permaculture

[Robyn Francis <erda@nor.com.au>]

Building on the Unity within Diversity
Reflections on APC-10

I arrived home yesterday exhausted and exhilarated from the 4-day
Australasian Permaculture Convergence in Kuranda.  I wanted to start letting
people know what a great event this had been. I wasn¹t ready to write at
length so simply logged onto Facebook and posted the following status to
encapsulate my sentiments.  ³home from APC10 and in the hammock enjoying a
sun shower sparkling droplets, sounds of water & distant thunder, so
stunningly beautiful for all the senses... recovering and reflecting on a
great convergence and a new milestone in Permaculture history as a pivotal
event marking a new era of collaboration, embracing and building on the
unity within the diversity :)²
 
APC10 brought together a convergence of over three thousand years of
collective permaculture experience and cumulative wisdom. This Australasian
Permaculture Convergence had delegates from all Australian states and
territories, East Timor, Bali, New Zealand and as far afield as Latin
America and Africa.  The group represented a stimulating diversity of ages
(teens to eighties), cultures, climates and fields of practice, from fresh
PDC graduates to permaculture elders including a few notable celebrities.

The program included the usual inspiring and informative presentations and
discussions, there were a number of key streams including education,
humanitarian, agriculture, urban, indigenous and a range of other disparate
and diverse topics, not to forget the lively discourses at the ŒWet Topics
Bar¹ at sundown and late evenings.

There had been much pre-APC10 discussion about the national organisation of
Permaculture, the need for a national body and how this might be achieved.
Permaculture North (Sydney) had developed a detailed model, which was
circulate pre-convergence. PIL (Permaculture International Ltd) had also, as
a result of previous convergence requests, proposed to change its name to
Permaculture Australia and invite the movement to redesign and restructure
the organisation and memberships to more effectively meet the needs of the
Australian pc community.

The presentation of these two initiatives at APC10 left many with the
initial impression of two opposing or adversarial proposals with potential
for fracturing the process. A group of concerned and skilled negotiators and
conflict resolvers quickly brought together the key parties and respected
Permaculture Œelders¹ to map the perceived Œconflict¹ and find a common
accord, as ultimately we are all working towards the same thing.  Within our
diversity lies an underlying unity, through embracing and celebrating our
diversity we can build on the strength of our common ground.

On the final day a participatory design and consultative process gave all
participants an opportunity to have input into defining the needs and
functions of local and national bodies to further Permaculture and a
steering group formed to take the outcome into solid proposals and actions.
It was an important process and indicator of the maturity of the movement
that what could have easily become an adversarial situation was expediently
resolved and an outcome achieved that reflected a broad consensus.

There are so many wonderful people to thank and I have avoided mentioning
any names in this reflection. To mention only a few would be a disservice to
the many, to attempt to list all would result in a very long list with a
risk of omitting some.
This is not intended to be a detailed report exploring the specific
presentations and outcomes, these will emerge from numerous attendees over
the coming days, weeks months.

We can look forward to the APC11 being hosted in New Zealand in 2012.

Robyn Francis