permaculture in aboriginal communities

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by charlottefl, May 4, 2008.

  1. charlottefl

    charlottefl Junior Member

    Joined:
    May 4, 2008
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    hi everyone,

    I am an architecture student (so know very little about permaculture systems!) and i am undertaking a project designing housing for an aboriginal community 30km out of Darwin.

    I would like to integrate the housing into an entire self sustainable permaculture system in order to develop the whole site.. buit i dont know how to, what sort of system would be appropriate??

    The climate is tropical (wet/dry seasons). The site has a decent slope to it.

    ANY SUGGESTIONS??? Please!!

    thanks alot,

    charlotte
     
  2. Sonya

    Sonya Junior Member

    Joined:
    May 11, 2006
    Messages:
    200
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    Not an expert myself on this, but there are plenty of permaculture teachers who specialise in built environment and large scale designs.

    People who come to mind are Max Lindegger and Morag Gamble and Evan Raymond all at Crystal Waters.

    Good luck, great idea, I'm sure there will be other people members here suggest.

    Cheers,
    Sonya
     
  3. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2005
    Messages:
    1,590
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    Charlotte,

    Good luck with this. I have seen permie projects in indigenous communities hijacked and thwarted. Gardening Australia has done a lot to help build the image and spread the word on permaculture.

    Darwin should have a permaculture group that would be a great resource to you.

    Lastly, which community? Belyuen, 18 mile??

    cheers,
     
  4. charlottefl

    charlottefl Junior Member

    Joined:
    May 4, 2008
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    palmerston indigenous village.

    do you have any info on projects that have failed??!

    thanks
     
  5. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2005
    Messages:
    1,590
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    Charlotte,

    Projects have failed at Elcho, Gapuwiyak, Kybrook Farm,Binjarri and at Ngukurr although all of these were ''gardens'' and I dont know how much community planning was involved. The banana farm at Yirrkala has had successes in the past but that is mostly down to the quality of the full time farm manager.

    They failed due to vandalism[of plants and irrigation equipment], lack of follow-up and poor understanding across the community of the aims of permaculture. The transient nature of indigenous life in northern australia is also a factor as most traditional families have more than one place they call home so they can be away for months at a time. There is also the issue of money.



    At the Fifteen Mile/PIV there are noise, dust, shade, stormwater and fire issues to be considered and could be permie'd.

    There are enough mangoes being bulldozed at the moment that you could probably transplant whole trees and skip the establishment phase.

    Have you done a Perm Design Course?

    cheers,
     
  6. charlottefl

    charlottefl Junior Member

    Joined:
    May 4, 2008
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    thanks.. i havent done a perm design course.. i am an architecture student and we went up to piv a few weeks ago but now coming back to melbourne to develop designs for the community, i would really like to put forward the option of integratng the housing with a permaculture system... i just know nothing about permaculture and therefore was looking for some info on an appropriate system/cycle (?) to put in place !

    thanks for your help.. much appreciated
     
  7. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2005
    Messages:
    1,590
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    Charlottefl,

    It is rewarding for me to hear that architects are looking at an aboriginal community, much of the work in indegenous communities has been done by well meaning and often unqualified town clerks, cdep co-ordinators, bookkeepers etc. This has meant that most communities are a patchwork of projects that reflect the political and social desires of the government of the day.

    Bill Mollison the proponent of Permaculture put out, some years ago, a video called 'The Global Gardener'[??] which will give you a real insight into Permaculture and what it is about with examples from australia, north america, india and africa. You should be able to get a copy from your uni library.

    I think Permaculture should be included in what you are doing so best of luck.

    cheers,
     
  8. Yuralani

    Yuralani Junior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2008
    Messages:
    7
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    I couldnt find the bit where you said you were going to ask the Indigenous people what they would want.

    Maybe it was there and I missed it.
     
  9. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2005
    Messages:
    1,590
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    Yuralani,

    Maybe you missed my input. Perhaps you are across the issue of the intervention program. You may even be across the issue of indigenous child abuse..??
    Good for you, we are about nutrition. Good nutrition for all concerned.

    Cheers and I have seen this before,
     
  10. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2005
    Messages:
    1,590
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    Hiya Yuralani,


    You missed the bit where you mitght be qualified. Maybe you should help us out?

    Otherwise, this community's fate may well be sorted..........................

    cheers,
     
  11. Yuralani

    Yuralani Junior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2008
    Messages:
    7
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    Hi ho-hum,

    What's wrong with asking? Why is the question bothering you? Didnt mean to upset you.

    I am qualified in some things but not all.
    :?

    Yuralani from Duruk mob


    Great book "Why warriors lay down and die". I recommend it to everyone I come in contact with. I would love to meet the guy that wrote it.
     
