Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage, Final Episode – Days 16 & 17
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths December 14, 2011
by Tamara Griffiths, Ali Ma and Delvin Solkinson
Final Chapter: David Holmgren
Day 16
Walking into Melliodora was like entering a legend. Here was the landscape where inspiration has proved itself over time with principles and ethics core to a chosen life path.
David and Sue had lived here since 1985 and focused on their land and the Spring Creek Community Forest neighboring the property. Sue started the Hepburn Relocalization Network, a transition movement inspiring local change and helping land people at their home and in their communities. They grow most of their own food and part of their ethic is to feed all staff lunch – which is why the veggie garden has been recently modified. After a beautiful breakfast of congee, toast and preserved fruit we walk the short distance to the primary school where we are using the hall to have classes in.
Comments (1)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage – Days 14 & 15
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths December 8, 2011
PDC teacher training with Rowe Morrow
by Tamara Griffiths, Ali Ma and Delvin Solkinson
Day 14
The birds were singing beautiful melodies as we got up at 6:45 to stumble by amazingly tame kangaroos and wallabies and into the community shower facility. By the time we had coffee, breakfast and email we were totally awake and excited for the day.
To start every morning we go round the side of the eco-building where the ponies were fenced in to eat the long grass. These fat little ponies came over for pats and to enjoy our energy as we started our days. Rosemary showed us how to breathe with horses and make friends with them. She starts every day with a song – she gives many examples of cultures that love singing and tells us to learn some good ones. The ponies don’t even seem to mind my singing.
Today we got the full program for Rosemary’s successful teaching units. Introduction, concept ‘bookend’, principle, teaching methods, body behaviour, language awareness, delivery including questioning and teaching tools as well as a conclusory application ‘bookend’.
Comments (2)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage – Days 11-13
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths December 2, 2011
Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage with Rosemary Morrow
by Tamara Griffiths, Ali Ma and Delvin Solkinson
Day One
It was a beautiful spring day in this incredible eco-village when we met with our hero, Rosemary Morrow, the inspiring and resilient godmother of permaculture. Teaching and travelling since March, Rosemary Morrow seems to tirelessly teach. Over 27 years she has taught in so many war zones, refugee camps and crippled countries.
Rosemary’s beautiful grandmotherly presence makes us feel at home and comfortable in the first instant we meet her. She encourages us right away to begin thinking like teachers and not like students.
We three are sooo excited to be with one of our greatest heroes.
Comments (2)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage – Days 11-15
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths December 1, 2011
by Tamara Griffiths, Ali Ma and Delvin Solkinson
Parrots announced the dawn and we knew we were officially on farmer time!
As the week progressed people felt more and more comfortable in the group and we had built up a lot of trust. After three days of presenting on our chosen topics we had become fluid in creative processes and Robin Clayfield said we were all flying. On day six we all did our final gifts to the class, and by this stage we were enjoying the creative process of coming up with ways to get core information across in an engaging way.
Comments (0)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage – Days 8-10
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths November 23, 2011
by Delvin Solkinson, Ali Ma and Tamara Griffiths
It was a beautiful day on this conscious community land. Kangaroos bounced by the window while all manner of tropical birds celebrated the sun with a chorus of beautifully orchestrated songs. We are staying in a bunkhouse which is clean and comfortable despite massive spiders that seem to go unnoticed by the locals.
Stumbling down to the common building we find a spread of delicious fruit, breads and spreads, tea, coffee and cereals. The day begins with a check in — we are all asked what kind of tree we felt like! Robin has us do a very interesting revision process where we all write memories of yesterday on small scraps of paper. On the floor she places cups symbolizing breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner and we all place our little papers across the board in a representation of the day and when things happened. It’s amazing to see so many memory fragments spread out across the floor. This also gives us a sense of the highlights as things like our incredible thai dinner the night before are celebrated by many different scraps of paper.
Comments (0)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage – Days 6 and 7
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths November 19, 2011
by Tamara Griffiths, Delvin Solkinson and Ali Ma
Day 6 : First Day of the Robin Clayfield Training
Joining with another Pilgrim, the ultra inspiring Ali Ma, we continued our learning adventure with renewed inspiration. After a 5am awakening before sunrise and a long drive we arrived at last at the fabled Crystal Waters Community. We had moved from sub-tropics into the tropics and got there just in time for the 9am start of class.
