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“Will we have the wisdom to survive climate chaos and planetary destruction?” This film offers four stories that answer this question, and invite its viewers to ask themselves, what am I doing and what are we doing, together, to put the destructive giant back to sleep? Produced by BALE – Building A Local Economy, based in Royalton, VT. The film follows the work and inspiration of people whose recognition of this destruction has put them on a path of radical change.  We hear from Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm in Petersburg, VT, committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system by raising life-giving food that is primarily cultivated by, and grown for those most marginalized by our current system of food apartheid. 

Chris Paina of Fable Farm and Fermentory, a working farm, winery, and culinary enterprise, hosts events to bring people together to celebrate rural life, arts, and culture, cultivating community so that relationship and people are valued over profits. Climbing Poetree, the soulful, truth-telling, musical creation of Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman – two artists for whom spoken word and music have the power to transform, uplift, and rebuild. And the group of inspired young women at Metta Earth Institute of Lincoln Vermont, a center for contemplative ecology that focuses on education through a wide array of trainings, retreats, intensive programs, workshops, and consultations.

Narrated by Penobscot elder, Sherri Mitchell (Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset), we are introduced to the Penobscot mythology of the cannibal giant: a creature awakened by the destruction of mother earth. 

Find it in the theatre Thursday, April 2 in Montpelier, Vermont at the  Vermont Center for Integrative Health at 6-8 PM.

Visit https://www.dancingwiththecannibalgiant.com/screenings1 for future screenings, or watch the trailer and/or purchase film here:

https://vimeo.com/288565530

PAN Listening Session on March 16 at 4:00 PM!

An informal opportunity to join PAN’s Board Treasurer, Patty Love, to ask questions, share information, and connect on topics related to PAN’s mission to increase the resilience of the Northeast region by strengthening the regional permaculture network and increasing access to relevant education and resources. We can explore:

• What’s working for me about PAN is…
• What I hope PAN will do is…
• How I can help is…

Join whenever you can, leave whenever you need to. This feedback will be carried to PAN’s Board Meeting at DAcres on January 31st. (All members are welcome and must register. Contact us at info@northeastpermaculture.org for more info)

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/294315865?pwd=L1EzNU1jR01QTTIrWXJER3Jsc1lsZz09

Meeting ID: 294 315 865

Password: 798491

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Meeting ID: 294 315 865

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In October 2019, PAN organized a dynamic webinar conversation for the northeast permaculture community with Starhawk, a prominent author, activist, permaculture designer and educator, and voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. She is the author or co-author such books as  The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, The Fifth Sacred Thing, and its sequel City of Refuge. She’s been offering permaculture education opportunities through her program, Earth Activist Training, for many years and brings a unique perspective to permaculture that embodies spirituality and feminism. In the first half of this webinar, Starhawk explores topics like interconnection, multi-functionality, complex systems, and personal regeneration. The second half of the webinar was dedicated to Q&A and included discussion about how spirituality can be brought into permaculture no matter what religion or belief system they abide by and balancing caring for zone 0 while also being active changemakers in our communities. 

Does this webinar sound like something you’d like to listen to? PAN members get FREE access to all past webinar recordings and non-members can get access for a sliding scale fee starting at $10. To get access to this webinar, please email info@northeastpermaculture.org. 

Waaay back in November, PAN Board Treasurer, Patty Love, spoke with Peter Bane about PAN’s role as a regional hub of Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) and about developing collaborations between the organizations.  “What? PINA? Regional Hub? Tell me more!,” you might be thinking.

Per PINA’s website, the history of that organization is:  “In the early 1980’s, Bill Mollison asked several people to create an organization in order to foster permaculture in North America. They created PINA version 1.0, hosted an International Convergence in 1986 and launched the Permaculture Activist magazine (which, as Permaculture Design, is still going strong), but then disbanded for lack of staff and volunteers. In 2009, several long-time permaculture practitioners began working on a new organization, and in 2014 they launched the revitalized PINA as a network of largely autonomous regional membership organizations spanning the continent.”

PINA is a 501(c)(3) incorporated in Oregon as professional association of regional hubs working across North America and Hawaiʻi to:

• Elevate the status and impact of Permaculture by influencing public policy and private development to improve the quality of life for all
• Bring permaculture solutions to bear on the challenges of social justice, land regeneration, and climate cooling
• Promote permaculture pathways to professional development
• Grant diplomas
• Preserve the integrity and quality of the Permaculture Design Course
• Facilitate networking among permaculturists

In 2018, after many conversations between PINA Board members and PAN Board members and PAN Board Members with PAN members, the board voted for PAN to join PINA as a Regional Hub.  This decision was made with care because the PAN Board has limited capacity to take on new initiatives. We want to do well at what we do rather than keep trying to do more and fumble.  Also, we’ve heard the concerns from our members about the level of difficulty it takes to achieve a PINA diploma. Ultimately, we decided that our most empowered position it to be the regional hub, which also gives us input into PINA’s requirements, etc.

As a regional hub, PAN is playing a role in weaving the permaculturalists in our region into the national network.  We are indeed proud that former PAN Board Members Jono Neiger, Lisa DePiano, and Jesse Labbe-Watson, along with long-time PAN member Claudia Joseph all hold PINA Diplomas.

In addition to the Northeast Permaculture Convergence being organized by many of PAN’s Board Members and some especially dedicated PAN Members, a Continental Convergence is being planned for August 20-23, 2020 in Colorado at Sunrise Ranch.  Peter relayed that this event will be more like a summit rather than a collection of workshops and will focus on empowering communities to do regenerative projects and climate action. PINA will handle the outreach and funding and the Colorado Permaculture folks will handle the local organizing.  (Stay tuned for more info…nothing on their website yet.)If you have questions about this collaboration or want to play an active role in it, please contact PAN’s Board Coordinator

Want access? Email us for payment instructions or…psst, they’re free for members!

PINA will be offering a 4-part webinar series in September and October on the heritage of mutual aid in the US and internationally and will work through an emerging pattern language for mutual aid to see how it applies to a wide range of projects that can generate economic self-governance. This is part of a larger effort to explore how regional mutual aid initiatives might contribute to the regional permaculture hubs in the U.S. 

This webinar will focus on a major strategy for overcoming structural economic and social barriers that prevent permaculture from making the deep transformations we seek. On the basis of mutual aid, and collaborating at a key level of scale—larger than village, smaller than state—groups of our ancestors (across most cultures) have found power in the presence of hostile and oppressive conditions, as they pooled resources to manage large scale territories (see Italian farming co-operative history) and set long-term positive directions for their communities.A goal for the course is for each participant to focus the mutual aid lens on one clear and significant new design idea which would begin economic transformation in their career and life.

For more information or to register, please visit:  https://pina.in/events/mutual-aid-as-an-organizing-strategy-webinar/