Subject: Re: [permaculture] Cultural diversity in PDCs (was official cert)
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2010 19:40:33 -0700 (PDT)
You have of course Geoff Lawton, Darren Doherty and many others who go to
culturally diverse areas to teach. I create cultural diversity in PDCs, by
holding them in culturally diverse areas (Little Haiti in Miami, Pine Ridge,
etc), by offering scholarships to people to ensure there is a socio-economic
mix, and by ensuring the content of the course is culturally sensitive and
relevant. And by visiting minority communities and introducing permaculture
in a culturally relevant manner, understanding what problems are considered
important by observing and asking. And doing projects in minority areas,
which is very powerful because then they see for themselves how it works and
get their own creative ideas about it and expand on it. I know a number of
permaculturists focused on cultural diversity, they are definitely out there!
There can always be more though! C
--- On Fri, 11/5/10, Kelly Simmons <kelly@bouldersustainability.org> wrote:
From: Kelly Simmons <kelly@bouldersustainability.org>
Subject: [permaculture] Cultural diversity in PDCs (was official cert)
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Friday, November 5, 2010, 7:06 PM
There is one little nugget for me in what Killian was saying, that I would
like to chew on with interested folks on this list and that is the
over-riding "white middleclass" nature of many state-side PDCs.
I think I hear clearly what Toby was saying and I largely agree with a lot of
it, but I confess that I am bothered by the lack of real diversity in our
courses and students and leaders and teachers. Not entirely, of course, but
largely.
Is there a better way to energize more Latino or African American community
members to come learn permaculture?, Is there a way to "make relevant"
permaculture ideas to these communities? [I admit up front that I haven't
been to every community or every PDC, so please don't flame me, if your
situation is a shining example, but I don't see much diversity reflected in
teachers, photos, or students and people I meet who are engaged in
permaculture].
Anyway, I see permaculture as a bottom up, empowerment tool and it bothers me
that, except for some development work overseas, at least in the States, it
is the more culturally privileged among us who are attending and teaching our
PDCs.
These are observations and ruminations, and I am interested in what people
think. I agree that the hippie, flakey view hurts permaculture in some ways.
Perhaps its a big turnoff to communities of color....
I am excited to be attending a Bioneers conference, where there are some
presentations on indigenous ecological knowledge and I know there is great
work going on up at Pine Ridge.
But perhaps we need to start making cultural diversity a priority - because
missing a diversity of views impoverishes our thinking and our solutions.
For example Cory's reflection on listening and speaking in circle up at Pine
Ridge. Perhaps there is some "white middle class privilege" embedded or
woven throughout our teaching or how PDCs operate that we are blind to. And
this blindness makes participation more wearing and difficult for people of
color. I wonder.
Or perhaps I am somehow blind to all the cultural diversity in US PDCs......
>From lflj@bellsouth.net Sat Nov 6 00:20:55 2010
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