Permaculture Is Political

Join us over 3 days as we foster fresh perspectives & implement transformation.

Gathering over zoom on the 2nd, 4th and 5th of October, we'll be hearing from a range of incredible initiatives and speakers from a variety of lived experiences on how we can raise the bar, claim accountability & design for empowered action.

A Zoom link will be sent out to ticket purchasers one week prior to event and will entitle purchasers access to the recorded content.

Permaculture is Political

Permaculture as it was in the 80’s looks very different to the permaculture of today and that’s something to be excited about. During a time of climate catastrophe, attacks on treaties, social and economic upheaval, the need for justice is urgent —our design choices carry real, tangible stakes. 

Food and land use can either be a force of liberation—or a tool of oppression. Historically, the permaculture movement has often claimed to be "apolitical"—yet we know nothing in an ecosystem plays a neutral role. Especially when systems are designed on stolen land using colonial frameworks, while our global ecosystems & frontline communities bear the brunt of systemic harm.

What we plant, what we build, and how we relate matters deeply. Designing community led ways of caring for ourselves and the planet has never been more important. Let’s reframe design & honour its critical need right now. In this time of great change, how do we become mycelial?

Saprotrophic Fungi - Decomposing Power

These mushrooms thrive by feeding on decaying organic matter, permeating rotting wood and releasing enzymes to decompose complex compounds. Then a process of transformation can take place - a foundation for new life.

Permaculture and other regenerative design frameworks hold immense potential to reimagine our current systems. But without dismantling harmful systems, they risk replicating the same extractive structures they seek to replace. Part of recontextualising permaculture as a radical framework is composting outdated structures and ideas.

Parasitic Fungi - Divesting Power
As the old structures decompose, let’s become parasitic fungi, pulling power from colonial systems of violence, & find pathways to relocate energy and resources into regenerative community based systems.

Parasitic mushrooms help regulate our ecosystem & open space for different species to contribute. Let’s divest these resources & create new space by redefining who and what permaculture is for - accelerating the natural cycles of decay & regeneration.

Mycorrhizal Fungi - Distributing Power

Mycorrhizal fungi are the great networkers and symbiotic collaborators. Their complex relationships with the roots of trees and other plants are key to sharing knowledge, mutual benefit and the redistribution of resources. In our communities this means creating relational systems that serve the many—not just the few & uncovering networks of liberations and mutual aid that bring diversity to our ecosystem.

This means centering First Nations justice, queer, disabled, migrant, youth and traditionally othered voices —those pushing boundaries, expanding worldviews & building radical bridges across silos. It is with these movements we must co-design new systems as they understand most intimately the power structures we all need to decompose. 

In this moment, to grow food, to build systems, to hold space, and to design futures—we must do so with integrity, with vision, and with the awareness that everything we do is part of an ecosystem of change. The work must be bold, collaborative, decolonial, and radically human. It must ignite trust, self-organisation, and movement building.