[Scpg] Indigenous Permaculture Convergence August 13-15 in Colorado

[LBUZZELL at aol.com]

Please see the great principles  below...
http://woodbinecenter.org/indigenouspermaculture
Indigenous  Permaculture: An operational framework

 
 
 
 
Woodbine Ecology Center was created to address a basic question: How do we  
learn to live together in this place? It doesn't take very protracted  
observation to figure out that, as a society, we have focused much of our energy 
 in teaching our children how to fear each other and how to exploit the 
natural  world. The combined, and related, social and ecological crisis that we 
are  facing is simply the product of that design. If we are to find new 
ways to be  with each other and with the natural world, then it makes a lot of 
sense to  start looking at how people and cultures have lived, and continue 
to live, in  this place since time immemorial. To truly re-create 
sustainable communities, we  must look at the sustainable communities that were here 
before us as well as the  reasons and process through which many of those 
communities have been severely  damaged or outrightly destroyed. 
For us, indigenous peoples and cultures and their values that many still  
hold, are not only a historical curiosity but a living part of our everyday  
work. Indigenous peoples have been an active part of the formation and 
operation  of Woodbine since day one. Woodbine has also actively included people 
whose  ancestry and cultural upbringing originates from other lands. The 
Woodbine  community hails from many different places. We are indigenous 
peoples,  descendants of slaves, indentured servants, gentry, refugees, and 
voluntary  immigrants. Regardless of how we, or our ancestors, came to this place, 
we find  ourselves—people of all colors and nations—here to stay. This is 
now our home  and the home of our children and great-great grandchildren. 
What brings us  together is our common vision of a better place for our 
children and future  generations, our desire to build a world where we are, again, 
a part of the  natural world. 
One of the prisms through which Woodbine strives to address this vision, is 
 permaculture. As the “cutting edge of a 10,000 year old idea” 
permaculture  offers one of the most exciting possibilities for re-learning how to 
become  native to our places and how to integrate traditional ecological 
knowledge with  modern science. 
At Woodbine we explicitly use the term indigenous permaculture to define 
and  describe our practice and application of permaculture. We are neither the 
first,  nor the only, to use this term and in our research and interactions 
with others  who practice indigenous permaculture we have found that there 
is no clear,  single definition of the term. Given that permaculture itself 
often defies a  single definition, this should not be very surprising. 
However, we believe that  words have meaning, that they are sacred and that when 
we use them we give birth  to our reality. As such, we provide here a brief 
synopsis of our own, constantly  evolving, understanding of indigenous 
permaculture and what it means to us. This  is not meant to be an authoritative 
or exclusive definition of the term. Rather,  we humbly offer our own 
framework to the larger indigenous and permaculture  communities, hoping that it 
can foster some greater discussion, clarity, and  understanding of our 
practices. 
Our understanding of indigenous permaculture revolves around five basic  
principles: 
    1.  The recollection and recognition of, and respect for, indigenous  
contributions.
For us this means more than giving lip service to  generic indigenous 
contributions. We strive for active, respectful and  reciprocal contact and 
collaboration with indigenous communities in our places  and work to learn about 
traditional ways of being, always careful to not  engage, consciously and 
unconsciously, in cultural appropriation. We recognize  and cultivate 
leadership of indigenous peoples in their communities as well as  our diverse 
organizations. We commit to share our own knowledge and to give  back to 
indigenous communities.  
    2.  Traditional Ecological Knowledge has always been specific to a 
place  and culture.
All indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge  systems have been 
specific to a place and have been transmitted across  generations through 
cultural mechanisms, including storytelling and ceremonies  which are specific to 
the places they originated from. While it is useful to  understand some of 
the general principles common to most systems of indigenous  knowledge, it is 
also important to develop a strong understanding of and  appreciation of 
the specific cultures within which these systems come alive.  
    3.  Decolonization of our minds, our language, our work, and our  
communities.
We live in a colonial society and are the products of  historical colonial 
processes. This is not simply something that occurred in  the past and we 
can now all happily move on with our lives. These processes  are very much 
alive today and indigenous communities continue to be under  direct and 
indirect attack. Much of the mining of fossil fuels as well as of  the rare metals 
such as lithium and neodymium which are supposed to fuel the  new green 
revolution takes place in indigenous territories. In order to come  together as 
indigenous and non-indigenous people and build a better world for  the next 
seven generations, we must recognize this history and commit to  
transforming its legacy. For us, this means an explicit commitment to stand  with 
communities under attack, and to work with them to defend and restore  their 
culture and traditions, as well as help them assess and incorporate new  
technologies and skills in a culturally appropriate way. It also requires a  
commitment to become aware of our full history and decolonize our language,  our 
work, our processes and to challenge eurocentrism and white privilege in  our 
organizations, communities, and permaculture at large.  
    4.  Being and becoming native to this place. 
Permaculturists are  fond of saying that we are all indigenous, or that we 
all come from indigenous  roots, but the reality is that being native to a 
place does not happen  overnight. To quote Luther Standing Bear, “[m]en must 
be born and reborn to  belong. Their bodies must be formed of the dust of 
their forefathers' bones.”  We recognize that there are significant 
differences between being native by  having been raised in a culture and community 
that is part of this place since  time immemorial, and striving to become 
native by learning how to live in a  place as part of it. We also recognize that 
permaculture and its call for  “protracted and thoughtful observation” 
offers an excellent set of tools and  practices that we can use in our journey 
to become truly native to our places.   
    5.  Eco-cultural restoration. 
The preservation and restoration of  natural places requires the 
preservation and restoration of the cultures that  have lived in those places since 
time immemorial. It is not accidental that  some of the places in the world 
where bio-diversity is the most threatened are  also places where indigenous 
languages are endangered. We are also working  towards the reintegration of  
humans and nature by challenging many of  the distinctions so prevalent in th
e West, between the domesticated and the  wild. This is where we disagree 
with one of the permaculture aphorisms, “stay  out of the bush, it is already 
in good order.” Indigenous cultures have often  not only lived in the “bush
” but have also played an active role in  maintaining and enhancing its “
good order.” 
It is not possible to articulate all permeations of these principles in 
such  a short space, but we do hope that we can inspire some thought and 
discussion  around them. In the future we will present in more detail some of the 
indigenous  permaculture projects that we are involved in and share the 
lessons and  experiences that we are gaining from our application of these 
principles. We are  also organizing an _Indigenous Permaculture Convergence at 
Woodbine, August  13-15, 2010._ (http://woodbinecenter.org/ipc)  We are 
bringing together indigenous community activists and  leaders, permaculturists and 
anyone who is practicing or interested in  indigenous permaculture, to 
learn from each other and share our experiences as  we continue to create a 
better future for all of our children. We invite you to  join us at the 
Convergence as well as participate in our ongoing development of  these principles. 
For more information please _contact us_ 
(http://woodbinecenter.org/contact-us) . 
* A version of this article has been published in Issue 75 (Spring 2010) of 
 Permaculture  Activist.


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