This update describes the "Friends of Eco-Village" Network that existed in NZ around 1992-4, and an upcoming Eco-Village workshop. Also described is a new e-notice board which will help New Zealanders in the movement keep in touch.
"Friends of Eco-Village" had a mailing list of over 200 people around NZ interested in the idea of Eco-Village. The vision was to create a semi-rural project one hour from Auckland based upon Permacultural principles. It was to be a comprehensive village incorperating an economic base and its own monetary and governance systems. The struggle to materialise this utopian vision led to a thorough and ground breaking exploration of environmental issues, ethics, group dynamics and consensus models.
However the Eco-Village itself never directly eventuated. This was IMO due to the complexity of what we were trying to do, the constant tension between task and process, and the fact that different people had different needs. In essence we splintered through lack of critical mass.
The last meeting that we had was in 1994 with Barry Goodman from Crystal Waters. His advice to us then was that we needed an 'clearing house' of some sort to keep this scattering community in touch with new developments. However the energy wasn't there, and the internet was only in its infancy. Now, both the former and the latter have changed.
Good news...Robyn Francis is coming over from Australia in the new year to run some PC courses. Robyn is one of the most experienced Permaculture designers and educators, and has had a lot to do with the Jarlanbah Eco-Village in Nimbin NSW. She has agreed to run her 5 day Eco-Village and Sustainble Communities Workshop in Auckland while here, which is a rare opportunity for us. The dates are 30 Jan - 3 Feb 1999. Contact Betsy at 09 576-5948 if interested. (Also Otamatea is running PDCs this year).
This is some of the inspiration behind this site. Most of us are too busy to have much in the way of meetings or stamp newsletters, so this website provides this clearing house function. Plans are afoot to make the website more interactive—now as a start we have an automated noticeboard. It works just like a real noticeboard and its for information about EV & C stuff happening here in NZ, like events and project updates. Its a good way to stay in touch—just click 'notices'. For other discussion go join an Email list!
Well thats me for now, if you
or your group wish to have an article published in this space, just drop
us an line.
ps. there is also a new article about legal processes in NZ on the resource page
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source: McCamant + |
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