Onward to regeneration of healthy systems! An example of a novel ecosystem with forest garden polycultures and a diversity of plants and flowers. In order to better understand the concrete ways in which permaculture can be colonizing and generally problematic within the context of social justice, it is important to get the facts from a reliable source i.e. This framework would help us discern between solidarity projects and green-missionary projects, both here and abroad. Those stories are just as important as the practices or the l hoe that I pick up. Decolonizing Permaculture - A Letter From Starhawk Please give generously to support a more resilient and regenerative world. These are a few thoughts Im left with. Faculty and SOIL Co-Founder Lillian Jackson created a an inclusive safe space at the 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? Why would I want to put that in my body? 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. What good does it do to impose a forest garden somewhere if it isnt a good cultural fit, or if the design process isnt sufficiently inclusive? 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. Working at the permaculture edge and to provide information useful to people working on the ground. I maintain a permaculture design/build practice for residential and farm clients. And imagine what I could do now if I had a piece of my own land instead of 80 grand in student debt. 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. 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. I have work to do, wrote one permaculture teacher who is known to be especially abusive. 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. A-DAE: Agriculture, as were told in the American narrative, is the delineating line between civilization and the wild Indians. Contemporary agriculture doesnt have the same base. In this sense, there is broad overlap between movements for social justice and anti-racism. I highly recommend watching and/or reading this for anyone orienting towards regeneration in their work --> thank you Sarah Queblatin for so generously sharing Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue. The interactions between climate change, energy peak and economic contraction mean that the stakes are very high. I help to facilitate and teach Permaculture Design Certification courses (PDCs) here in Maine and sometimes in Boston, partnering with the Resilience Hub. How does indigenous farming develop relationships and nurture life? Im also here because I dream of a world free of the industrial nation-state. How should this principle inform the actions of ethical people who benefit from skin and gender privilege in general? The conversation about decolonizing agriculture is about examining the agricultural system and concepts that allow for those injustices to happen. 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. Recently the Pueblo of Jemez had a lawsuit against the forest service. Scientific inquiry and the scientific field is fairly young compared to the natural systems that were trying to mimic. 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. Another way to obtain all the basics of ecological design and the permaculture movement for those who can not make a full two-week course! 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. Nobody should feel like a slave. When people ask what do some young people need as an ally.this is one of the people I think of. And again, if somebody has enough money, they can play the buffoon and get away with it. How do we incorporate righting this egregious, unresolved, and ongoing historical crime into our culture jamming work? 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. ARTY: Ive always felt like one of the big problems with agriculture is that it needs more biology, it needs more life, not less. In Edible Forest Gardens, Dave Jacke talked about the generative or degenerative potential that disturbance plays in ecosystem dynamics. Id like to think we can err on the side of survival, however temporary it may be in the big picture. In an American or contemporary agricultural system, the way to access those things is through money or some form of money. Its also important to remember that no group of people is monolithic, whether we are talking about the permaculture movement, people of color, or Native American peoples. There are many reports that say carbon sequestration is happening in indigenous stewarded lands. I serve the larger Northeast regional network by being an active participant on the board of PINE, the Permaculture Institute of the Northeast. Isnt nature our best teacher? 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. Im here to learn how to be a good ancestor. A-dae Romero-Briones (Cochiti/Kiowa) is the Director of Programs: Agriculture and Food Systems for the First Nations Development Institute. 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 short on the inclusion of black and brown voices, on addressing systemic injustices, on acknowledging where most land-based wisdom has originated. There are a lot more specialized skills in the individual land plot scenario. Imagine that there are so many new and true connections out there, just waiting for you to step forward. 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. But the federal agency said, Theres a fence there, and it says no trespassing. The biggest difference in contemporary agriculture versus indigenous agriculture is the idea of money. Amakiasu has been an educator for over 30 years. 