Permaculture Courses - Permaculture Design Certificate Study Opportunities & Internships Opportunities & Available Positions - Application Form - F.A.Q.

Permaculture Design Courses - Why Take One?

There are plenty of good books about permaculture including several excellent "How to" ones. Experience shows that those who take a course, even having read several books, gain a much deeper insight, and feel more empowered to practice the philosophy.

The courses are really enjoyable, students go home energised. The landscape around them, their home environment, their sense of purpose, all have a new meaning. It’s not necessarily what participants learn on the level of facts and figures, it is more about having a wholistic world view, integrating life experiences. It can be a subtle yet profound change, which can result in shifts in many areas of one’s life.

The Permaculture Design Certificate Course was developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holgrem some twenty years ago. Their purpose was to create a new vehicle for teaching design processes based on observation of nature, a wholistic approach. To this end a minimum of seventy two hours covers: design, patterns in nature, climate, trees, water, soils, energy cycles, earth working, strategies appropriate to the tropics, to humid and cool climates and drylands, to aquaculture, to buildings and to people structures. The course includes field trips, and hands-on experience.

Permaculture is a philosophy which guides our choice in everyday life. The basic principles of permaculture can drive our design choice when we are creating sustainable systems in which to live.

Permaculture takes into account that the earth - its animals (including humans), plants and minerals- is a living system in which the elements work together to create a self regulating, relatively stable, life nurturing system; the biosphere. Permaculture keeps us continually focussed on balance and harmony with nature so that we may create economically and environmentally sustainable patterns of living.

Modern society has become out of touch with nature. In nature there is no such thing as pollution. The output (including waste) of one system is the input of another. Everything happens in cycles: Energy cycles, carbon cycles, water cycles, nutrient cycles etc. In our modern world there is often interference with, one example is feeding the meatworks waste back to the animals whence it came in the form of calf food (something which is now happening in New Zealand), hence the disaster of mad cow disease.

Joanna and I, with guest tutors, organise and teach permaculture courses several times a year. They are residential "total immersion", that is full on, usually for twelve days The courses cater for people of all backgrounds and occupations. The diversity of the participants is one of the very enriching aspects, eg: a fourteen year old school student; an environmental negotiator for the EEC, a landscaper, a roofing contractor, a farmer, a wealthy lifestyler, a young woman who had never been to school. Contrary to the participants being hampered by the diversity of their backgrounds they are enriched by it There are hundreds of years of life experience embodied in every group. This wisdom contributes to our collective learning. Each course becomes a model embodying the principles of permaculture. It is a great opportunity to make new friends.

Our permaculture courses have a special focus on building up community. We spend an hour or so each day experiencing and learning about the process of community building This very profound process is based on the Scott Peck model. Scott Peck, author of ‘The Road Less Travelled’ and ‘A Different Drum’, provides guidelines for groups that take them through the phases of community building. The process teaches an appreciation for diversity, it helps our skills of observation and listening and of attending to ourselves as a whole system. All are very important qualities which assist us in creating win-win answers to our problems and harmony in our interactions with the rest of the universe.

The benefit of this approach is that it sets a basis for trust and risk taking which generates group unity and efficient decision making. This encourages flair and creativity in design and is reflected in the quality of output of the participants when doing design exercises.

The hands-on experience varies from course to course. This might be building a compost heap, making a mix of clay, sand and fibre for earth building, building a solar oven, making a worm farm, tree planting, plant identification and, of course, practise at getting a plan on paper.

The whole course is based on sustainable resource use, which in the case of food and fibre means organic (including biodynamic) production.

We include biological building in our courses because the building industry uses about 80% of the earths resources. An enormous amount of energy is embodied in building materials. Cement, for example, is second only to aluminium in the amount of energy used to refine it. Many building materials are the products of mining, a highly energy intensive and polluting industry. Biological building means looking at energy conservation in the retrofitting of old, or the building of new houses. It also covers issues of electro-magnetic radiation and avoiding sick building syndrome.

The courses we run are challenging, but really enjoyable. The opportunity to make new connections, with friends and with ideas is very rewarding. The connections one makes do not end with the course but are ongoing.

Permaculture has grown to be a world wide movement, each place finding its own way of developing the ideas to suit its geography, culture and climate.

Graduates of the course are issued a Permaculture Design Certificate that is internationally recognised. It entitles the holder to use the word ‘Permaculture’ in the pursuit of livelihood and for educational purposes. Course graduates may then pursue a Diploma of Permaculture.

For details please contact Joanna or Bryan phone 07 866 6735 or email eartheal@wave.co.nz.

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