Voices of Women in Permaculture

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Dido Dunlop (part of a talk at our New Zealand Permaculture gathering 2015, exploring how we can apply Nature’s ecosystems model to human relationships, to create a resilient way to live; it’s a contribution to Social Permaculture) What do we do with emotions that feel bad? How do we turn our miseries into rich nourishing resources, into love and constructive action? When we try to throw things out that smell bad, they don’t go away. That applies to emotions as much as food scraps and poo. We put our ‘waste’ in the compost heap so as not to waste…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Gudrun Cartwright Having recently had a birthday that makes me closer to 50 than to 40, I am, if we’re honest well into middle age. The response to this thought has been that I am being silly, I am still young. Even though, technically, it isn’t true. So, this got me to thinking, why are we so reluctant to face getting older? To accepting we are in the middle of our lives when we actually are? To embrace the responsibility and opportunity of being the grownups? After all, this is what our teenage selves wanted more than anything. It seems…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Gudrun Cartwright I was born in 1972. This means, that by any stretch of the imagination, I am halfway through my life now. Depending on which grandparents you look at, it could be just there, or significantly over! Having just had my 46th birthday, I am in reflective mood. Which is not just because of my age — although I am not quite sure how I got here this quickly! I was born in a significant year, although most people wouldn’t recognise it as such. 1972 saw the first Earth Rise picture and the publication of the Limits to Growth for…

Permaculture Womens Guild

Using the land and our tangible environments as the palette of living changes everything. Life is not just an idea that lives in the head, or a feeling that lives in the heart. Here we have embodied reality, or at least what we call reality at any point in our individual or collective experience. By Maria Zayas As a newbie to permaculture, and an old hand at personal growth, the matter of decolonizing has really piqued my interest. It is easy for me to picture the nature of the colonization process in our physical world: people coopting land and resources,…

Permaculture Womens Guild

A manifesto for an internationalist permaculture movement By Becky Ellis Migration, the movement of people over landscapes, is, arguably, one of the defining characteristics of our species. Humans have moved over landscapes in search of food and other resources since before we were a species. And yet in our deeply capitalist society, the movement of most humans is severely restricted and criminalized. Recently, there has been an increase in racist xenophobia throughout Europe, Canada, Australia, and the United States including the rise of far-right hate groups, anti-immigrant nationalist political parties, and governments who criminalize migrants. In the United States, Trump…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Gudrun Cartwright Reasons to be cheerful In my life, I find it so easy to dwell on what’s wrong. To angst over the small things. But if I actually stop and reflect on what is good about life, there’s a lot to be thankful for. So, following up my ‘reasons to be fearful’ post, I want to rebalance the energy by turning my attention to why I often feel positive and optimistic. These may not all apply to you, but would love to hear if you have other thoughts to add. 1. I’m here This may sound trite, but…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Gudrun Cartwright At the weekend I was out cycling in the New Forest. It was a beautiful day and all was well with my world. As I relaxed into the ride, I realised that I often seem to be fearful and rarely (if ever) my fears are realised. On this particular day I was fearful of passing other cyclists on narrow paths. Cars driving too close to me. Going too fast down hills. Struggling to get back up the hills. Skidding on gravel and falling off. Getting stuck in a cattle grid. Being slow. So many things intruded on…