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. Permaculture allows us to design productive loops of synergies between our technologically built environments and the surrounding ecologies within which we live. If you identify as BIPOC and would like to receive a full or partial scholarship, please contact us at info@schoolofintegratedliving.org. In this article we will seek to answer the following questions: What is decolonization? My teacher pulled my paper because I had all the houses together like a pueblo, which I grew up in. 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. EarthShine also includes her Eco-Hood Design-and-Build Project along with Soulstice, which introduces young folks to careers theyve never heard of. Think of decolonization as another form of enlightened self-interest. 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. When we farm, were thinking about natural cycles, and how do we become more embedded into those natural systems. 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. ARTY: In the webinar you hosted as part of a First Nations Development Institute series on land stewardship, you said that agroecology is a non-indigenous term; its an interpretation of an indigenous way of farming, but not an interpretation by Indigenous People. What is my experience with this topic? How do we remember that we are all indigenous to this planet, our Earth Mother, our Gaia? For example, she [ii] In this article he interprets the racial homogeneity of the permaculture movement as a vulnerability. This is the work. She said, No, what I mean is you need a pitched roof and a picket fence in front of the house. To me, again, thats a fallacy. Micmac girl and her grandmother working on a herb spiral built during a permablitz in Micmac country near Presque Isle, Maine. By this definition, just about every landowner in the permaculture community is a settler/colonizer. Life is not just an idea that lives in the head, or a feeling that lives in the heart. 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 have to remove the empire from our heads before we can remove the empire from any land base. 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. 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.. I dont have time to deal with people criticizing me. But we still need to learn how to adopt those ideals in our human relationships. More information about our Privacy Policy can be found here. We dont kill the natural systems in order to ensure that we survive, which is what food safety does. [v] Ideally this process should be done without strings attached. This workshop has five two-hour sessions. Special thanks to my dear friend Kiarna Boyd for holding me accountable to a high standard and compassionately aiding my evolution in this area. When we talk about decolonizing regenerative agriculture, we are looking at that initial definition. Decolonization doesnt have a synonym.. 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 It seems the observation of the tension in considering these questions of land ownership/stewardship in light of this historical and contemporary inheritance is important. 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. The World Needs an Anti-Harassment Movement: So Does Permaculture. To find out more. Perhaps it is the willingness to play the superior that is the root of the problem? A-DAE: Absolutely. 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. For this program, there will be no barriers to entry for people who identify as BIPOC. [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. Indigenous communities embrace the environments that were in. Nothing is separate from the other. That was my choice and I dont regret it, but the burden of those loans is crippling. I dont have any firm answers, but I know that asking these difficult questions causes an uneasy and unsettling feeling. You need to adjust to them. 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. 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. 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. Clearly were doing important work with permaculture, so I want to separate the baby from the bathwater. A-dae was interviewed by Arty Mangan, Director of the Bioneers Restorative Food Systems Program. . The Caldera in the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico is surrounded by a fence; its in a National Preserve. Wikipedia; Wikipedias Plastic shaman entry; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_shaman, FreeFactFinder; FreeFactFinders Pretindian entry; http://freefactfinder.com/definition/Pretindian.html. This article is meant as a primer on decolonization in a contemporary North American context, written specifically for permaculture designers, teachers, activists and gardeners. Permaculture certainly appears to have been assembled from toolkits from all over the world and throughout history. I think we learn that through our relationships with other humans that not everything is meant to be sold. We seek to learn from it, adapt with it, and collaborate, rather than to control, manipulate, and abuse it. 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 Its a tall order, but I hope that you will embrace the challenge. 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. Then come back and try again. Marina Nobre: Reforestation is more than plantingtrees. 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. And when we publicly use ceremonies or songs from other cultures, we must be absolutely clear exactly how we got permission to use those ceremonies or songs. As a design process, permaculture can be used to design both outer and inner landscapes, using observation as the preeminent tool for understanding. ARTY: What are the differences between an indigenous perspective of agriculture and a non-indigenous perspective? The bread and butter of the permaculture movement is the PDC, or permaculture design course. We should listen with humility when we are challenged over our privilege or unexamined racism. 