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Permaculture Association of the Northeast

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Report back: Earth Activist Permaculture Teacher Training for Women

Written by Board Member, Patty Love

I am both humbled and frustrated by how many important skills I still want to learn at the age of 54.  I also struggle, sometimes, with the question of how much formal training to pursue in any topic.  Yet, when I learned that Pandora Thomas and Lisa DePiano were teaming with Starhawk to offer a Permaculture Teacher Training for Women through Earth Activist Training, I knew I had to be there even though it meant getting on an airplane all the way to California.  Every experience I’ve had with Lisa and Starhawk has been rich with new skills and perspectives.  And Pandora is someone I’ve been wanting to meet and study with.  

The short version is that I’m so glad I attended.  It was a “patty-changing” experience – and I’m serious about that.  Here’s how the course was described on Facebook:
“Drawing on the wisdom of ecological systems and indigenous knowledge, permaculture offers us a vision, design approach, and tools to create a world of health and abundance. Increased inclusion and support of leadership and perspective from women of diverse backgrounds is vital to this vision.

In this unique and innovative program, we explore diversity and leadership while building our confidence. We practice teaching permaculture for various formats, from introductory workshops, special topics, and short courses, to the core permaculture design certificate (PDC) course.

This course is open to those who identify as women and/or were assigned female at birth, who hold a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) or who feel they have a working knowledge and experience with permaculture design. Women of color and queer or gender nonconforming women are especially encouraged to apply.”

One of my practices as a permaculture teacher is to embody permaculture ethics, principles, and design practices in my courses.  As you may already imagine, this course did the same.  Applying the principles of stacking functions and relinquishing control, as we moved through the curriculum, we students participated in and eventually led activities that modeled, demonstrated, and explained social permaculture techniques.  Doing so felt like a growing edge at times but I had decided when I applied that I would live my ethics of being vulnerable and transparent (thank you, Miki Kashtan), and courageous.  One of our lessons was that impact matters over intention so I thought about my words and actions more than ever and I’m pretty sure I still blew it a few times.  

(Note:  these are complex and nuanced issues that deserve lots more discussion and reflection than this brief article can do well.)

One of our earliest activities was to co-create a Class Code and decide what we would do when or if the Class Code was broken.  While one of the purposes of this exercise was to help us consciously design a safer space, it also helped us learn about each other, and to learn some social permaculture tools such as “throw glitter, not shade” and “holding the complexity of intersectionality.”  Given that we were indeed a group diverse in race and age, the complexity of intersectionality was a lived experience.  Though we were united by identifying as women with permaculture skills, I felt that, at times, we struggled together through the difficulties of differences of opinion.  As a cis-woman who benefits from white privilege, I came away with a deeper appreciation for the experiences of Women of Color (WOC) – both those who present as WOC and those who present as white – and the depth of the oppression of living in our current structure of white supremacy.  I listened intently as the WOC even disagreed with each other at times.  

I deeply appreciate that Lisa D. and one of the students co-led an optional lunchtime discussion group on white supremacy to support those who identify as white to learn from and support each other rather than placing that burden on the women of color who were present.  I also benefitted from sharing time with a white housemate with whom I could process and explore.

During the four days, we also learned and practiced various teaching techniques to support our curriculum development and future work with diverse groups including the diversity of whether folks are visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners.  For example, we used The Gallery Walk technique to undertake a site analysis of the group.  Questions written on sticky easel paper were posted on the walls of our meeting space.  We were asked to visit each question at least twice during the time allotted and to use colorful markers to write our answers.  Then, as a group, we moved from paper to paper for a group harvest – to collectively review the answers, notice commonalities, and ask clarifying questions.  A few of the dozens of teaching techniques we learned were:  Pair Share, Whirly Tour, Common Ground, Teach Back, and Mingle Mingle.  Along with the struggles to undo racism and oppression, we had fun while learning and learned how to make our teaching engaging.  

For anyone who is considering the value of attending a Teacher Training, I hope that you’ll be as blessed as I was to find a training that not only supports your growth as a permie teacher but also supports your growth as a Citizen of The Earth.  I am forever changed and improved by this experience with new skills that I use daily.  I also recommend that you are selective about with whom you study.  While it’s convenient and perhaps preferable Earth Care to learn locally, our teachers are so influential in our experience that travelling may very well be worth the sacrifices.  (And maybe you can stack functions like I did – finally hugging a redwood, getting a taste of the California chaparral and other ecosystems, and seeing the wonders of The Golden Gate Bridge.  I recommend that you visit PAN’s Educators’ Pledge Signers page to learn if the course teacher has agreed to this voluntary pledge document.  If not, ask them if they will.  And, as a teacher myself, I’m guessing that if you offered to help put together a committed group of students to make the course financially viable, many teachers would be willing to travel to you!

