Introduction to Permaculture with Starhawk, Hiinahcit, James Richardson and Brandy Gallagher.
**** IN PERSON AND VIRTUAL OPTIONS ****
July 6 – July 8, 2025
Shawnigan Lake, BC
This 2.5 day course will introduce you to the basics of design, ethics, and principles of Permaculture. Jump in to join the first few days of OUR Ecovillage/ Earth Activist Training full 72-hr Permaculture Design Certificate course and meet many others who are on the journey of changing their way of thinking in the world!
This course is for you if you are ready for:
- Embark on new food, farm, and life practices
- Find ways of dramatically reducing energy consumption
- Begin land-based ventures & small businesses
- Realize goals toward self-sufficiency
- Take action on climate change adaptation strategies
In this introductory workshop OUR Ecovillage will focus on organizing, activating, and educating through on the ground permaculture projects. Learn how we design human systems that mimic natural systems using a minimum of energy and resources and how to create real abundance and social/environmental justice. Explore the strategies and organizing tools we need to make our visions real, as well as the daily practice, magic, and processes that sustain our spirits.
This course is unique from almost all others in North America as you are stepping into O.U.R. Ecovillage – a 25 acre Sustainable Living Demonstration, Research and Education Centre.
Through partnering with all levels of government, corporate sponsors, academia, and the grassroots of the wider community projects & organizations, O.U.R. Ecovillage has managed to bring together a range of professionals, permaculture teachers, regulatory folks, and technical stakeholders ready to train others in the next stages of how permaculture projects can become fully legal.
What is included in this workshop?
- Intro to place-based learning and immersed learning environments.
- Overview of permaculture design curriculum, theory introduction
- Ethics and Principles Day
- Principles in Practice
- Patterns, Systems Theory and how/why Permaculture and Ecological Design is changing the face of building and living
- Dinner and full site tour followed by campfire circle and building community connection.
Investment
Course Cost: $495 CAD
Fees include the full program, basic accommodations*, meals, and snacks.
*Basic Accommodations include either bunk-bed in our gender-inclusive dorm room or a camping site. Specifics of your choice & space assignment will be coordinated after registration and before arrival.
About OUR Ecovillage
OUR land offers plenty of space to camp, dorms, private rooms, and interesting suites. There are diverse natural buildings to see and we have spaces for gatherings of different flavors: a large Yurt (great for circles and dancing), a large Community Classroom (for presentations), the Healing Sanctuary (for quiet conversation and meditation), many various natural buildings, the 150 person Zero Mile Eatery, and the Chillage (casual covered outdoor space). There are multiple types of indoor and outdoor showers, composting toilets. For some quiet time you can walk the labyrinth, sit by the pond or take a walk in the woods. You will likely see chickens, ducks, sheep, cows, deer, and much more.
If you have any questions about the booking process, or to confirm your booking, please call us at 250-812-8782 or email events@ourecovillage.org
Check out our full Permaculture Design Certificate course HERE.
Starhawk
Starhawk is a permaculture designer, teacher, and founder of Earth Activist Training, which teaches regenerative design with a grounding in spirit and a focus on organizing and activism. She is the author of thirteen books on earth based spirituality and activism, including The Spiral Dance, The Earth Path, and The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, The Fifth Sacred Thing and City of Refuge. Together with director Donna Read Cooper, she has worked on five major documentaries, including the Goddess Trilogy for the National Film Board of Canada and Permaculture: The Growing Edge.
Starhawk directs and teaches Earth Activist Training and has been recognized by the Permaculture Institute of North America as a leading figure in the permaculture field and has been awarded PINA’s dual diplomas for excellence in education and permaculture site design.
Hiinahcit, Petrina Dezall, Mowachaht, Nuu Chah Nulth
Hiinahcit is an educator in Land-Based learning and Decolonizing Permaculture with a focus on Self Determination and Sovereignty through project managing medicinal gardens, food forests, seed collecting and revitalizing harvesting protocols building internation relationships.
Being raised with Nuu-chah-nulth traditional plant knowledge she eventually found her niche growing plants and medicine while learning Western Herbal Medicine with Wild Rose College. She continued her Herbal Medicine education in Washington State learning Alchemic Herbalism through The School of Evolutionary Herbalism, then moved forward with deepening her land-based knowledge from Earth Activist
Training where she became PIMA certified in Permaculture and now co- teaches in-person Certificate trainings with her mentors. Hiinahcit’s hobbies include harvesting, falconry and painting. Her current artwork can be viewed in the Exhibition “The Legacy of George Clutesi” in contract with RBCM and UVIC Legacy Collections currently showing at The Bill Reid Gallery.
www.hiinahcit.com
James Matthew Richardson, Ph.D.; M.A.S.L.A; B.Ed.; B.Sc. (Hon); P.D.C.; P.Dip. (Research); P.D.C. (Education)
James Richardson is a teacher, designer, builder, farmer and cultivator of social change. His research in sustainable food system planning explored some fundamental questions such as what it would take to feed the city of Vancouver and his PhD in resilient regional planning utilized Ecological Footprinting to redesign Wellington, NZ. He brings an experiential flare to his teachings following a dynamic teaching career in Canada, New Zealand, Guyana, and the United States. James is a student of Permaculture, natural building, biodynamic farming and brings to the space a deep understanding of the art and science of sustainability.
Brandy Gallagher
Brandy Gallagher is a founder and developer of O.U.R. Ecovillage. Her life work has been focused around the development of the ‘Decolonizing of Sustainable Community.’ A designer and educator, she has worked with local and international community builders to create the 25 acres Sustainable Living Demonstration Site and Education Centre.
From ‘Comprehensive Development’ land use re-zoning to incorporating holistic new ownership structures, from governance to building codes, from wastewater to closed-loop systems approval – her commitment has been to ‘Lawful Permaculture’ within the Ecovillage and “re-village” movement.
