This workshop has five two-hour sessions. 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. Is it possible that we can subvert patterns of abuse and oppression by forming honest, lifelong friendships across the divides? There are stark differences between agricultural systems in indigenous communities and agricultural systems in contemporary communities. Jesse Watson is a permaculture designer, teacher and builder living and working in Midcoast Maine, occupied Penobscot territory. Decolonizing Permaculture Whitewashed Hope: A Message from Indigenous Leaders and Organizations on Regenerative Agriculture and Permaculture "Whitewashed Hope" is an open-source document intended for sharing. 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. 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. When people ask what do some young people need as an ally.this is one of the people I think of. Celebrating some of the best moments of the Bioneers conference through the last three decades. 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. We would do well to reflect on our role as ecosystem designers and designers of ecological culture, and to think of ourselves in our design and organizing work as culture jammers.[i] What then, are some responsibilities here (vis a vis EarthCare, PeopleCare, FutureCare)? Full Profile Page. With individualized, commodified resources, the whole dynamic of society changes. Then they came for meand there was no one left to speak for me. More information about our Privacy Policy can be found here. As Moore (2015) points out, "all life rebels against the value/monoculture nexus of modernity, from farm to . Shes been living in rural, land-based community since 1995 and at Earthaven Ecovillage since 2000. We understand that BIPOC experience more financial and institutional barriers to participation, and this is one way we are able to create more access. 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. ARTY: What are the differences between an indigenous perspective of agriculture and a non-indigenous perspective? ARTY: When Europeans came to North America they erected fences. 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. When we write about decolonization, we are not offering it as a metaphor; it is not an approximation of other experiences of oppression. 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 order to be successful farmers, we have to learn how to adjust to those environmental changes from the beings in that natural environment. 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. The list below offers tangible suggestions for how to cultivate real friendships and alliances. She served as garden educator and camp director at the Truly Living Well Center for Urban Agriculture for eight years. Think of decolonization as another form of enlightened self-interest. We offer partial scholarships (50% off) to black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) who otherwise would not be able to afford to attend. Its a tall order, but I hope that you will embrace the challenge. Some open questions I still have revolve around issues of permaculture and its relationship to colonization. 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. Native people continue to live and many continue to tend their council fires, which have been maintained for hundreds of continuous years. In the 1930s and again in the 60s, The National Resource Conservation Service came in and put in elk and deer-proof fences. If you identify as BIPOC and would like to receive a full or partial scholarship, please contact us at info@schoolofintegratedliving.org. We cant sell everything. permaculture.co.uk/articles . If SOIL cancels this class for any reason whatsoever, you would receive a 100% refund. : Episode 95 Geneen Marie Haugen. 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 These behaviors discredit the permaculture movement at large, and unless we can overcome them, our ultimate goal of sharing a true and authentic sustainability will remain far out of reach. But its a fallacy to think that we can imitate a system that has been in existence for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years. Remember the permaculture principles: Respond to feedback; Designer limits the yield; Problems are solutions; Mistakes are tools for learning. Each session runs from 11 am to 1 pm on these days: This is an introductory level workshop. How does indigenous farming develop relationships and nurture life? 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. Tyson Sampson I googled it and found a powerful, provocative body of work centered around a 2012 essay by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang. 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 was the system that separated and allowed for a lot of injustice that occurred with land theft, slavery and indentured servitude. Id like to think we can err on the side of survival, however temporary it may be in the big picture. My lineage of permaculture teachers includes Charles & Julia Yelton and Lisa Fernandes of the Resilience Hub. someone with experience in conveying and working with these kinds of topics. There are a lot of transactions that limit the access that a person has to food. Indigenous People need room to tell those stories. 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. How do we remember that we are all indigenous to this planet, our Earth Mother, our Gaia? We should listen with humility when we are challenged over our privilege or unexamined racism. It requires different skill sets when youre managing collective resources versus individualized land plots. This idea of exploitation puts us in the position that we have to manage everything with the right to commodify things that should never be commodified. How do we incorporate righting this egregious, unresolved, and ongoing historical crime into our culture jamming work? When that happens, people are disconnected from society and from the collective resources that go into making food. In that sense, I think there is some awareness that there needs to be more inclusion of non-white people in the organic community. Saturdays, May 22 - June 19 11am - 1pm EST Online. Judge me if you must, but I did what I had to do to survive. 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. Perhaps it is the willingness to play the superior that is the root of the problem? There are a lot more specialized skills in the individual land plot scenario. In the sense of some kinds of strict land management and home economics, its kind of true. When youre trying to move an entire community of white people and as a non-white person, it is really, really hard and tiring. If resource extraction or industrial infrastructure needs to happen, none of us are immune to being displaced. [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. Rather than being burdened with that task, the idea that we respect the unknown helps people deal with it. Is it this archetypal need to be the Hero that drives oppressive, patriarchal behaviors? 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. We need people to understand that. 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. Recruitment is disingenuous. When we talk about decolonizing regenerative agriculture, we are looking at that initial definition. I tell you to make the point that not everybody has access to the jobs, schools, homes, families, land, and respect that is a given in many of your lives. We need to be aware of white fragility if we start feeling defensive during racially charged conversations. 