Welcome Stephanie Aubert, our newest Board Member!!


Stephanie recently returned to her Northeast homeland after receiving a Masters in Environmental Management from Western Colorado University, managing a farm to food pantry program in Snohomish County, Washington, and spending time working on food policy in New Orleans. She helped to coordinate the Southwest Seed Library, A Farm to Table Conference in Colorado’s Gunnison Valley, and led a multi-day collaborative design process for the developing headquarters of the Coldharbour Institute. . She received her PDC back when PAN was PINE, while simultaneously lifting Plymouth Permaculture Project off the ground at her alma mater of Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She recently signed on to work in her hometown of Nashua, New Hampshire to further develop programming for Grow Nashua. She also works as a field teacher at Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center. Her passion is to increase access to Permaculture education and she hopes to expand this collective work in the Northeast.

2019 Winter Board Retreat

On a frigid weekend in January, our board members gathered to review our past year and plan for the next. There are very few times we see other board members in person at all, and this yearly retreat is the only time we everyone all in one place. We have monthly group phone calls and update each other over email chains, but face to face communication, commiseration and contemplation yield far richer results.

Our meeting place was D Acres, the 20 years established educational homestead and hostel run by Josh Trought and his dedicated team in Dorchester, NH. As we arrived one by one that evening, traveling from near and far, we were welcomed by a raging hot fire and a bottomless vat of homegrown herbal tea. Josh’s vision and fruition of this place is really something special. There are quotes and art up everywhere to remind us the mission of skilling ourselves to the end of sustainable living and right relationship with the environment. The root cellar is well stocked with preserved produce and animal products from seasons past. The library is overwhelmingly abundant with every book you could ask to turn to to learn how we might live in harmony with the natural world.

As the sun set on that day of arrival, we received word that one of us had to stay home and care for a child, and then another of us had the flu would be missed as well, and then yet another had car trouble and was going to arrive much later than expected. So it turned out to be a smaller portion of us than intended, and the mood was a bit deflated. Our two longest serving and most hardworking board members got to talking late that night about the efforts they’d exerted up to this point that had left them quite beleaguered and questioning the future relevance of our work. This didn’t seem like the best foot to start off with as we arrived to an important weekend of effort in our mission, but it was noted, and fresher minds instructed them to have a drink and exert themselves at a game of ping pong instead.

In the morning, we were truly able to arrive and be there fully thanks to a great night’s sleep and a big breakfast by Josh and his right hand man, Will. Patty led us through a presentation on being a better board which was inspiring and also instigated thoughts on how this information could assist other groups working in similar fashion. We reviewed our financials and identified avenues which didn’t suit our mission anymore and those that we will be putting more effort into sharing in the future. Mainly, on the downside, we realized we are not great purveyors of t-shirts. On the upside, our capability to provide fiscal sponsorship to groups aligned with our values serves the stacked function of mutual benefit to all. As we went through everything we had done over the past year such as webinars, the educator’s pledge, and new partnerships, those who had expressed fatigue the night before were suddenly shown how much had been accomplished. Well-deserved pride and a sense of accomplishment began to shine through their eyes, and slowly a wave of enthusiasm for the future swelled to a crest.

“The problem is the solution!” we exclaimed as we realized the fragmentation of permaculture in our region was both our undoing and our strength! Through the power of personal connection, we had all been led to this earth-changing work. We experienced that connection within our PDC’s, and were here reminded again that it is by our relationships with one another and the inspiring leaders who came before us that we are empowered to collectively problem solve and move forward on this work we feel called to do. 

The culmination enunciated itself as a call for Convergence. We will host a planning retreat this autumn, to bring together those from around the northeast who wish to help plan the summer of 2020 regional Permaculture Convergence, which we’ve lacked since 2014. The hope is that all our smaller, locally acting permaculture partners will find their way to us for a weekend of fun and function. Meeting each other face to face, realizing common goals and finding paths to support each other will connect us and grow our movement. Our region is geologically diverse, resource rich, and full of strong-willed hardy northerners who aren’t giving up any time soon. The power to create the kind of world we want to live in lies in our hands, so we hope you’ll join us and stay connected, reach out and add your unique voice. Please stay tuned to our newsletters, webinars, course listings, allies, and Facebook updates so you can be a part of this ongoing effort, we can’t do it without you!