  12. charlottefl

    charlottefl Junior Member

    Joined:
    May 4, 2008
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    hi

    firstly, as a university class from melbourne, we went up to darwin to talk to the community a month ago. for practicality reasons, we had to come back to melbourne to complete the project. however a good week was spent in community consultation and we gained a great deal of community input in leading our designs.

    secondly, i have bought and read the book why warriors lie down and die.

    i am not ignorant towards the issues and gainign community involvement, as we are doing this to guide our designs. and therefore from the reading ive done and community consultations, i believe that a basic permaculture would be greatly beneficial for nutrition values and also for giving a practical education to the young men we are designing for.

    thanks
     
  13. ecodharmamark

    ecodharmamark Junior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2005
    Messages:
    2,922
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    G'day All :)



    If you are contemplating any sort of community planning and design, you could do a lot worse than read the following:

    Arnstein's Ladder is famous, and all over the web, hence the link.


    Planning Australia should be available in most libraries, and you can still buy new copies of Christopher Alexander's classic work A Pattern Language - a snip at $60 from Fishpond.

    Hooroo, Mark.



    Arnstein, Sherry R. (1969) "A Ladder of Citizen Participation"
    https://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnste ... ation.html

    Wensing, Ed (Chapter 11)"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians", and
    Zehner, Robert & Marshall, Nancy (Chapter 12) "Community Participation: To Be Involved or Not To Be Involved - Is That the Question?" in Planning Australia (2007), edited by Susan Thompson. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

    Alexander, Christopher (1977) "A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction". USA: Oxford University Press.



    Oh, and one more...this is brilliant stuff:

    Christoper Benninger's Intelligent Urbanism
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles ... t_Urbanism

    :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
     
  14. Yuralani

    Yuralani Junior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2008
    Messages:
    7
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    well done charlottefl

    sounds like your project will be great.

    Here's an unrelated story.

    My mum worked for the Dept of Housing here in Qld and was sent up to some island communities to see what they wanted when the new houses were built (they destroyed the previous ones).

    After a week of talks with the community they found out that what they really wanted was a big central open building that had all the cooking and eating areas in it so that they could get together and cook communially. Then this central building could be surrounded by smaller buildings containing bedrooms, loungerooms, toilets/bathroom and a very small kitchen (all this just for privacy with their individual families).

    My mum took this back to the Department. They patted her on the head and said it was a great idea. A year later the builders were in - building separate standard box houses all in a row.

    The houses lasted about 18 months before they were uninhabitable again.

    My mum doesnt work there anymore.
     
  15. barely run

    barely run Junior Member

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2005
    Messages:
    583
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    Same thing happened in Cairns many years ago. I think permaculture ideas would suit an indigenous community provided you have local involvement. Including things like rain water collection and grey water systems, a community fire pit for cooking and meeting place, ensuring all plantings have several uses, food, fire wood, stock fodder if needed. Secure chook tractors would be needed as mulipy dogs are an inherent part of life. Interested local people could be sent to a permaculture desgn course or better still bring in an experienced teacher. Perhaps designs of buildings should be very open plan with small bedrooms..........curved iron roofs........flow through ventilation...something like a permanent tent. the aboriginal people I knew in nth QLD were connected to their surroundings and liked to be outside under trees etc than cooped up in a traditional government designed house. My husband did his carpenetry apprentice with Dept Works building aboriginal houseing and schools. 35 yrs ago the builders knew the houses wern't what the people wanted but gov. decreed what could be built. I hope your project is a sucess, come back to us with any particular questions.
    Cheers
    Cathy
     
  16. Tamara

    Tamara Junior Member

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2007
    Messages:
    213
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    0
    Re: permaculture in aboriginal communities

    Give Bill a ring in Tassie.

    There is a PDC coming up in the Pilbara soon - to be posted on the Tagari web site...

    He has some great house designs for hot areas in the manual.

    See also the PPP manifesto. I have pasted in some relevant bits.

    Kind regarrds,
    Tamara


    Housing

    Cheap housing
    In the past, people had no trouble building a house affordably, buying their timber from local spot mills and building it themselves. A loan of $12 000 could buy timber, roofing and fittings. Spot mills could employ 5 people and produce all the timber for 30 houses.

    The cheap way for anybody who wants to a house is to work a week in a spot mill. Their timber will be dropped off to them and they will build the house themselves. People will be trained and supervised.

    A second way to obtain a house is to work in a building co-op similar to the one in Maryborough, Victoria. In this, people form building groups, and work on each other’s houses. After so many hours work on other people’s houses, they are eligible for a house themselves. Again, people will be trained and supervised.

