Part Two

ENERGY CONFERENCE

The real Oil! Everyone was there, it seemed: Crown Ministers and wannabes, councillors, staff from various agencies and trusts, fertilizer, farming and forestry people, even a pocket of global warming sceptics, pushing their loudly squeaking barrow - a broad cross-section of Southlanders, all interested in the future as described by speakers at The Energy Challenges and Choices for Southland conference in Invercargill. All those in the audience were set back in their seats by the things they heard from the speakers, especially the powerful messages from Professor Bob Lloyd of Otago University and Canterbury University’s Emeritus Professor Arthur Williamson. Neither men of science pulled their punches, telling the story of our most likely future. It’s one, they said, that is significantly different from what we have now. Oil, petrol and diesel, priced out of our reach and dwindling fast. Broad and irreversible climate change affecting food crops world wide. Traditional systems of transport and trade turned on their head. Lean times for all. The key message from both men; our dedication to growth, growth and more growth is a dead-end pathway. We must all re-think. The realities of finite resources and a limit to how much of our waste, industrial and personal, the planet can absorb, mean we no longer have a choice. We need to adapt quickly! Sitting in the audience, I heard more than one sharply indrawn breath being taken! What will be the upshot of all this, now that the conference is over? Are there any signs of movement from the movers and shakers of our region toward preparing for peak oil and climate change? Is the mayor calling a Special Meeting? Are the CEO’s mobilising their forces? The award for the best effort and quickest response must go to the Transition Town group that met last weekend at Lumsden. They’re already networking and taking stock of the resources; people and infrastructure, that will become increasingly valuable, if and when the scenario presented by Professors Lloyd and Williamson become a reality. Let’s hope our mayors, councillors, town and city ’mothers’ and ’fathers’ get moving soon, to keep up with the already activated ’grass roots’ of Southland.

PERMACULTURE WORKSHOP in RIVERTON

Earth care, People care, Fair Share...

What fantastic maxims to live by. I had been in New Zealand for a few months. My interests in coming here focused on the building of resilience for people and communities. That in plain English means that when there are problems looming in such essential areas as food production, transport, home comfort, clean water in fact just about everything we do rely on in this particular incarnation of society, how well will we cope and how will we fend for ourselves if it all turns to custard. . “Those ingenious Kiwi’s will have some clever ideas of how to over come these current world problems.” I thought to myself.

I had heard about permaculture a number of years back in the UK. while doing a course in natural building and renewable energy. It had always captured my attention and as an holistic thinker it struck me as a good foundation and philosophy to learn from and build on. When I found a course based in Riverton, the first of it's kind this far south, I was captivated. The weather conditions and climate zone fit well when compared to the Welsh Marches area of the UK I am from.

So on a sunny day in April I set out for Riverton.

The main teaching space was a hall in a caravan park. There was plenty of room for the interactive warm ups and activities that are part and parcel of this school of thought and method of information exchange. We talked about and acted out the principles of permaculture with games while discussions, numerous tips and useful bits of information were continually being offered by the obviously well experienced students. It was in fact a melting pot of ideas with advice on all manner of useful topics coming from every direction. This was interwoven with sumptuous organic, local produce applied generously and regularly.

The whole course was an immersion technique. We had practice projects to cut our teeth on designed to work towards the grand finally of a full permaculture design of a local property. The students had a plethora of different skills and a concatenation of diverse interests, the ability to create a congenial and relaxed Whanau in which to communicate and interact was perhaps the greatest aid to learning.

Our esteemed tutors, Robina and Huckleberry were experienced and had a wealth of information at their combined disposal, aided and abetted by Robert and Robyn Guyton with their overflowing wealth of knowledge and local anecdotes. We were occasionally allowed to wander in search of sustenance in their food forest, festooned in all it’s autumn glory, with the added incentive: first hand evidence of what our labours could, given time and dedication, achieve. The energy and warmth that was created in the group was incredible and it is easy to see how a strong community can work together with the right direction and mutually beneficial interaction to become resilient and sustainable.

For myself the course was a wonderful introduction to a further understanding of the connectedness of all things and our place in that delicate balance. For too long humans have thought themselves outside or above nature rather then completely reliant upon a harmoniously connected balance.

Matthew Bateman