Playful Permaculture Easter Camp
April 13, 2017 @ 12:00 PM - April 17, 2017 @ 2:00 PM UTC+2
PLAYFUL PERMACULTURE with Anthea Moys and Coen Meintjies
At the Tara Rokpa Centre and Tikologo Permaculture Project. More here: https://www.tararokpacentre.co.za/playful-permaculture
BOOKINGS HERE: https://goo.gl/forms/LGPPgRQ8tp2C5fmt1
Come and join us at the Tara Rokpa Centre this Easter Weekend for adults and children for 3,5 days spent learning about permaculture and playing! Everyone who has ever been to this special place in the beautiful Groot Marico district knows that in addition to the themed retreats, you also get fed the most incredibly delicious food, sleep so well, star gaze, swim in deep pools, sit in silence and return feeling rejuvenated and more alive. Join us!
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
The weekend will be divided up into sessions for permaculture and sessions for play. Each will speak to the next and will not stand on its own. See below for a taste of some of the things we will be doing…
• Tree planting and some permie info which goes with that. Drawing trees!
• Planting a companion herb bed. – This is quite cool as it deals with the permaculture concept of polycultural diversity and perennial gardening as well as companion planting.
• Making a worm farm – This will be fun for the kids as they will get to check out worms and learn a little bit about soil fertility. Watching worms. Doing worm breakdancing. Drawings, dance moves and poems inspired by worms!
• Making a rain garden – this is a water harvesting system and a great thing for people to learn about and see how easy it is to harvest water without needing tanks or much infrastructure. Make-believe is a large part of play: here we will tell some stories about various rain gods and goddesses.
• Another fun thing to do is to make clay seed balls. This is a pretty awesome technique and often used by urban ‘guerrilla gardeners’ but is just as fun to try at home. We will get to play with mud and get dirty and once the seed balls dry we can go on a seed bombing expedition. J Seed bombing in our Sunday best with Mud Hats!
A little on Permaculture: Bill Mollison, one of the founders of Permaculture states that:
“Permaculture is an ethical design system for creating sustainable human environments…On one level it deals with plants, animals, buildings and infrastructures. However, permaculture is not about these elements themselves, but rather, about the relationships we can create between them. The aim is to create systems that are ecologically sound and economically viable, which provide for their own needs, do not exploit or pollute and are therefore sustainable in the long term.”
Permaculture can teach us to take responsibility for our lives and cater to our needs in ways which do not destroy our natural environment. These are skills which will become ever more important and will greatly contribute to the health and well-being of future generations. The sooner our kids can learn about them the better!
Play is often considered a ‘waste of time’, a frivolous, useless activity reserved only for children. We are told to ‘Grow up! Get a job! And get serious about life.’ Increasingly, however, play is seen to be crucial, not just for children, but for adults too – with special benefits in the work place. And it’s never too late to play! Playing facilitates learning and individual growth. Playing is very much a part of any creative process. Play assists this process by flexing our imagination muscles: when we play we ‘pretend’, we ‘make believe’, which in turn expands possibilities. In this way play creates fertile ground for new collaborations, new connections and new ideas to germinate.
This event’s play sessions will be inspired by Anthea’s most recent Play Retreat held at the centre with Roberto Pombo in January 2017: https://www.facebook.com/events/706331969521663/ Some of what the playful sessions will include:
• Make believe and pretend play, day dreaming, risky play, rituaIised play, competitive game-play and more. Learning about your relationship to play: What is play for you? Have you forgotten how? Why is play important?
• Playing with and in mud: making mud castles, mud facemasks and mud weed hats.
• Drawing and collecting, hiding and finding things, possible treasure hunts
• Automatic drawing and writing, playing with chance and the sub/unconscious when making. Playing with paint, charcoal and, of course, mud.
• Adventuring and wandering into the wilderness of the Groot Marico as an explorer, investigator, quiet and gentle observer and responding creatively and curiously to what is there.
COURSE FEES:
The cost for this lovely long weekend experience includes 4 nights accommodation, 3 full days of activities and delicious vegetarian meals per day. Children under 3 years are free. See here: https://www.tararokpacentre.co.za/playful-permaculture
Bookings: Please book using our new online booking system: https://goo.gl/forms/LGPPgRQ8tp2C5fmt1
VENUE:
Tara Rokpa Centre –
Groot Marico district, North West Province (only 250km from Jozi)
https://www.tararokpacentre.co.za/docs/directions-to-trc.pdf
ABOUT THE FACILITATORS:
Anthea is an artist, a teacher, a play facilitator, a public speaker, a constant learner and a bad singer who has started an experimental choir. In 2008 she completed her Masters at Wits with a focus on play and performance in public space. In 2013 she was the inaugural winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Performance Art. Anthea has dedicated her life to the study and practice of play and how it benefits us in so many ways. She shares this with others in her performances, art class adventures, workshops, talks and retreats. Anthea lives, learns, works and plays in Johannesburg. www.antheamoys.com
Coen is a permaculture designer and enthusiast currently living and working at the Tara Rokpa Centre. He directs the Tikologo Permaculture Project, which is just a fancy way to say he plays in the garden all day. He has spent the last 3 years learning about and implementing sustainable strategies on the project site and loves to tell and teach people about what has been learnt along the way.