Stories to Decolonise Permaculture
Creating a free resource of stories about the origins and inspirations behind permaculture to aid teachers and practitioners in decolonising permaculture
Team
Rakesh Rootsman Rak, Ewan Findley, Jemma Findley
Reporting Officer: Rakesh Rootsman Rak
Area
Diversity, participation and engagement, Emergent festival, Next Steps project
Objectives
April 2023
By the end of October 2023 we will have
1. A way for people to capture electronically stories of the origins and inspirations of permaculture.
2. A process in place to verify the content
3. A way in which to share for free verified content to the public
4. Run a session for CoLab to explain how people can add content and how to use the content
5. Run a session for Permaculture Association Britain’s Educators CoP to explain how they can add content and how to use the content
6. Deliver a session on this work at the UK Permaculture convergence in September
Updated aims due to lack of funding through the Emergent Festival –
The amount allocated means we have budget for 24 hours of work, hence the first 3 parts of the project
8 – 8 – Look at what data we want to capture
8 – 16 – Create a structure to hold the data in a meaningful and flexible way (normalisation)
8 – 24 – Create a way for people to enter the initial sample content.
To complete the project we will apply for further funding from the CoLab Diversity pot.
For any shortfall, we will do crowdfunding to the general permaculture people worldwide.
We are confident we will achieve this, so this initial amount is a great way to get us up and running.
OUTCOMEs
September 2023 Update
We have completed the following;
Look at what data we want to capture.
Create a structure to hold the data in a meaningful and flexible way (normalisation).
Create a way for people to enter the initial sample content
Invite a select group of people to enter content.
Get feedback from contributors (what worked, what did not work, modifications do we need to make).
Evaluate the data we want to capture.
Adjust the data structure.
Update data entry.
You can find the form here
Next steps are;
Rakesh will present this at the Educators gathering this weekend and invite people to add more stories. During this meeting we will invite people to look at different aspects of the project, including the following
A) Verification process. How do we verify the content? Is it done by one person or 2? Who should do it? Can it be a team of several people, at least 2 of whom check and verify. What is the criteria? i.e. is it a historic or current practice, does it reflect permaculture practices, principles and ethics, does it reflect the story of the oppressor or oppressed, is it inclusive)
B) Technology: How do we present the content (front end) what back end technology do we use?
C) Future of the project: Once collated, how do we disseminate? How much content is enough, do we stop collating or is it never ending
Ewan and I will then design the back end to store the final content and the front end to present the data