Voices of Women in Permaculture

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Julia Pereira Dias Aren’t we the selfless ones? “My husband could save so much time, if only he’d listen to me,” sighs Diane. She used to do what most of us do when the other fails to comply: she repeated her instructions. Maybe, somehow, he overheard her casually mentioning 348 times that if he cut all the veggies first he could save at least four minutes every time he prepared a meal? Or maybe he did not. Instead of happily taking up Diane’s advice and changing the way he operates in the kitchen, he firmly invited Diane to leave.…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Dido Dunlop Our hearts and outer world grow hearty together To restore Mother Nature, and grow tomatoes in our cities, we must redesign our inner gardens. New ways will only hold strong if we regenerate our inner culture too. What are our inner tomatoes? In meditation we cultivate all sorts of interesting plants in mind and heart. Kindness, love for life, resilience, humour, steadiness through trouble. Mother Nature’s Elements I’m a meditation teacher and climate activist. I grew up in the New Zealand bush. I began meditating to find the ‘bush’ feeling in the city. My first teacher taught us to…

Permaculture Womens Guild

Learning a new way of living from an elder Iranian farmer By Kali Morgan Of late, I have been consumed by the stories of strong, bold, warrior-spirited women of long ago, like Queen Tomyris of the Massagetae of Central Asia (who may or may not have killed Cyrus) and the more well-known Judith of ancient Israel (who decapitated Holofernes). Imagery such as the statue pictured above, in which the mother-protector holds a bowl of wine in one hand and a sword in the other, are powerful symbols. These women, in their passionate fight against injustice and oppression, have influenced me as…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Julia Pereira Dias Most of us are primarily concerned with the question: what can I get? That question is futile. You can have it all. The real question is: what are you willing to receive? When I ask people that question I usually get some funny looks. “Why, of course, I’m happy to receive. After all, I’m asking for it! Who wouldn’t want to receive a check over $500,000 or a whole pack of orange-flavored chocolate?” Think again. How do you react when someone praises your work? Do you take it in with a smile, say thank you and…

Permaculture Womens Guild

By Dido Dunlop In times like now, our emotional strength and resilience can feel drained away. It can seem like our inner resources are not enough. Yet here we are, still alive. I Am Alive When the going gets tough, I meditate on this. I remind myself that I’m still alive. It’s the most precious and essential thing. Now, overtaken by pandemic, we’re constantly reminded that we or our loved ones might quite suddenly not be alive. We can get so caught up in worries about how to manage, we forget to stop, and notice that in this present moment, we…

Permaculture Womens Guild

When I enrolled in a Permaculture Design Course in 2013, my youngest child was only three months old, and we had only recently landed in Scotland. I had spent most of my adult life away from Scotland…

Permaculture Womens Guild

Notas desde La Pampa, Argentina By Rosaura Ruiz Hace más de un año, casi en otra vida, me encontraba ante un viejo Atlas recuperado de la calle, abierto por la página que decía “América do Sul”. Estaba planeando a grandes rasgos el itinerario de mi inminente viaje por Latinoamérica. Trataba de imaginar los relieves y la vegetación, resistiéndome a la mentira de la bidimensionalidad del papel y los tonos de ocre, marrón y verde. Me generaba curiosidad esa vasta región central de Argentina llamada La Pampa. El nombre tenía algo de exótico para mí. Pero preguntando a mis amigos argentinos…