Article by Monika Onyszkiewicz and Jason Nardi
This past August, as in the previous two years, RIPESS Europe participated in the Global Ecovillage Network Europe Gathering in Ångsbacka, Sweden.
At first glance, spreading the shared values of the Social Solidarity Economy at a gathering of Ecovillage enthusiasts, practitioners and supporters seems pointless: after all, such a community is the more aware part of society, sensitive to social inequalities, current and possible crises. And this is indeed the case, people who are prepared to travel half of Europe and sometimes even the world know that these few days together will be worth it, because on the spot we will feel ‘at home’. In fact, the theme of ‘home’ came up many times at the meeting – both figuratively and literally. The Swedish ecovillage Ångsbacka became home to almost 800 people for more than five days! Anyone who has ever organised a study trip for a group of people or even a conference with refreshments and lunch can appreciate the craftsmanship and the enormous amount of work that went into making the whole meeting cohesive, safe and ready for the unexpected.
On the first day after arriving at the venue, we had a meeting of those running the workshops and discussions. What was my surprise when there were almost 100 of us in the loft, our meeting place! Each of the next four days was filled with different events and meetings – the first ones started at 7am, usually practices for body and spirit like yoga, chanting and voice warming together or meditation in movement. The breakfast served in the garden was opened with a gong, at which time queues of hungry people would quietly approach for their daily portion of porridge or bread baked on site. With such numbers of people, however, it is important to have clear rules, and strictly at 9 o’clock, access to the food was closed and we got ready for the morning circle which lasted about 1.5 hours. This was a space for invited people to present their story, experience and relate to the theme of community. Then there was a block of lectures and then time for lunch together (feel the rhythm: queue, gong, putting food on, looking for a good place to consume and talking or tasting in silence. And the sounds of rain… 4 rainy days). The afternoon time was divided into various workshops and interactive activities which were revealed from day to day so that each one could chose on the moment and which for many people was the core of the Gathering.
The main theme this year was “to embrace the radical act of slowing down”. It invited participants to “journey with us as we urgently shift gears away from the relentless pace dictated by capitalism and consumerism. This Gathering is a sanctuary to learn, to listen intently, to celebrate the beauty of connection, and to explore pathways leading out of destructive patterns”. Most of the keynote speakers looked into the darkness of our times, bringing out the hope that comes from being connected among who is actively seeking a way to live differently while resisting in a resilient way and creating the alternative world we want to live in. One of the most impressive speeches was by Dougald Hine, on “Working in the Ruins” (see it here).
The program itself was very rich, but not overwhelming. Most present and shared by many of those who we met was a sense of loss – Oh what a pity I could not have been at that lecture! – you could hear all the time here and there… Unfortunately, different events were taking place at the same time and it was not possible to be present in several places at once. On the other hand, as co-leaders of some workshops, we will admit that there is a rule that there are no random people at the meeting. The group which forms and decides to participate in the meeting is the right and best one.
Representing RIPESS EUROPE, we led a block on the creation of food communities – what they are, how ecovillages can co-create or disseminate such food access models to be nourishing for all parties: human, nature; socially inclusive. An interesting starting point for trying to describe functioning principles for human communities was the translation of permaculture design principles, called social permaculture approach. Upon closer observation, it turns out that nature knows the most effective models of organization. Of those attending the meeting, everyone was familiar with what permaculture is as well as there were people who were even designers based on this approach. Seeing the similarities in effective community organizing as well as garden planning was an ‘aha!’ moment for many of them.
At the workshops we liked to step out of the role of ‘expert’ and seek answers and solutions from the group. Especially because at an ecovillage community meeting no one is looking for theory but practice. This was also the case here. We were asked by one of the participants where he should actually start creating his community. The difficulty is that in his territory there was no one growing food within a radius of about 100 km. This was strange knowing the population density in Europe. However, it turned out to be a Canadian resident. Just as in planning a garden, one should look for solutions that already exist, for initiatives that are already in place. To say this would be a truism, but wisdom came from the group. It turned out that in a Swedish village, in the midst of forests and lakes, at a meeting of more than 800 people in one room, at one of hundreds of events, 3 people from Canada met who had the same goal and need – they wanted to co-create a food community!
It could have been an amusing punchline to the account of the meeting, but there is more there. It gave me an answer to the original question about the point of ‘giving sermons among the already converted’. We could see the enormous power that comes from individual experience. An experience that comes from the heart, from seeing the right person among the multitude of people attending the meeting.
We also took part in the EXPO section dedicated to appropriate technologies for the ecovillages, which can well be extended to many other intentional communities and practices. There were labs dedicated to biomimicry, to using locally-sourced materials in construction, to water management, etc. Jason Nardi led a workshop on Renewable Energy Communities based on solidarity economy principles, with examples from Italy and other countries – and presented with Tom Stanton the https://www.appropedia.org. There was much interest (also considering that GEN had just finished a research project called EC2 Energy Citizenship in several European countries). We gathered quite a few people who showed interest in technology in general and on energy communities in particular and have initiated a new informal group among the practitioners and researchers across networks.
For all those interested in knowing more, check out the Ecovillage Gathering website