Robin welcomed us to Crystal Waters and acknowledged the traditional custodians of this land, the Gabi Gabi people, before we went into learning about our own learning styles — empowering us to take charge of our learning. There were a couple of questionnaires — one on how we learned, whether a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner.
We were all visionaries!
Comments (5)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage – Day Five
Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Tamara Griffiths November 17, 2011
by Tamara Griffiths and Delvin Solkinson
The ultimate compliment to a teacher is when your students make you redundant. — Geoff Lawton.
Day 5
The day started with storytelling. With twists and turns, laughs and
straight faces, Geoff tells us a bit about the origin of permaculture,
steeping us in a history rich with challenges and successes.
It was a wonderful yet exhausting last day. We all were to do 10 minute presentations but with 27 students and transition time this ended up taking more than 6 hours. A storm was brewing outside while the day stretched on, building a climatic climax to the experience here at Zaytuna.
It was 11:11:11 that day so at 11:11 am we joined people across the planet and meditated for peace and sustainability, praying that permaculture be empowered to do its work in the world.
It was amazing to see how many of us had been empowered and supported to grow through this dense week of training. Truly the people coming out of the course were not the same ones that went in. We had been upgraded and tooled to go back to all our different communities and to travel to places of need to help contribute in whatever way we could to advance permaculture education and practice.
Comments (0)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage – Days Two, Three and Four!
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths November 12, 2011
by Tamara Griffiths and Delvin Solkinson
Delvin and Tamara have condensed a few days of class into one blog for you, this one is about the substance of the course and the design of the farm (with some cool bug pics thrown in!).
Day Two
The second day of our Zaytuna Farm adventure began with the traditional Halal killing of an 8-month old calf, but we were nestled in the dreamtime for hours after this was long complete.
If we eat meat we have a responsibility to know where that meat comes from and to know that it has had an ethical life and the best death we can give it. It was in stark contrast to what was exposed on the Four Corners program earlier this year – where cattle exported to Indonesia watched while the cow in front of them was slaughtered, without stunning, with their throats cut and other horrific violence. The live export trade ceased briefly due to public outcry after this but it was resumed with new rules that are designed to supposedly protect the cattle from this experience. It wont be long before live export is banned altogether.
Comments (3)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage – Day One
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths November 10, 2011
by Tamara Griffiths and Delvin Solkinson
After a long year apart, and of planning and plotting, permie friends Delvin and Tamara descended upon Zaytuna farm to begin the first leg of their Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage teacher trainings with the fabled Geoff Lawton.
Comments (0)Permaculture Pilgrimage – a Few Places Left
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths October 24, 2011
The Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage — teacher training with some of the world’s greatest teachers — has been a collaborative effort between these amazing teachers, Delvin Solkinson and myself. The courses will run back to back in November across NSW, QLD and Victoria.
The courses with Geoff Lawton and David Holmgren have been filled but we still have places for students at Robin Clayfield’s creative permaculture teaching 6-day course and her 1-day community decision making and governance. I have done both of these courses and they are amazing, equipping me with many teaching skills and inspiration to work with student needs strengths, and facilitation methods I have used with groups. They were so good I’m doing them again!
We also have places in Rosemary Morrow’s course the following week — with her take on how to teach PDCs to students around the world. I simply can’t wait, it’s going to be spectacular.
We would love to have you join this adventure with us and become part of the next generation of permaculture teachers!
Please check out the folio (7mb PDF) and book directly with Robin Clayfield: robin (at) earthcare.com.au
For extra info you can contact me: Tamara (at) moonrisepermaculture.com.au
Comments (0)Planetary Permaculture Pilgrimage
Courses/Workshops — by Tamara Griffiths June 11, 2011
A once in a lifetime opportunity to do advanced study with many of the greatest teachers of permaculture.
Join a group of advanced students and teachers to pilgrimage to Australia to learn from the grandmothers and grandfathers of permaculture. Whether you are a new permaculture designer or already have a seasoned practice, here is the opportunity of a lifetime to study with the masters and maestras of the movement. The range of the teachers’ experiences, techniques and philosophies bring an amazing diversity to the courses.
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