Taj Scicluna, The Perma Pixie - Small Business Permaculture

Along the way we also talk about education, and some of the differences between Australian and American training, including the work to formalize the permaculture design certificate.

You can find out more about Taj and her work at ThePermaPixie.com, which includes her calendar, blog, videos, and lots of other information.

What I like about this conversation is hearing that there is a movement afoot in the world to take this work of permaculture and find ways to make it more available and accessible through existing systems. To professionalize our practices. To provide opportunities that help fund education and make permaculture more accessible through programs that already exist. Another piece of this is Taj’s sharing of a potential 4th ethic, the ethic of transition. I like this idea, and am considering including it in my own practices, as it continues the thread discussing the space between personal responsibility and the systemic issues we face within the culture we come from that extends directly into the practice of permaculture. Though we might encapsulate this in the existing strategy of appropriate technology, I find that this stands stronger as an ethic, because it provides a place to work through the world we live in at the moment, so we can build the framework of the world we want to live in. In that, each of us have choices to make.

What will we use from the old system to build the new? For some that includes formal education in the university model as it stands. To others that means accepting an informal process that provides different opportunities. In permaculture, that could be embracing the Mollisonian approach to a Permaculture Design Course, underneath the umbrella of a group like PRI or PINA, while others are creating new programs that deliver the similar content in a different way that includes things like new Ethics or principles that build on the earlier material, or focused on a particular subset of the community such as activists or community organizers. Others still might live in the gift while others use capitalism. While one rejects flying another might use flight as a way to teach the world. Live without computers or electricity as a model for others, or embrace these technologies to share those ideas with the world. In making these choices, and deciding how to move forward as individuals, we need to start talking about what we are doing as a community, inside and outside of permaculture.

What works? What doesn’t? Where do we feel included? Where do we feel excluded? How are we our own worst enemies? Is organizing formally drawing you in to do more? Or are you feeling rejected because of the emerging structures? Where do you see examples of racism? Sexism? Where can we be allies to one another and come together to make a real and lasting difference? You are not alone. I am not alone. We’re all in this together. Let’s work on making the world a more bountiful place.

If there is any way I can help, get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Resources:
The Perma Pixie (Taj’s Site)
Permaculture College Australia (Robyn Francis)