Hope you are all well as we head into the last month of the year.

The convergence next April will be the first major opportunity for the NZ Transition Towns community to come together since its inception at the 2007 Ecoshow when Richard Heinberg came to speak. The convergence is a collaborative event. Australasian Permaculture has been having biannual conferences for many years. The last one was in Cairns in 2010 and there it was decided for the first time that New Zealand would host APC11 (11th convergence). TransitionTowns Australia was represented at the Cairns event. The organisations behind APC11 are Permaculture in New Zealand, Living Economies Education Trust and Transition Towns. (and the newly formed Permaculture Aotearoa). We anticipate between 600 and 1000 participants will attend for some or all of the five days. This will include up to 400 Australians. Our focus is on solutions for dealing with the triple challenges which face us - climate change, peak oil, global economic contraction.

This is latest update on what's been happening with the 11th Australasian Permaculture Convergence. Also a reminder to  Register today to receive Early Bird prices (finishes 23 Dec). Treat yourself or a friend to a Chistmas registration.

We've all been very busy and are making some great progress in bringing to you an exciting program packed with inspiring workshops and events!

 

Permaculture Aotearoa welcomes you to:

Resilience by Design

11th Australasian Permaculture Convergence (APC11)

Wed 11th to Sun 15th April 2012

11 – 15 April 1012, Turangi, Central North Island, New Zealand

 

Website www.apc11.co.nz or http://www.permacultureaotearoa.co.nz

Latest speakers confirmed

	Darren Doherty one of the world's most experienced Permaculture Design professionals and Teacher who has designed and developed over 1100 properties across 4 continents. and has taught many PDC' He will be attending towards the end of the convergence and then run a 3-day Re-Gen-Ag workshop for farmers and others interested in low input, but high yield farming. The Re-Gen-Ag workshop will be held in the Central North Island. NZ
	Antonio Te Maioha is an amazing performance poet. He lives in the town of Raglan on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. Active in local issues, he has hosted a Sustainable Futures Forum in Waikato that brought around 80 people to discuss a variety of environmental issues.
	Susan Krumdieck is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterury. She organised the Signs of change conference in Nov 2010. She has been very influential, especially in the South Island promoting sustainable transport and urban design.
	Dennis Scott has been a practising landscape architect for 35 years as well as a permaculture designer. He attended the first PDC held in New Zealand. Dennis knows that information is critical for sustainable practise and is concerned that we are losing it through the privatisation of public assets. He will be talking to us about "Green Infrastructure", the only kind of infrastructure for the 21st century.
	Robert Pekin (Food Connect) Food Connect’s aim is to supply local, sustainably produced food to the community in South East Queensland. His Food Connect system is now replicated in several Australian cities. Robert is now in communication with Pete Russell of Ooooby in Waiheke Island, New Zealand.
	Pete Russell is founder and chief of Ooooby, an Auckland based social enterprise and local food movement with over 3,500 members. In combination with Robert Pekin we will be treated to very interesting public discussions on varieties of Community Supported Agriculture.
	Russ Grayson has a background in journalism and in aid work in the South Pacific. He has been editor of an environmental industry journal, a freelance writer and photographer for magazines. He is willing to share "The how to of effective Media Releases"
	Fiona Campbell works as a sustainability education officer in a local council in Sydney and implements behaviour change programs. She will do session on 'Getting the Permaculture message across' Russ and Fiona will probably work together at APC11.
	Redwood Reider Redwood, who lives in Golden Bay, is an awesome performance poet, with poems so apt about permaculture themes and societal change. Like none other you would have heard, more like a passionate musican than a poet.
	Kay Baxter of Koanga Institute is currently working on a design process guide, to help people design their gardens, automatically follow all the critical principles to make it sustainable for the long haul. She will be talking to us about fermenting foods
Should your   Picture be here?	Lots more people will be participating and contributing. Are you one?

News from Awhi Farm -  Vision for supporting the convergence

We're busy as here at at Awhi Farm.  Been putting in these new gardens,  and potato patch which are in the photos, so we can produce as much food as possible for APC11.

We're working on finishing this round house and have just ordered our first purpose made canvas for a round house.  It took a bit of messing around to figure out how to make the pattern for them.  I ended up making a scale model of the roof which worked great. We had a school group come to visit on Tuesday and we got them working on the earthbag ablution block.  The ablution block will consist of two compost toilets and two composted heated showers. Our current compost heated shower is pumping! Got back from Wellington the other night around midnight and was treated to a steamy hot shower under the stars! That's all for now! Bomun Bock-Chung

 

Living Economies Trust contribution to APC11

Thurs 12 & Fri 13th April Living Economies Trust is supporting APC11 by facilitating  workshops and speakers dedicated to Designing a Resilient Living Economy. It is coming together nicely covering an exciting range of subjects such as Timebanks. L.E.T.S. (Local Exchange Trading Systems), New & Future Local Currency models, Food Sharing Collectives, Savings Pools, Business to Business Barter, The Power of Cooperatives and more. Our kiwi presenters will be talking about these real working models of trade, sharing and barter,that they are using to build resilient connected communities up and down this country. Our confirmed international guest speakers are: Charles Eisenstein, author of “Sacred Economics, Money Gift and Society in the Age of  Transition” of whom David Korten says is “one of the up-and-coming great minds of our time” and Nicole M. Foss, co-editor of The Automatic Earth, where she writes under the name Stoneleigh. She and her writing partner have been chronicling and interpreting the on-going credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted predicament. The site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it. Contact Laurence Boomert laurenceboomert@xtra.co.nz"  Ph 027 2588807 for more info or suggested input. Check out more about LIVING ECONOMIES Educational Trust on our Website: www.le.org.nz Keynote Speakers at APC11

	Bill Mollison is the co-founder of the permaculture movement and is responsible for taking this message to the world. Although now in his 80s, he still participates in courses and conferences. read more about Bill here
	Charles Eisenstein, author of “Sacred Ecology, Money Gift and Society in the Age of Transition” of whom David Korten says “one of the up-and-coming great minds of our time”
	Nicole M. Foss is co-editor of  Automatic Earth She will be inspiring us with all kinds of stories on energy,economics, transitions etc from other parts of the world

Book Launches..so far

- Robina McCurdy   - Earthcare Education Aotearoa 
- Leone Shanahan - Edible School Gardens (Australia)

Pre and post event courses:  for teachers, farmers, community workers, local government and everyone else interested in sustainable practise

Dynamic Groups with Robyn Clayfield and Robina McCurdy 5 days 17th -21st April in Turangi

Regen Ag - 3-day course on Low-input farming with Darren Doherty

"Getting the word out" about permaculture 2 days with Fiona Campbell and Russ Grayson

'Building Sustainable Relationships' with Sabine Drueckler and Chris Harkess

Volunteers - Yes please, we still need you!

Awhi Farm has three young men helping with the gardens and buildings. To help with gender balance we would be pleased to welcome some women. Our gardens are coming along well and our new ablution block with compost heated showers is moving closer to having its living roof on and plastering completed. Our database (for newsletters to get the word out) needs expansion. We would appreciate assistance with contacts, lists of PDC graduates from courses, anyone you think would be interested or who has an interest in sustainable practise, transition towns, education etc.

We have an ongoing need for keen helpers.

We are looking for people who want to volunteer to help during the event in exchange for convergence fees (application form)

More to come..

Once again, HUGE thanks and please  think about what you may like to do during the open space sessions and tell us!!

See you Soon

The APC11 Team