IT'S A REVOLUTION
Jana, posting for the CCP Experiment Team
Limes in abundance are part of the lush growth of The Mulch Pit community garden in Darwin. Photo by Cosmic Person and TMP facilitator Lucy.
“(Permaculture is) a revolution. But it’s the sort of revolution that no one will notice. It might get a little shadier. Buildings might function better. You might have less money to earn because your food is all around you and you don’t have any energy costs. Giant amounts of money might be freed up in society so that we can provide for ourselves better... So it’s a revolution. But permaculture is anti-political. There is no room for politicians or administrators or priests. And there are no laws either. The only ethics we obey are: care of the earth, care of people, and reinvestment in those ends.”
In the course of finding material for this week's daily Cosmic Quotes, I looked to Bill Mollison, founder of modern permaculture. Mollison died in September last year; his birthday is coming up this week, 4 May. He would have been 89 this year. His co-developer, David Holmgren, is considerably younger and is still going strong. Earlier this month Holmgren was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from CQ University which last year launched a graduate certificate program in Permaculture Design.
My permaculture teacher is an amazing woman named Rosemary Morrow She's taught permaculture all over the world and continues to guide groups via Skype in Afghanistan, Greece, Argentina (to name a few pins on her map of influence).
“I think this was succinctly put by Bill Mollison (co-founder of permaculture) when he said: Permaculture enables what is morally required and scientifically necessary. So for me, a scientist with moral learnings and wanting to be part of the solution and stop being part of the problem, permaculture through its principles and strategies meant that I didn’t have to do my own research, nor put together my own framework. It fell into place and gave my life foundations and meaning. I love living permaculture because the techniques are not always evident and so there is always room for creative personal response.”
It was a permaculture design class with Rosemary in Darwin 8 years ago that inspired Cosmic Person Gai Nowland and me to suggest to a group of friends that we try converting an unused hard scrabble parking lot into a garden. Soon enough - since things grow quickly in the tropics - The Mulch Pit emerged. Gai coined our motto all those years ago: Veggies grow in veggie gardens, flowers grow in flower gardens...and people grow in community gardens.
The Mulch Pit permaculture garden, Rapid Creek NT
It was the permaculture basic motto that caught my attention all those years ago and still guides my life and work. Care for people; Care for the Earth; Enough for all. I think it's pretty Cosmic.
Here's the Cosmic Quote from Bill Mollison:
