ROBINA McCURDY
(Golden Bay, Aotearoa/New Zealand)
General
Robina McCurdy is co-founder/resident/trustee of Tui Land Trust & Community and founder/trustee of the Institute for Earthcare Education Aotearoa (both are Charitable Trusts). Her early work was in primary school teaching, and she has a range of teaching/facilitation qualifications, as well as Permaculture (ecological land-use design) qualifications. For 25 years she has been engaged in community development, permaculture design and tutoring, organic growing, the development of environmental education resources and the creation of participatory processes for decision making and collective action. She has taught and applied these powerful community-building and land-restorating methods with households, neighbourhoods, schools, farms, ecovillages and bioregions, in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, England, Scotland, Canada, Brazil and USA.
Throughout her life, Robina has worked with minimal resources to bring about significant changes in the lives of people, their communities and their environment. Consequently, human capacity building is one of Robina's special skills - inspiring, guiding and offering specific tools and techniques for people to access their gifts, develop their potential, build their resourcefulness, and live their dreams. Underpinning her work (local to global) is the re-connection of nature and culture, in order to build sustainable community in harmony with the natural environment. Some of the organisations which have funded Robina's projects are: the British High Commission, British Permaculture Institute (Britain), DANIDA (Denmark), Fundacio Gaia NGO, Rio Grande du Sul and Santa Catarina Education Departments (Brazil), Global Ecovillage Network (Australia), Village Development, Novalis Institute and Abalimi Bezekhaya (South Africa), PELUM (Zimbabwe), Context Institute, Sth California Permaculture Institute, Antioch University (USA), NZ Natural Heritage Foundation, Tindall Foundation, and the NZ High Commission (Aotearoa-NZ).
Environmental Education for Children
Robina was the originator/coordinator of Golden Bay's 'PLANET Organic', a year-long vocational training in community-scale sustainable landuse design, management & facilitation. She was also the pioneer and teacher-trainer of S.E.E.D. (Schools Environmental Education & Development), which she originally developed as a comprehensive nature conservation programme for Otago Peninsula schools in Aotearoa-New Zealand, then further developed it within the South African government's 'feeding scheme', piloting it in impoverished farm schools and informal (squatter) settlement schools. S.E.E.D is a cross-curricula programme which operates within a state's national curriculum, transforming school grounds into productive learning environments, whilst rejuvenating culture. It is now thriving in South Africa and Brazil, an independent grass-roots educational organisation, which resources schools, creates its own educational materials, runs teacher-training programmes, and influences provincial education department's policies. |
HUCKLEBERRY LEONARD
(Olympic Peninsula,
Washington State, USA )
General
For the past 30 years Huckleberry has been owner of and primary consultant for GREENWORLD, a company specialising in edible and sustainable landuse design in the northwest USA. He has qualifications in zoology, landscaping, permaculture and community development. Huckleberry has taught permaculture design in South Africa, Britain, Australia and North & South America, including community projects in Patagonia, Costa Rica and many states of the USA. He also teaches classes in native plant identification, wild foods foraging and seed collecting, and facilitates deep nature connection experiences in the Olympic National Park wilderness. Huckleberry is a plant materials collector, and plant adviser for Raintree Nursery (USA-wide plant mail order). Two strong underpinnings in his life are yoga and music, including a diversity of performance music.
Ecological Building
Huckleberry is an experienced, self-taught natural builder. He has also worked a lot with stone construction, especially turrets and walls. He has studied natural building and stonemasonary with practitioners in North America, Wales and England, and with Richard Walker, earth building engineer/architect/builder in New Zealand. Using the mortise and tenon method, from sustainably harvested rough timbers, in USA, he has built four timberframe buildings, ranging from 12 by 16 ft to 42 by 42 ft. He has also built a 10' by 10' cedar pole cabin, and a NZ red beech & Australian jarrah roundhouse with reciprocating roof, using several earth building methods: cobb, adobe and wattle & daub, as well as using the roundhouse principles to design and construct a 12' portable roundhouse pavillion from alder and canvas. Huckleberry is available for leading hands-on workshops in all of the above, anywhere in the world.
Environmental Education for Children
As a singer-songwriter, Huckleberry has written and performed many environmental/sustainability themed songs for children, and as professional Permaculture consultant, he has designed many gardens for and with children. In the committed fathering of his two sons, and in his broader community education capacities as Scoutmaster, Campfiregirls camp director, Community Education Coordinator (Montesano, WA) and Camp Counseling Instructor at CWSC (Ellensburg,WA) he regularly took children into the wilderness and introduced them to ecology, animals and wild harvesting of foods. A priority in Huckleberry's work is facilitating children to have fulfilling and fun experiences in nature, laying the foundation for future environmental stewardship. |