    So housing can be obtained by
    1. Working for a week in a spot mill
    2. Be part of a building co-op

    Energy efficient housing
    We will make it illegal not to build energy efficient houses

    All architecture students must learn the techniques of self-sufficient buildings. It remains to allow 12 – 14m² of garden (on roofs, or at ground level), and food, water, and energy are provided by buildings! Such a society can last forever, in comfortable and clean surroundings.

    The Designers Manual has good examples of energy efficient homes and there is software in Australia such as AccuRate, NatHers and BERS that you can run your building plans through to see how well they rate. Houses that have a rating of 10 require no artificial heating or cooling. Houses below this star rating should not be built. This will force the end of the McMansion.

    Houses can be retrofitted by using this software and using building resources such as:
    https://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/index.htm

    The PPP will run a competition for young architects to design the cheapest and energy efficient houses. The designs will be published.

    Dangerous housing
    Some houses must be destroyed because they are made from unsafe materials such as radioactive granite and are dangerous to health. We must also be very careful where we build underground, due to radon levels.

    The PPP will make Geiger counters available at a reasonable price so people can live safely. PPP members will have Geiger counters available for rent.









    Aboriginal People

    “If you haven’t made it possible for a child to pick an orange every day, you haven’t commenced.”

    The apology to aborigines by Kevin Rudd had not only relieved us all of a great guilt but is clearing the way to rehabilitation and reparation.

    Our part to date consists of food gardens in settlements and outstations – some 40 places. The gardeners at Poverty Flat near Ceduna are possibly the world’s best dry land gardeners.

    We have had no problem supplying good quality food to the children and we know that HOME gardens are the answer to malnutrition.

    We support the training of at-risk youth to form teams to install excellent food gardens at Aboriginal households, with automatic, low volume watering systems, so they are low maintenance.

    We will place fruit trees, particularly orange and mandarins in home gardens.

    We will offer Aboriginal students free courses in Permaculture design covering home gardens, nutrition, housing and dry land technology. Some of our Aboriginal students already have diplomas and they can supervise the courses as they are competent in nursery work.

    Education for Aboriginal people should hone in on what it is that makes them sick as so many have chronic illness and many children have several.

    Building the children a swimming pool seems to be everyone’s aim. But pool water enables ear infection to proliferate, deafness spreads rapidly and many are functionally deaf with perforated eardrums.

    We recognise the essential connection between land and people of the Aboriginal nations and will assist them to establish their rights over specified sites.

    18% or more of bores have radioactive or harmful minerals and will cause more cancers and the failure of organs. Many bores have levels of salt above 2000ppm of salt, another cause of kidney breakdown. Aborigines need to be better equipped to test these bores or better still the roof areas and tanks that will catch rainwater.

    We will close all radioactive bores in Aboriginal settlements and call the perpetrators to account. Water will be collected in tanks from suitably designed house roofs and tank making will be taught to Aboriginal fabricators.

    Food

    We believe all people should have access to affordable, organic and nutritious food.

    We will encourage anybody who can produce such food and make sure they have access to markets.

    Food testing authority
    We shall assist the establishment of a sophisticated food testing authority.
    This will remove food labelled organic, but actually is not grown using organic techniques. One example is “organic” food which has many times the nitrate levels for good health from the overuse of chook manure. Also, some people use the label organic, but do not observe organic practices.

    We will require all food available for sale to be tested by a good laboratory. To be able to sell food, produce must test free of any dangerous substances or dangerous levels of any element.
    Test results will be printed on labels. There is a working model in California that can be drawn upon.

    We know that some onion crops are sprayed 30 times and that potato crops are sprayed 15 times and that many sprays are persistent or systemic and are present in every cell of the sprayed plant. Food poisoned by sprays with have the people who sold or suggested the sprays identified and closed down.

    We support the choice in consumption of organic or inorganic food. Bill thinks that people who support in-organic agriculture should be force fed the food they spray, so they disappear sooner.
    Normal people who choose health will have the opportunity to obtain it.

    Genetically modified food
    We oppose genetically modified crops, originally because they are unnecessary, secondly because they give ownership of the crop to the genetic manipulator, although that crop has probably evolved by people unknown to that genetic manipulator. They own it, not the genetic manipulator.

    Thirdly because the techniques recommended by Henry Kissinger to gain control of the population, using what he called “Zap Potential” of absolute control, so that people can grow but do not own their crop. And fourthly, we do not know if GM crops are safe to consume. We know that some are harmful.

    Tax deductibility for sustainable farming only
    We will remove tax deductibility for farm purchases for tree crops intended for pulping and transfer this tax advantage to people producing organic food.

    We do not support non sustainable farming that is those that lay waste to soil and water systems, use inefficient growing methods or use chemical sprays for fertilisers. Tax deductability for these farmers should be removed. Tax deductibility is for people who are serving the public good, not those who are harming the public.

