This has been one of our most fulfilling—and certainly transformative—summers. Though perhaps we find ourselves saying that every year! There is always another layer of learning in this work of living, growing, and changing together.
We are noticing how the meaning of “community” is shifting for many people. The ways people learn, the support they need, and what they bring to shared learning spaces are changing too. Within OUR Cooperative, members’ interests and hopes for the future continue to evolve as we age alongside one another, deepening this work and our ways of knowing.
As we look towards completing our 28th year of serving community, we carry many hard-won lessons. Above all, we feel gratitude for the people, relationships, and collective efforts through which O.U.R. Ecovillage has made a difference in the world. This season invites us to honour that journey while asking: what is community calling us to become next?
One response is taking root through the Restorative Justice Sister Gardens, connecting OUR Ecovillage with S’amunu Village in Quw’utsun territory. Guided by Qwiyahwult-hw (Robert George), and with Thuitsiye (Pamela) bringing her gifts to this shared work, the gardens bring food, medicine plants, AgroForestry, and peacemaking into relationship. Growing these spaces also means growing our capacity to listen, work through difficulties, and practise accountability and care. Our partnerships with Quw’utsun Cultural Connections and Iisaak Olam help carry this wider vision of land-based learning and shared stewardship.
OUR natural building work has brought another beautiful layer of creativity to the land—especially through the continued earthen sculpting of the Dragon taking shape across our 25-acre site! Many hands and imaginations are helping bring this creature to life. Working with earth invites a particular kind of learning: slowing down, feeling the materials, sharing skills, and discovering what becomes possible when practical work and artistic expression meet. The Dragon continues to grow alongside the community creating it.
This was also another significant year in our ongoing work of decolonizing Permaculture Design education, with a full course and a learning community bringing different experiences and ways of knowing together. With Indigenous teachers and Knowledge Keepers, Starhawk, and our wider teaching partners, we continue to ask how ecological design can deepen responsibility to the lands and peoples with whom we learn. These are questions we must keep living into through relationships, consent, reciprocity, and the everyday choices that shape our teaching.
OUR reVILLAGEing Family Camp brought further richness to this learning, making room for children, parents, Elders, and learners of many ages to participate together. A special highlight was welcoming Raffi and the Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring. Their work offers such a meaningful invitation to consider how we organize our communities around respect for children. Through hands-on projects, land-based discovery, creativity, and peacemaking, we continued exploring what it means to raise children within a village—and to become adults capable of helping that village thrive.
And then there was the wedding of a lifetime: Qwiyahwult-hw & Thuitsiye—Robert and Pamela! More than 350 people gathered, representing over 28 cultures and countries, many spiritual traditions and faiths, a wonderful range of ages, and so many walks of life. It felt like one of the most unifying events our bioregion has experienced in some time. We witnessed people whose relationships had been strained finding ways to come together, and strangers meeting with kindness and connection. Some who described having little faith in the world spoke of feeling a spiritual connection deeper than they could remember. Family, chosen family, and friends stepped forward to co-create this extraordinary celebration at no cost to the bride and groom—a remarkable expression of community generosity. People across the wider community are still talking about the love they felt. What an honour to host this gathering at OUR Ecovillage for one of OUR Cooperative’s member-directors and his beloved.
Already, the next season is beginning to take shape. Registration for OUR 2027 Permaculture Design Certificate course is open on OUR website, and people are already signing up! We are also exploring new internships and an International Earthen Sculpting Co-opetition, bringing cooperation and playful creative challenge together. Look out for an expanded Dragon!
To everyone who taught, learned, built, gardened, cooked, hosted, volunteered, celebrated, and helped hold this community through another changing season: thank you. Your contributions give life to OUR Ecovillage and help us discover, together, what comes next.
