In this episode, I speak to permaculture educator Karen Noon. Karen originally hails from South Africa, but now lives on a small farm in Brittany, France. Karen comes from a corporate background, but ten years ago that all changed. Today I speak with Karen about the importance of personal storytelling in transformative education and how she sees permaculture as a way of re-storying ourselves, our gardens and our world. She shares her ‘river of life’ story and the event in her life that led her to put people’s voices at the heart of everything she does. She outlines how to do the river of life as a personal exercise or with learners.
Karen runs Afrinoon Permaculture, where you can find out more about her, her farm and her courses: http://www.afrinoonpermaculture.org/
Karen mentions the Permaculture Association, which oversees permaculture education in the UK. It can be found here: https://www.permaculture.org.uk/
A version of the River of Life exercise can be found here, if you’d like to give it a try yourself: https://pubs.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/G02828.pdf
photo credit to Wes Meadows
Restorying the Earth 