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. We take the cues from the natural systems, whether that be deer, whether that be insects, whether it be water shortages. A-DAE: Thats a loaded question because the whole idea of agriculture puts a contemporary spin on the conversation. They need that whole spectrum, the full body, the full room and the time to tell those stories along with their practices, which currently is hard to find in any of these multiple disciplines, whether it be agroecology, permaculture, or traditional ecological knowledge. As a design process, permaculture can be used to design both outer and inner landscapes, using observation as the preeminent tool for understanding. Hey everyone! We seek to learn from it, adapt with it, and collaborate, rather than to control, manipulate, and abuse it. I help to facilitate and teach Permaculture Design Certification courses (PDCs) here in Maine and sometimes in Boston, partnering with the Resilience Hub. We dont kill the natural systems in order to ensure that we survive, which is what food safety does. 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. She served as garden educator and camp director at the Truly Living Well Center for Urban Agriculture for eight years. colonizer). To me, again, thats a fallacy. To find out more. 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. The idea of the picket fence fascinated me. Questions of what happens to present settler peoples is secondary to the act of returning Native land to Native peoples. Think of it as regenerative design that heals and repairs ecosystems while at the same time producing beneficial yields. Lillian Jackson created a an inclusive safe space at the Have you been able to provide some indigenous perspective to that process? No portion of the original content on this website may be reproduced, in any language, without express written consent. Dont use the ethics and principles for excuses to avoid difficult conversationsuse them as tools for navigation. The Earth is not actually dying. resilience.org/stories/2016-02-19/decolonizing permaculture. I became aware of the topic of decolonization a year ago. Photo by AB Brand As Published in issue #98 of Permaculture Design Magazine, November 2015 Indigenous people, in general, dont use pesticides. On the surface, permaculture is often about designing eco-groovy, perennially edible landscapes, gardens and farms. You need to adjust to them. Many of them continue to resist the process of settler colonization and assimilation. kcet.org/shows/tending-nature/the indigenous science of permaculture. Learning Adventures with Earthaven Ecovillage, Saturdays, May 22 June 19 11am 1pm Eastern Time. We have to embrace the bacteria and the microbiome that make our community because thats the only way our bodies adjust to our environment. My teacher pulled my paper because I had all the houses together like a pueblo, which I grew up in. He helps facilitate PDCs with Lisa Fernandes of The Resilience Hub. To me its weird because in indigenous epistemologies people are a part of the environment, and its the same with the microbiome. Decolonizing PermacultureExploring the Permaculture Principles through an Equity LensSaturdays, May 22 - June 1911am - 1pm Eastern TimeOnlinehttps://www.scho. Self-righteousness is certainly not a principle of permaculture, and yet we divide ourselves so easily, bickering over the details and competing for resources. Full Profile Page. Agriculture is usually the delineating line where people talk about civilization and non-civilization or hunter-gatherers and yeoman farmers. Permaculture gives us the ability to design resilient homesteads, farms, villages, towns and economies so that we have the ability to weather the storms that come our way, whether they are economic or ecological in nature. 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. 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. We need to be relevant. 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. That is so hard for me to understand. Our award-winning radio and podcast series highlighting diverse voices of grassroots leaders. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *NameNEWSLETTER SIGNUP. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. One of the design methods used in permaculture that takes place early on in a site design is Zone and Sector Analysis. 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? But the federal agency said, Theres a fence there, and it says no trespassing. 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. In the latest instalment of PP I introduce the topic of decolonizing permaculture. Friendships are the building blocks of community. They honor the wisdom of our ancestors to stimulate the health of humans and the planet, and their innovative economic model ensures economic stimulation for even the smallest farmers. Commitment to Decolonizing Permaculture . For me, it is a process of learning how I passively benefit from my racial and gender privilege. Arty Mangan Food and FarmingIndigeneity Article. 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. 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. Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website. My response to that? This framework would help us discern between solidarity projects and green-missionary projects, both here and abroad. If its under your house and the machine needs it, it cares not who you are. She is now focusing on her writing and on EarthShine, a business that exposes children and teens to the wonders of the natural world. 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. However, it seems to me that there are ripples of injustice coursing through the permaculture community, manifesting as a pattern of landowners and/or self-proclaimed leaders doing things that hurt, offend, oppress, and devalue others. 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. It needs to rip through the Permaculture Community worldwide. Imagine that there are so many new and true connections out there, just waiting for you to step forward. Before that, people werent considered agriculturalists. An example of a novel ecosystem with forest garden polycultures and a diversity of plants and flowers. Why should permaculture designers care? The course will address the first four permaculture principles through the framework of African land-based wisdom. In an American or contemporary agricultural system, the way to access those things is through money or some form of money. But the real remedy is more diverse above-and-below ground living systems. 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. Indigenous people are stewarding healthy systems. So, that means, I need to plant more. Were adjusting to our environment rather than trying to keep everything out. Its a very broad term. In this sense, there is broad overlap between movements for social justice and anti-racism. 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. Nobody should feel like a slave. I know that sounds trite and cliche, but thats because its a truism. They identify any person who owns land in a place to which they are not native as a settler (a.k.a. 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. Producers That Are Decolonizing Agriculture. 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. . A-DAE: Yes. 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. You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings. Through this process of the design and management of ecosystems, we can regenerate ecological health by weaving patterns of beneficial relationships in ecosystems. But because we have the extra barrier of food access through money, food no longer is that indicator. 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.