Voices of Women in Permaculture

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Julia Pereira Dias I could start the article by suggesting that the corona virus was designed and spread by the toilet paper industry, but that would be a lame joke. In fact, I don’t want to talk about COVID-19 at all. I want to talk about something way more contagious. About fears. Let me clarify. I say fears. Not The Fear. The Fear is something else. One day, when I lived in the Amazon rainforest, I was walking on the ground (our houses are on stilts, since it’s all wetland), looking for a piece of lumber to chase away…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Gudrun Cartwright As always, I was fascinated by what happened in Davos this year. If not necessarily encouraged. Donald Trump criticised climate ’prophets of doom’, pronouncing the amazingness of the USA and promoting their fracked gas as a safe solution to energy security. On the same stage, Greta Thunberg gave all the adults in the room a good talking to about the rapid action needed to tackle climate and ecological breakdown to provide her generation with a future that they can thrive in. HRH The Prince of Wales told us that we have just ten years to get our…

Permaculture Womens Guild

My allotment, a small gateway into the living land, has been of prime importance to my connection to the ground of Permaculture. I have been signed up and working through my diploma for seven years now. At this point, it means weaving together a thousand notes in earnest. By Priya Logan A permaculture diploma must contain some land-based designs which make sense though this was not something I had a lot of confidence with when I started. At one point I saw growing, building and creating with envy and trepidation. However, I also wanted to get there. I was more…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Karryn Olson Often, after an in-depth permaculture learning experience, folks emerge with the desire to change their living or working situations so that they can make a bigger difference in the world. I’ve identified some common mistakes that can be detours or even obstacles on this path towards a right livelihood, and I’m sharing them in the hopes you can avoid them and instead, fast-track regenerative solutions. Mistake #1: Permavangelizing People are attracted to permaculture for different reasons. Some even “fall in love” with it. Have you? Why? Or why not? Here are some of the reasons I was super…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Becky Ellis The 2020s are going to be about struggle but if we do it right, it will be collective and (mostly) joyful Everyone who follows science and environmental news knows that predictions for the next few decades are grim and scary. Climate change, by most accounts is happening quicker and more unpredictably than scientists had anticipated. People are already suffering around the world as climate disasters and oppression increase. Humans are being presented with two dominant pathways: one egalitarian and co-operative and the other authoritarian and destructive. So far, if elections are an indication of the mood of the…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Julia Pereira Dias They say the best way to avoid your own tantrum is to count to ten. It’s never worked for me. This is how it goes: One. Twoo. Threeee. FOurrrr. Five. SIX. SEVEEEEN, EEEEIGHTA. Tantrum. If you’re like me, read on. Here we go: Partner gave you the ugly look early in the morning, toddler smeared jam on your pants, cat pooed in the plant pot, your idea got shot down in the meeting, your teenager called you the worst parent ever and you cannot even get the damn cheese pack open. Forget breathing. There’s not enough…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Julia Pereira Dias Few terms get the heat up as quickly as ‘fake’ these days. Everybody hates the fakes. Except here is the truth: We are all fakes. I’m not talking about those notorious cases, where fake bankers cheated hundreds of trusting savers out of their hard-earned money or fake doctors abused their patients. Their crimes are not being fakes. Their crimes are extortion and abuse. (And, just food for thought, if that fake doctor, instead of abusing you, had treated your medical condition successfully, what difference would it make that they are not ‘ real’? And is the…