An introduction by Eloise Wilkinson
Once upon a time in the 1970’s professor Bill Mollinson and David Holmgren set off from Tasmania on an adventure. They visited different continents and different communities of people who had been living the same way with the same relationship to the land for a very long time.
They observed on this adventure that people had a very close relationship to the land they lived with, they worked with nature, not against it. They worked sustainably, mimicking natures interdependent relationships.
They observed how close the communities were, they observed how each member had a part to play in the whole, everybody was important, had a job to do depending on their skill set or what they felt drawn to.
When they returned they wanted to find a way of communicating all that they had learnt and observed in a way that people who live in different modern societies would understand.
So they came up with the word PERMACULTURE: permanent agriculture/permanent culture=PERMACULTURE.They then came up with a set of principles to encompass 3 key areas which has become the Ethos of Permaculture:
People care, Fair share and Earth care
Which leads to 12 principles, to detail that Ethos in practical terms.
Further to that comes sets of tools for designing sustainable systems to include those principles. I will elaborate on further in due course. This was just the beginning, many many books later, written by many many different people from all over the world and permaculture is an established movement of people working towards a sustainable form of agriculture, building stronger communities and including the importance of self care.
Kinda Forest school will offer children the opportunity to explore those principles and put them into action in the Woodland. Understanding that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, that that thing is, amongst others, a living, breathing, highly sensitive, highly intelligent, mind blowing, awe inspiring system is vitally important if we are to equip the next generation to care for it. We feel a sense of belonging in nature and even better to feel a sense of belonging as a tribe in nature and here it’s the kinda tribe 
🙂
🙂Each month we will look at a principal in detail and how this can be applied to forest school:
September : OBSERVE AND INTERACT (or Take a look around!)
Great links for further investigation
The permaculture association: www.permaculture.org.ukPermaculture for children: http://childreninpermaculture.com/Permaculture principles in song! : http://formidablevegetable.com.au/
Kinda Forest School 