This family of four live a largely non-monetary existence on a quarter-acre permaculture plot on Djaara peoples' country/Daylesford. They describe themselves as neopeasants, defined by the gardens & forests they tend, the resources they glean & grow, the community they're part of and the technologies they both use & refuse.
They practice permapoesis, which simply means permanent making or regenerative living -an antidote to disposable culture - & show us what's possible when creativity, reverence & reciprocity is placed at the heart of human existence.
SHOW NOTES
- A frugal background + time on a kibbutz
- Early skills in propagation and a deep desire to grow things
- An attraction to counter culture & eternal questioning of injustices
- Finding peace by the Mittagong creek
- Working as a couple to overcome grief over the dominant culture
- Growing a new story out of the old story -- about community, not just one idea
- The holistic awakening of permaculture
- Moving from clock time to ecological time
- Daily connection to the natural world; chanting, observing, meditating
- Creating an art practice that is not separate from everyday life
- Avoiding monotonous and tedious work through neopeasantry
- Why Covid has helped us register our collective exhaustion
- Giving up cars and moving at an ecological pace
- Being cash poor yet time rich in frugal abundance
- Time offline allows a songful, interconnected, wildness that is about observation and interaction
- The importance of rites of passage -- how do we bring them back?
- Recognising the value of the child-to-adult process and parent/child separation
- Grief circles -- “for crying out loud”. Sharing, howling, laughing, storytelling and bearing witness to each other.
- Giving back to the forest via humanure, menstrual blood, tears
- How fire has held our stories since the beginning of time
- Daily gratitude ritual of naming the inputs needed for each meal
- Growing layers and building gifts to share with our community by accepting ourselves
- Getting the dance right between consciousness and overwhelm
- Why being aware of ideology is important
- Why activism and politics need complexity
- A brief history of patriarchal dominance, removing feminine power in the popular culture
LINKS YOU'LL LOVE
- Artist as Family -- YouTube, Instagram + blog
- How Goats are Regenerating a Forest and Protecting This Town from Bushfire -- Happen Films
- A Branch From the Lightning Tree - Martin Shaw
- The Wild Edge of Sorrow - Francis Weller
- The Invention of Capitalism - Michael Perelman
Podcast partners ROCK!
Nutrisoil Wwoof Australia
Buy the Book - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters
Support the show