[Pil-pc-oceania] "Australian" Permaculture Convergence?

[penny pyett]

Dear Robyn
and others, you are quite right, names and wording are important in ensuring the inclusiveness of people, in this case our
neighbours, in the naming of and invitations to APC9.  Words say and mean something. They make
important political statements that are psychologically embedded in people’s
minds and can affect attitudes and behavior. 



 I can
assure you there was no intention not to include our neighbours or exclude
anyone.  It was an error on our part but
one we are able to easily rectify in our APC9 registration forms and other
documents, if we can get some consensus on the issue.  



 Instead, PN
should be best judged for what we have done on the ground to encourage
participation and inclusiveness of our neighbours and “disadvantaged”. One of
our members went to the recent Eco-show in NZ where she personally spoke to
permaculturalists and hand distributed many APC9 flyers of invitation. I have
made several phone calls to NZ permaculture people, we have invited NZ guest
speakers and we continue to distribute news and information to our N Z
colleagues. We have heard that there will probably be the biggest contingent of
New Zealanders coming to a national convergence to date. PN is also sponsoring
two Aboriginal or Torres Straight Islanders to APC9 and we are always looking
for ways to open doors, encourage participation, be inclusive and enable
access. We are able to put our money where our mouth is and do some of these things
for three reasons, one, because we have a strong permaculture group structure,
two, because we have the will and three, because we fund raise. What are other
Permaculture Groups doing?     



 We have
checked the proceedings of IPC7 and find no reference of using “Australasia” instead
or Australia
at all. Perhaps it was another event? 
Until we get a common agreement on this issue, I think we will continue
to call it Australian as others have done in the past and for the reasons
Graeme has pointed out that NZ and others have their own National
convergences. I would particularly like to know the views of our NZ and pacific
island neighbours before assuming it is ok with them to be included in the
title or if they don’t care or are happy to continue to have their own.  To date no-one has complained.



 So what’s
it to be Australia,
Australia-Pacific, Australasia,
Australasia-Pacific? What does everyone else think????? Perhaps this issue
could be re-visited and go on the agenda for a vote at APC9?Penny




 PS. If
there is anything else you think we should know about could the elders of Permaculture
with the movement’s memory please advise us (before hand if possible).



 

Penny Pyett President 2007 
Permaculture North Inc. 
(02) 9888 2575 or 1300 887 145 
"mail to: president at permaculturenorth.org.au" 

Sharing sustainable solutions with communities.

_________________________________________________________________
Your Future Starts Here. Dream it? Then be it! Find it at www.seek.com.au
http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fninemsn%2Eseek%2Ecom%2Eau%2F%3Ftracking%3Dsk%3Ahet%3Ask%3Anine%3A0%3Ahot%3Atext&_t=764565661&_r=OCT07_endtext_Future&_m=EXT
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://jasper.cmsarchitects.com/pipermail/pil-pc-oceania/attachments/20071121/96e28506/attachment.html