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. Some open questions I still have revolve around issues of permaculture and its relationship to colonization. Sometimes its public benefit; sometimes its through actual cash economy transactions. My response to that? Decolonization is also about sovereignty. I was like: What is this? And we dont want you to feel bad about it. A-DAE: Invite them to the table. I studied food safety law when I got my LLM [Master of Laws Degree]. In a literal and legal sense, decolonization brings about the repatriation of Indigenous land and life.[iv] It is important to note here that Native American peoples are not mythical relics of the precolonial or pre-Columbian Americas. Collective resources require collective and community management. I dont understand the other side. To what extent is permaculture practiced as a form of green missionary work throughout the world? My own history is of extreme poverty, marginalization, and struggle. She served as garden educator and camp director at the Truly Living Well Center for Urban Agriculture for eight years. Something to think about. 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. Friends are loyal, honest, and sincere. 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. This machine is ecocidal because it destroys mountaintops and water wells with fracking and coal mining. Amakiasu has been an educator for over 30 years. If resource extraction or industrial infrastructure needs to happen, none of us are immune to being displaced. She is now focusing on her writing and on EarthShine, a business that exposes children and teens to the wonders of the natural world. 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. We need people to understand that. Arent these all of the same qualities we want for our permaculture community at large? Because (and this is especially true when dealing with the permaculture community) I have consistently locked horns with the beasts enumerated above. People with more privilege have more control over their own lives and, as such, have better opportunities to manifest what they see as their true purpose, without the burdens (and time consumption) associated with struggling to survive on a daily basis. Stories are from readers, activists, designers, teachers, and community organisers across America and around the world to reveal the newest discoveries in ecological systems. 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. Decolonization matters because it is the right thing to do in a moral sense. I dont tell you all of this to make you feel bad or to pity me. As Published in issue #98 of Permaculture Design Magazine, November 2015. Hey everyone! Tuition includes instruction and lifetime access to the class recordings. 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. And I am asking you to check that luggage at the door, to open your heart and mind to the possibility that these actions will benefit not just you as an individual, but also the global community, in ways that avoiding change and hoarding your privilege wont. We have really strong seeds. 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. Lee Warren Full disclosure: I did not buy this one, or a photograph thereof, from an indigenous person. Decolonization is not a swappable term for other things we want to do to improve our societies and schools. Really, what does that mean? In this important book, Linda Tuhiwai Smith meets a formidable challenge. EarthShine also includes her Eco-Hood Design-and-Build Project along with Soulstice, which introduces young folks to careers theyve never heard of. Though there isnt enough space to properly tackle the subject in this article, it still warrants a brief mention here. Good luck! 4/7/21 - Decolonizing Permaculture. This article was originally printed in Permaculture Design Magazine (formerly Permaculture Activist) issue #98, Winter 2015. And so when somebody with money, land, and privilege seems eager to help the oppressed, I will bring it up. We all have indigenous ancestors, and they were once colonized too. This lack of discernment is a blind spot. Decolonizing PermacultureExploring the Permaculture Principles through an Equity LensSaturdays, May 22 - June 1911am - 1pm Eastern TimeOnlinehttps://www.scho. 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. During events like the regional Convergence, we might make an offering at the beginning to acknowledge who the indigenous peoples are who live/d on the land we are now occupying. Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website. With individualized, commodified resources, the whole dynamic of society changes. Because some people have more financial means than others, we have created a sliding scale fee system to accommodate a range of economic realities. People with more privilege than me have blown me off, forgotten to pay me, plagiarized my work, used my name to sell a PDC without hiring me to teach it, and even, as in the case with RealFarmacy and their smarmy Grow Food, Not Lawns Facebook page, tried to steal my trademark through the US Patent & Trademark Office. 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. Oct 25, 2021 -- Delaware Teachers Institute learn about Decolonizing Permaculture Share Watch on Since then, we've found this message from 10+ Indigenous leaders and organizations stating that regenerative agriculture and permaculture offer narrow solutions to the climate crisis, when compared with indigenous values.