permaculture

[Robyn Francis <robyn@permaculture.com.au>]

I don't know if I missed something in the permie networks, but it was a shock 
for me to discover in a recent GEN (Global Ecovillage Network) newsletter 
that Margrit Kennedy had passed away December 28, 2013.
She was one of the first generation of permaculture pioneers, and an 
important mentor and role model for me as a young permaculture teacher and 
designer in the 1980s, and was a considerable influence in the formative 
years of the permaculture movement.

I first met Margrit and her husband Declan when they were in Australia for 
the first ever International Permaculture Convergence in 1984.  They had 
taken one of Bills early PDCs and set up the Permaculture Institute of 
Europe. Margrit, at that time was  a powerful voice for women in architecture 
and a leading innovator in eco-architecture and urban renewal in Berlin. I 
later attended an advanced Urban Pc Design course with Margrit and Declan in 
USA, just before IPC2, during which she introduced Michael Linton, inventor 
of the LETS system to permaculture and visa versa.

Most of Margrit's work over the past few decades has focussed on changing the 
financial system, and she has been a leading voice for complimentary 
currencies, including publication of her book Interest and Inflation Free 
Money, Creating an Exchange Medium that Works for Everybody and Protects the 
Earth (1987) which has been revised several times and translated into 22 
languages. download pdf here:  
kennedy-bibliothek.info/data/bibo/media/GeldbuchEnglisch.pdf‎

Margrit leaves an important legacy which continues through the many people 
she inspired and mentored. Her achievements need to be acknowledged by the 
permaculture movement as a significant pioneer in urban design, ecovillage 
and invisible structures.

Robyn

http://permaculture.com.au/margrit-kennedy-1939-2013-permaculture-pioneer/