What is the Earth Activist Training?
Photos courtesy of Amelia Gregory
Earth Activist Training (EAT) is an accredited permaculture design course that takes place over an intensive two week period. Its aim is to teach permaculture to people who are active in promoting social or environmental change. Permaculture is a system of ecological design that can be practically applied in many ways. It could be used, for example, to transform an urban allotment, a home, a small holding, a social centre or an entire community. It can also be applied to political and economic systems. Within the course, there are three themes that are interwoven with one another, these are permaculture, activism and spirituality. The three themes are viewed as mutually reinforcing. When used in combination they have the capacity to make our work as activists much more effective.
Permaculture
… can be defined as the principles and design methods used to create sustainable human habitats. Whilst permaculture was developed as a means of organising a piece of land in a way that reflects the workings of the natural world, its principles and methods can be applied to any project, and is therefore highly beneficial to work that seeks to bring about social and environmental change. Permaculture aims to creatively harness all available energy and resources to bring about a radical transformation in how a system such as a piece of land or a community operates. Examples of this are the building of a bio-diverse ecosystem (or community) that is therefore strong enough to withstand shocks and knocks, or turning what are usually seen as waste products into resources that can actually benefit an ecosystem.
As a solution-oriented system of design, permaculture gives us the potential for tackling many current environmental issues, such as fossil-fuel dependency, GM/industrial food production, the high levels of waste produced by consumer society, and the pollution of air, water and soil. The course teaches methods such as water-harvesting, sustainable land-use, energy-saving strategies, possibilities for creating renewable sources of energy, ways of creating a bio-diverse ecosystem, organic food production, construction of grey-water systems, composting of human waste, and much more.
Photos courtesy of Amelia Gregory
Activism
...is defined broadly within the course, which has previously involved people working for social change across a range of different activities; from the Camp for Climate Action, to No Borders, the Islamic environmental network, queer rights activists, those involved in rural and urban land-projects, those working to support prisoners, and many others. EAT seeks to involve participants who are able to disseminate their learnings from the course to the networks and communities that they work in. One of the themes of the course is finding ways of making activism sustainable, with discussion time and sharing of techniques on subjects such as organising effectively, dealing with activist burnout or trauma, and contemplating the roles people take on in the groups they are involved in. This provides a much needed opportunity for activists to reflect on the motivation and strategic direction of their work.
Spirituality
...is something many of us feel we need to engage in, but it is often sidelined in the work that we do as activists. However, spirituality in its widest sense is important to activism because without contemplating our connection to the whole, we may find that the work that we do becomes empty of meaning, and we burn out as we are unable to see how our work fits into a bigger picture. In terms of permaculture, it is possible that without a spiritual basis, we end up working to create sustainability solely for human gain or survival, which prevents us from engaging in the wonder of the web of life. Engagement in spirituality is therefore seen as an integral part of social and ecological change. EAT approaches spirituality from an “earth-based perspective”. This means that the training is not affiliated with any particular religion, but seeks to bring about feelings of respect and reverence for the power of the natural world. Through activities such as the creation of rituals, we build on the strength that we need as we work to bring things back into balance. This work has the capacity to give us a sense of grounding, connection, and security. An earth-based spirituality allows for the inclusion of people from a variety of different belief systems and faiths including the atheist and the agnostic.
Photos courtesy of Amelia Gregory
History of the Earth Activist Training
The Earth Activist Training originally took place in the USA. It was created through a collaboration between Starhawk and Penny Livingstone Stark. Starhawk is an activist with a long history of involvement in social and environmental work, earth based spirituality, permaculture and community struggle. Penny Livingstone Stark is an Eco-builder, Permaculture Teacher and founding member of The Regenerative design Institute of California. The first EAT UK came about due to a cross- fertilization of activists at the World Bank/IMF protests in Prague in 2000. Inspired by EAT in the US, one of the first UK coordinators invited Starhawk to come to the UK and teach this unique course to activists. EAT UK was organised by a women's collective in 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Since 2009 it has been a mixed-gender collective. The course was initially held at Ragmans lane Farm a Permaculture farm near the Forest of Dean. In 2005 an extraordinary EAT was held at Talamh community prior to the G8 summit at Gleneagles. The intention of this course was to support the establishment of the summit protest site at Stirling. Since 2009 Landmatters Permaculture community has became the home of EAT. Six of the original members of this community met on the first Earth Activist Training held in the UK in 2002 . So far over 120 activists have participated in EAT in the UK.
The Earth Activist Training Organising Collective
...is a non-hierarchical, consensus-led collective. Currently we are a small group of individuals who are committed to the progression of the activist movement and positive environmental and social change. The collective exists only to organise Earth Activist Training courses and is not-for-profit.
Funding
The Earth Activist Training is offered on a sliding scale of fees. All places on the course are subsidised. The Eat collective applies for additional financial support from funding bodies such as the Network for Social Change UK and the Lush Charity Pot Grant.
EAT is committed to making the course available for people who are involved in activism, many of whom have a limited income.
We have charitable status via the Permaculture Association of Great Britain.
If you would like to support our work, donations are gratefully recieved! To make a donation use Paypal
EAT for All - Accessibility and Diversity Statement
"We believe that EAT is a resource that should be equally accessible to all activists regardless of age, ability, gender, race, class, being a single parent etc..
We recognize that at the present we have limitations to be able to achieve this.
In order to overcome at least some of those limitations and make this course as inclusive as possible work needs to be done:
- On the accessibility of the site for wheelchairs and people with mobility difficulties
- Getting funding to provide sign interpreters, carers, a creche, more grants for people who can't afford the course etc..
We are committed to include these aspects in the ongoing design of our courses and hope that in the future we'll be able to offer more support for all those who need it.
We are also committed to challenging patterns of privilege and oppression where we encounter them -either within the collective or during courses- and to working in this way towards creating a safe space for everyone"
|
