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"Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope. We can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. We need to keep the fossil fuels in the ground, and we need to focus on equity. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, maybe we should change the system itself."
Greta Thunberg
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"Permaculture is a Revolution disguised as gardening"
--Bill Mollison
This summer we hosted primary school teachers, Active Hopers, permaculture learners from Ireland and far beyond, transformative holistic educators, and climate camp activists at Carraig Dúlra. At all these events and courses there was a tangible sense of us all facing the challenges of our times in new ways. There was also a sharing of how many groups are actively trying to respond in local actions.
The European Day of Sustainable Communities is this month, so as part of this season's harvest we'd like to ask you to:
Register any gathering large or small that celebrates sustainable community action in September for the European Day of Sustainable Communities.
The focus is on 21st September 2019, but your event(s) can take place any time in September and can be a protest or on-going community project you want to highlight. It is an umbrella for any celebration of local communities taking action for a zero-carbon, regenerative and inclusive Europe. It is a way to map what is going on in communities on the ground all over Ireland and helps make more visible the response of communities across Europe to each other and to policy makers.
Its very easy to register!
Please share with anyone you know is making a difference in their local community's journey to sustainable regenerative living.
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“[T]he more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into a dialogue with them. This person does not consider himself or herself the proprietor of history or of all people, or the liberator of the oppressed; but he or she does commit himself or herself, within history, to fight at their side.”
-- Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
New for next year's Permaculture Certificate Course at Carraig Dúlra (PDC 2020): A radical approach!
We had many rich discussions during the PDC this summer, and one question that kept coming up was, "are we replicating the system we wish to change? or "are we radical enough?"
Perhaps such reflections are easier after 6 PDCs as we've gained confidence in our methodologies, our teaching team, coordinator and support team, and the site's ability to absorb up to 30 people camping and co-creating a fully immersive learning community. So at first we wondered, why shake things up? The fires that burn in Siberia, and the Amazon and our connections to climate refugees answered those doubts. We feel we have to keep moving and questioning what we do.
PDC 2020 will be a new model, keeping a framework and pattern to start, we want to co-create it with participants, new partners and tutors.
Inclusion
We have always had higher paying places subsiding lower paying ones and a social welfare grant available so the lowest fee is €150, and every year we use a gift economy model to barter some places for needed skills or because someone might not have access to social welfare for example living in Direct Provision. But we want to reach out further.
How do we reach out further? We will be using the Sustainable Development Goals principles, leaving no one behind and reaching those farthest behind first. What will that look like?
Nature connection
We spend a lot of our time outdoors and visit amazing woods, gardens and set up sit spots and time for slowing down. As people are camping, there is more chance to fill the senses with nature. However, how can we open ourselves to deeper connection and relationship with nature? How might we create a transformative space for this?
People care
We have always tried to find ways to invite the learning community to take on the collective responsibility to look after themselves and each other in practical and compassionate ways. We share the cooking, fire keeping, washing etc in teams and bond over campfires, practical fun sessions and long mealtimes. We wonder about the need for space to process emotions and learn skills like restorative justice or non-violent communication or active hope sessions to enhance the communal experience but also to have practices to bring back into communities that have many challenges.
Power structures
Our ethos is aligned with the thinking of Paulo Friere quoted above, as he asked whose agenda is the education we provide? We try to have a diverse range of tutors with different styles and view points, and we mix head (left & right brain styles), heart, gut and hand intelligences into our activities. We have a course design team and make space for emerging voices of new permaculture educators to join that team. We ask learners to complete a training needs survey before the course and we have a mid-course review to hear from our learner voices and make design tweaks, and a course evaluation cafe at the end of the course. We incorporate feedback and ideas into each new design. We are wondering, what if learners were more involved in advance of coming on site - extending the opportunities to integrate the learning at a deeper level and prime the pump for the two weeks together?
We have set the provisional dates for 2020 as 16th-30th July and are thinking of having a booking cut of date as May 1st to allow us to draw in the group with some online meet up and site visit set up weekends.
To begin to gather in folk to explore these questions, we want to seek:
from prospective partners, sponsors, learners and tutors to see what will emerge as we head towards winter. More will coming in the Spring.
You can also book your place on the 2020 PDC now.
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Hope to see you on the land,
Mike & Suzie and the Carraig Dúlra Team made up of tutors, and volunteers, and collaboration partners!
Our children and family events are now supported or run by
Marc Barker and his network of forest school colleagues.
Check out his website Nature Connect Ireland
BOX SCHEME SUCCESSION
We now pass our excess produce to our Carraig mountain neighbouring young farmers, Davi and Hazel, who have set up a fantastic community supported agriculture project.
Please give them your support and enjoy their top notch produce.
Other groups are making more use of Carraig Dúlra to camp and learn together outdoors or in the cob barn. Get in touch if you want to organise an event.
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