Tutors: Bob Corker, Dan Palmer, Tim Barker, Kay Baxter, Koanga Institute Staff
Location: Koanga Institute, Wairoa.
Price: $1700 includes all meals.
Date: April 7 - 21,  2012

Empower yourself with the theory and the practical knowledge and skills to turn your dreams for sustainability into reality, and understand your own health in relation to our environment.

This is an intensive twelve day course covering the curriculum recognized by the International Permaculture Institute.  It is focused on giving you a clear understanding of Permaculture Design, giving you a frame work  which you can then apply to any area of your life. ... eg work, community, garden, etc. It will be really useful for you no matter what situation you find yourself in now... whether you have a block of land that you're ready to develop, or if you have no land. Whether you're looking to build a community of some sort or you're looking to set up a sustainable food production system... there is so much in this course, that it would be useful for almost everyone!

This PDC is a prerequisite for the Koanga Institute Diploma.

We base our course around the application of this design frame work to many practical situations. We will be spending 1/3 of our time teaching theory, 1/3 working through specific practical designs and another 1/3 building that design.. eg gardens, toilets, housing, rocket stoves earth ovens, food preservation, cooking following principles of Weston Price Foundation.

The gift of this Design Course is that our teachers live simply in community, in a close relationship with their environment and you get to experience that. Past students comments at the end of our courses always stress that it is this experience they find transforming.

We believe that Permaculture Design is one of the best tools available for those who wish to take responsibility for the need to become more ‘self reliant’  as our globalized economy faces peak oil (and lots of other ‘peaks’).  Not just for individual or family self-reliance, but more particularly for communities.  The context within which we teach this course will be our belief that in the coming years we urgently need to develop ‘parallel economies’ that will have the resilience to cope with the likely  ‘power-down’ that our mainstream economy is faced with.

Over the last 30 years Kay Baxter and Bob Corker have developed a comprehensive understanding and range of skills associated with family self-reliance, particularly food growing.  They are increasingly focusing on the bigger picture as to how do we address self-reliance within communities and bio-regions.  Thus design theory and examples  will cover  all aspects from Bio-region through to Individual.  We are serious about creating futures without being ‘plugged into’ the globalized economy.

The course starts with a thorough understanding of the Permaculture model of design, (the first two days).   From day three you will begin developing and practicing; observation, analysis and design within a ‘permaculture’ framework (in the real world), and getting feedback  and support from our team of experienced tutors and practicing designers. The structure of most days will be theory in the morning, followed by practical demonstrations, and design practice in the afternoon, followed by more design practice or research after dinner then discussions or Documentary screenings later. In addition those who are serious about completing a diploma, and/or engaging in design as a vocation (both in NZ or overseas), and/or creating self-employment, using their new design skills, will be supported to set in place a mentor program to guide their future work.

If you  feel like you need more information about the course, please contact us, and we will be happy to discuss it further.

As on our last PDC we will be providing you with food prepared following the principles of the Weston A Price Foundation. Mostly they will be recipes out of Kay and Bob's new book "Change of Heart". All aspects of the food will illustrate core issues of "sustainability".

Our food will be locally sourced, organic, unrefined, nutrient dense, traditional and delicious.

Part of each day will include lessons on how these principles and recipes can be included in your life (growing, preparing and cooking) For more information on our  philosophy on foods, check out the website of the Weston A Price Foundation .

"The world is as we dream it, as we create it. We need to change the dream, to dream an earth-honouring dream." Shuar Indians - Equador .

The Permaculture Design Course gives us the tools to design this dream, and the inspiration to bring it into your life, and others lives, in a practical way.

AUSTRALASIAN PERMACULTURE CONVERGENCE
We have extended this PDC to allow for 2 days off (Friday 13th, Saturday 14) so that students may attend the Australasian Permaculture Convergence in Turangi if they wish. More details to follow.

Context, Environment: The Koanga Institute is part of a developing Permaculture Village, in a rural location near to the Northern Hawkes Bay town of Wairoa. The village will grow to include around 30 families, and is being designed to support community self reliance. Read more about this project: www.communitylandtrusts.co.nz

Please note: workshop will be confirmed 2 weeks prior to commencement. If circumstances prevent us the workshop from going ahead, enrollment fees will be refunded in full.

Cancellation Policy: Students who cancel their place at a workshop with more than 2 weeks notice will be given an 85% refund, however cancellations after this time can only be refunded 50% of the course fee. Cancellations with less than 48 hours, no refund can be given.