue at future APCs – we have many more Elders to honour. A the same time thee was a clear sense of a handing over – some of the older stalwarts of the movement are getting on a bit, so it is critical for the next generations to become the new leaders of the movement. To see that this is happening was one of the joys of the convergence.
Robyn Francis, at APC12, Penguin, Tasmania, 2015
Economics was a strong focus with the realisation that it is both part of the problem and part of the solution. We even had two young accountants presenting – probably the first time at an APC! We also had a very entertaining presentation from a member of the Victoria Police who engaged us with the story of her ‘conversion’ to permaculture.
An outstanding highlight was the presentation by Tasmanian local Bruce French, who for years has tirelessly documented an incredible number of food crops from around the world in a set of amazing photographs. Bruce was given a standing ovation for his presentation.
There were so many other highlights it’s impossible to record them all, but a great achievement was the re-constituting of Permaculture Australia with a new, young and energetic leadership team. Also Permaculture Tasmania was resurrected and we Tassies hope to have an annual gathering in our beautiful state.
Overall, the participants spent an energetic 3 days gathering, talking, arguing, enjoying each others’ company and forging the strong bonds that only come from face to face interactions.
Some of the stories, photos and other information can still be found on our APC12 website and APC12 Facebook page.
We look forward to continuing the ‘conversation’ at APC13 in WA in October 2016.
21 Dec, 2014 | Permaculture Gatherings
Story by Russ Grayson reporting from Penguin, Tasmania
To get to this place we found the narrow lane we had been told to look out for and carefully descended the steep, winding, gravel road that took us through the tall timber into the gully below. There, we encountered the Penguin Community Garden and the organising meeting of the APC12 (the twelfth Australasian Permaculture Convergence) crew.
Meeting the crew gave us confidence that they will pull off a great convergence here on Tasmania’s Bass Strait coast, in this small town that hugs the shoreline and where in the morning you hear birds call, goats bleat and chooks cluck.
In the forest — the mudbrick building at Penguin Community Garden — what a place for a planning meeting. This is the site for the Organic and Sustainable Living Festival.
A big picture focus
APC12 focuses on, to quote from the website, “…honouring the past achievements of permaculture and challenging us to find ever more creative ways to transform the future to a sustainable world.”
APC12 will ask where are we now in permaculture and what futures could open for us. These are big-picture things that permaculture practitioners would probably do well to think about so as to define an effective role for the design system as we enter the Anthropocene epoch — the Age of Humankind — a time when humanity has a dominatng influence on the earth.
Applications close — soon
The convergence is scheduled for March 10-12, 2015, with the following two days set aside for self-guided tours.
The preceding three days — March 7-9 — are for the Organic and Sustainable Living Festival, the Permaculture Expo (a day open to the public) and the Introduction to Permaculture Part 1. Then, on the 9th, Introduction to permaculture Part 2 and the Australasian Permaculture Convergence welcome dinner.
March is the month when the island state’s weather is at its calmest and mildest (I’m not trying to alarm you, but bring a warm pullover and a waterproof jacket — just in case).
Applications from presenters and workshop leaders are already coming in, said Caroline Smith, one of the organisers looking after the program (with Kerry Dawborn, Caroline was an editor of the book, Permaculture Pioneers). So, too, are registrations, said the person looking after that — and, no, you won’t get in by turning up on opening day, cash in hand.
Here are the important dates:
Applications to hold a workshop, presentation or other activity close: January 12
Registrations to attend APC12 close: January 31 — this is a prepaid event, tickets not available at the door
Homecoming
APC11 took place in the town of Turangi, on New Zealand’s North Island. APC10 was on Far North Queensland’s Atherton Tableland.
APC12 is a homecoming for the permaculture design system. Holding it here in Tasmania is significant because it was almost 40 years ago that the design system was born on this island (I still recall then, when living in Hobart, being handed a copy of the book, Permaculture One).
I think it comes from Carl Jung’s idea of the hero’s journey, the saying that you go away, and when you return to where you started you really see the place for the first time. So it will be for the permaculture design system this March in Penguin, when, after its long and continuing journey across our land and that of Aotearoa (New Zealand), the APC returns to this green island, where, all that time ago, permaculture made its modest start.
[button_link url=”http://www.apc12tas.com” target=”blank” style=”blue” title=”” class=”” id=”” onclick=””]Visit APC 12 website for more information[/button_link]
[button_link url=”http://www.apc12tas.com/program/call-for-presenters/” target=”blank” style=”blue” title=”” class=”” id=”” onclick=””]Visit APC 12 website to register to run an activity by 12 January[/button_link]
[button_link url=”https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/12th-australasian-permaculture-convergence-tickets-12393129183″ target=”blank” style=”blue” title=”” class=”” id=”” onclick=””]Visit APC 12 eventbrite site to register by 31 January
this is a prepaid event, no tickets are available at the door[/button_link]
You must be logged in to post a comment.