The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

happily watching

the dewdrops forming...

a frog

- issa

I was borne in the damp cedar rainforests of British Columbia's mossy west coast which is protected from the open Pacific by Vancouver Island. Growing up in the misty woods and snow capped peaks that are the traditional lands of the Coastal First Peoples, my mother inspired in me a love for nature.

After running an ecological gardening business for 7 years to pay my way through university I discovered permaculture and it was love at first sight. Dedicated to life long learning I have continually taken regular permaculture classes, courses, workshops, and teacher trainings since that first day of class

I am inspired explore how nature is designed, and how we can become sustainable designers ourselves.

My first PDC course in 2002 was through April-Sampson Kelly's online Permaculture Visions course with a local group of plant people on a small working permaculture farm in the tiny mountain village where I still live.

Soon after this with Ainsley Krone under the incredible support of Marilyn Magas, we got funding from the Federal Canadian government to set up a full time year long youth program bringing permaculture into the elementary schools in our bioregion. The curriculum included giving 26 young adults permaculture design certifications through two different online courses that I co-facilitated. The youth program built community gardens to grow food for the food bank, week long permaculture campaigns at elementary schools in our region, and built demonstration sites in a number of public locations. For this two year work intensive I was awarded a Permaculture Diploma in Education and Community Service from Bill Mollison.

Over the next five years I completed the core requirements for my Masters Degree Project in Permaculture Education which included building the 'Heart Gardens', a community permaculture education site in my home village of Roberts Creek. Here where I have brought permaculture to people of different ages and educational backgrounds including children from Homeschool, Waldorf and Elementary/Highschool systems as well as students from alternative school programs, college, university and elder college. This schooling included advanced teacher trainings with the Bullock Brothers on their homestead in the San Juan Islands, as well as with Tom Ward and Jude Hobbs at Aprovecho in Oregon.

For the next 5 years I created permaculture demonstration sites and green conferences at festivals North America and Europe, developed teaching tools and written articles.

Currently I am working on a second Diploma through the Permaculture Institute USA. As part of this process I co-organized a planetary permaculture pilgrimage to do back to back advanced teacher trainings with Rosemary Morrow, Geoff Lawton, David Holmgren and Robyn Clayfield. During this time I became an accredited teacher through the Permaculture Research Institute.

In 2012 i taught seven different 14 month Urban-Rural Permaculture Design Certificate courses and two Advanced Permaculture Diploma courses through Gaiacraft and the Sustainable Living Arts School. With my friends Tamara Griffiths, Ali Ma, Jacob Aman and Lunaya Shekinah I have co-created a series of learning and teaching tools, a workbook of worksheets and a permacultured social networking platform on the gaiacraft website. I also volunteered to facilitate a unique new course with the assistance of Martin Bridge at CoSM in New York. This creative All Seasons model PDC features an artistic permaculture mapping and design project. I journeyed out to Portland 6 times to take a PDC with Toby Hemenway including guest teachers Tom Ward, Jude Hobbs, Mark Lakeman, Michael Becker and Larry Santoyo. To complete my diploma this autumn I hosted a permaculture teacher training led by Larry Santoyo and Scott Pittman which was the completion of a two year Permaculture Diploma. I am now working on a new 5 year period of intensive permaculture work, teaching and media development as part of a Doctoral Study.

www.gaiacraft.com
www.villagerepair.org