My guest today is Eloisa Lewis. Eloisa is an American permaculture consultant, community building artist, activist, and healer. With her work as a project manager and educator, she helps guide communities of individuals into holistically regenerative paradigms and specializes in communal practices of decolonization.
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Eloisa joins me today to talk about her experiences in radical spaces, particularly Rainbow Gatherings but also in intentional community and activist camps, to put the principles of social permaculture into action. Throughout the conversation, she shares the ways those manifest in the acts of nonviolence, communication, and community justice. She also shares how she began down this road, where she studied permaculture, and some of her mentors for others who would like to journey down this path.
Find out more about Eloisa at newlcimateculture.com and on social media @nomadsoulful and @newclimateculture.
Throughout this conversation with Eloisa, I was thinking back to the experimental practices I’ve engaged in in-order to live into social permaculture, from launching permaculture convergences to visiting or living in intentional communities. These places served as vital opportunities to try non-violent communication, conflict transformation, restorative circles, and the other ways we can work together as human beings seeking to build permanent cultures that care for all life. The work is important to our long-term goals, but we need to see and experience them now before they’re necessary.
If we can attend radical gatherings or convergences, once they re-emerge from the pandemic, that’s amazing. I know, however, that that isn’t possible for everyone. In the meantime, or while we remain indoors, what are our options? The first place I would recommend starting is with Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication. Though Dr. Rosenberg has since passed on, his work continues to live and breathe through his book and the ongoing efforts of The Center for Nonviolent Communication.
I also linked to two other interviews below, one with Karl Stayeart and another with Ethan Hughes, that explore nonviolent communication and conflict transformation, so you can hear other voices engaged in this work. I also encourage you to reach out to Eloisa to see if she is currently hosting any workshops on these subjects you could attend virtually.
This conversation with Eloisa was also just the first to begin looking at radical spaces and how we can begin the ongoing processes of rewilding ourselves and working to decolonize our practices. If you know of anyone else working on these tasks who should appear in an upcoming episode, please let me know.
Leave a comment below or send me an email: The Permaculture Podcast
Until the next time, put your principles into practice while taking care of Earth, your self, and each other.
Related Interviews
Nonviolent Communication
Conflict Transformation
Resources
newclimateculture.com
@nomadsoulful
@newclimateculture
Find a Rainbow Gathering
Women’s Permaculture Guild
Heather Jo Flores
Urban Permaculture Institute of San Francisco