    We support farmers who have triple bottom line accounting. In practical terms, this means expanding the traditional reporting framework to take into account environmental and social performance in addition to financial performance.

    Gleaning
    We will support gleaning systems for unwanted foodstuffs and again supply tax deductions for food donated to those systems.
    This system will have three levels.
    1. For the very poor, food will be free.
    2. For the poor, food will be sold at a low price
    3. The rest can be processed and sold for profit
    Land for food
    Land should be leased to people to grow food on. OXFAM in Britain runs a system whereby people with land or older people that can no longer maintain their gardens can sign a standard contract to allow people with none or insufficient land to grow food. They run lists in post offices and other public places where people can exchange their needs. OXFAM has a standard contract.

    We will encourage PPP members to maintain such lists and oversee the signing of standard contracts.

    Milk
    We support herds of older breeds of “Type 2” milk (Jerseys, Dexters). “Type 2” milk does not cause heart attacks as the milk from Friesian cows does.

    We believe that milk should be organic, non homogenised and non pasteurised and must be frequently tested by good laboratories.
    People producing such milk will be eligible for tax-deductibility. People producing sheep and goat milk will also be eligible for this tax deductibility.

    Nutrition
    We will research, publish and make available lists of food that is very nutritious, needs least maintenance and uses the least amount of space. Quinoa for example is a grain that has sulphur amino acids and thus is a more complete protein than other grains.

    Water

    Swales
    If we allow 100% for the water that fall on an area of land, probably 80% of this precipitation is as a result of condensation of moist air on leaves. Some countries measure both rainfall and condensation (South Africa and Tasmania).

    If we allow 100% for precipitation, 88% of it runs off the land and goes into the sea or to inland depressions or evaporates, leaving only 12% for all the duties of water. This is the major waste of water.

    If you survey dead level lines across the landscape at intervals not exceeding 100m and commencing at 2m below the top of the slope, then all the water that runs across the surface of the land will pool in channels dug along these lines, ranging from .5 to 3m width and .5 to 1.5 m deep, called swales. The spoil from this channel is piled on the lower lip of the swale.

    If rain persists above 12mm in one hour, water flows across the lands and pools in the swales. No water leaves the property. Usually within 3 hours, all this water soaks in and is immune from evaporation or run off loss. That is the swale system affords a total water conservation of precipitation. No other system does this.

    What is the ultimate use of this water? Modern swales in California within the settlement of Village Homes stored in their first year about 2m of saturated soil below the swale base. That is now some 18m deep, and we can expect all swales in effect to store vast quantities of water adjacent to the swale. After a few years, trees planted below the line of the swale are drought immune and add their share of condensation moisture to precipitation.

    A landscape of swales and trees is in effect drought proof and eternally productive. Thus we believe that all such earthworks should be not only tax deductible but encouraged by all authorities in order to restore landscapes to health.

    We have inspected 60 year old swales that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had people build through deserts, dug by FDR’s corps of workers in the 1930’s. They have never ceased to stabilise the dry lands evaporation and erosion and grow large trees.

    A proportion of all state money should always go towards the construction of swales in cities and all farms. This we see as a national priority to off set desertification and global warming.

    Swales need to be part of every subdivision plan and are easily placed in open forests because it is possible to dig above and below the survey line and thus around trees. The only places where swales are not recommended by us are the steep slump slopes of deforested basalt flows. These are liable to slump with high water content in the soil.

    It is safe for wheeled tractors to create swales up to 12% slope. Above this they must be hand dug or made by crawler excavators.

    We believe it is possible to restore the entire Murray – Darling system with a national swaling program for the system. This would be a permanent solution for river flow but would never cope with lavish irrigation of unsuitable crops such as rice and cotton.

    In Tucson, Arizona, those gardens we have swaled from the downpipe are noticeably green while others are desert gardens.




    Rainwater
    Rainwater from roofs should be stored in large tanks for every house and impeding bylaws that prevent this should be nullified. Every building can supply its own water needs. Some commercial buildings can supply water for many homes.

    We support a 100% government subsidy for the purchase, construction, fittings and associated plumbing services for rainwater tanks.

    Wycheproof collects the water from all housing roofing and pumps it out to holding lagoons for public use. Ideally such lagoons should be roofed to prevent evaporation or covered with floating white blocks to reflect the sun, as in South Africa.

    Civil Engineering
    All civil engineers must be instructed on uses of swales to accept road run-off on both sides of the road to grow rows of trees as seen in Mexico, and NEVER to concentrate run-off in concrete pipes and shoot it down hill from the road. In this way they have created gullies by our roads. They must be directed to go back and swale all of our water. Every desert gulch has been created by civil engineers. Australia can not afford any such incidents. The civil engineer of Pt Augusta, South Australia, created swales and so this town looks like a forest when approached.
     

Share This Page

-->