Nature-based maintenance
In 1963 Richard Lee went to live with the !Kung San, an isolated population of 1,000 hunter gatherering people in northern Botswana.
For the next ten years Lee would discover that contrary to popular understanding the foraging life the !Kung lived was not one of hardship and toil to survive.
On the contrary, Lee found that even though the !Kung had fewer material possessions they enjoyed a generally abundant life that had more balance, connection to place, and social time than his own.
Typically a !Kung adult would have their food and household tasks done in around 15-20 hours per week leaving about 20-25 hours left for reciprocal rituals, dances, songs, ceremonies, stories and games that connected them to each other and the Earth.
At the end of a long working week spent largely in front of a screen this way of scheduling life sounds incredibly attractive.
And while we pay lip service to work/life balance we’re actually spending more time than ever being productive and atomic habitty and not noticing the correlation between how little we maintain our cultural and spiritual connection to Earth and the cascade of ecological crises we’re currently experiencing.
Which brings me to this year’s CERES Winter Solstice, where thousands will join on the Village Green to mark the turning point of winter and celebrate the return of the light on the longest night of the year.
Marking Solstice each year is a sort of nature-based maintenance activity. For the Earth and us to be our best we need to schedule these and a lot of other reciprocal rituals, dances, songs, ceremonies, stories and games that connect us to each other and the Earth.
This year we’ll be holding not one, but two Solstice celebrations – a family-friendly Friday night on June 20 and an adult-only celebration on Saturday June 21.
Both nights culminate in a spectacular fire sculpture finale.
Tickets are selling fast – more info here!
Rowan Reid and Paul Haar talk trees
This Thursday evening as part of this year’s Melbourne Design Week author and agroforester, Rowan Reid is joined by architect and Fair Wood co-founder, Paul Haar, to talk about agroforestry, beauty and the future of timber at the Fair Wood warehouse in Preston.
Rowan Reid is the author of Heartwood and co-founder of the Otway Agroforestry Network. Internationally recognised for his Master Tree Growers Course, more than 10,000 visitors have toured his Bambra Agroforestry Farm, a forty-two-hectare outdoor classroom for farmers, scientists, students and tree lovers, and a living laboratory for his own learning.
Paul Haar is an architect, educator and feijoa farmer with a famous passion for the sustainable use of timber. Known for his Australian Timber Design Award winning Candlebark School Library, Paul teaches as an Honorary fellow at Melbourne University School of Architecture and is a recipient of the Sustainable Architecture Lifetime Achievement Award.
This Thursday 22nd May 2025 6.15-7.30pm
CERES Fair Wood
31-33 Raglan St, Preston
Tickets are free, you just need to sign up here
Remember to rug up!
Have a great week
Chris
