Futuresteading – Details, episodes & analysis

“Those who have descended from the colonisers, we carry privilege but we also suffer the need to apologise” 

Landscapes can etch into your very being & create a remembering. Making us feel whole & reminding us that we are just a thread in the complex web of the natural world. While somewhat insignificant your thread has a role to play as a relative to the threads it lies next too. The way we all interact with each other - both human and other than human, will be our making or our undoing.

Hilary Giovale, author of “becoming a good relative” is based in the ponderosa pine forests of Arizona, opposite a reservation & lives next to the sacred mountain of kinship which she now considers to be her most important teacher. This feels like an important conversation to have had - as two white women without indigenous heritage -  it feels uncomfortable to have, and we will forever be learning, but Hilary (a 9th generation settler in the United States) begins the process of unpacking what it means to be in right relationship with the people & place that we each call home - pushing past the burden of white fragility to build pathways of robust healing & reconnection to our landscapes - to reconciliation with first peoples.

She shares what it means to create ancestral alters & how to connect with these elders who’s stories she tells us, are still unfolding.

She reminds us that while the work we have to do is exceptionally confronting, grief won’t kill us & that the time to heal in the bosom of natural landscapes is now.

"Elders are always identified by the community, never by the individual - they are usually unwilling but always shows up for the community, is wise, is generous, is funny, is humble,  Our communities can guide us to where the elders are."

Loved this? Try another:    Indira Naidoo

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We talked about

Being fed a whitewashed mythology that was a narrative constructed to serve the cultivation of industrialisation.

Realising she had been segregated from the truth of her countries culture

Intergenerational task of building right relations - backwards with her parents & forwards with her children

Creating ancestral alters

Eldership

Healing rituals/programs - ritualised apology & forgiveness

The history of settler colonialism has created trauma, damage, theft of knowledge, land & culture.

“Grief won’t kill you”

The relief of grief through letting tears flow

Common threads of wisdom which runs through indigenous cultures regardless of the continent

Going to the land in a reciprocal & respectful way & asking permission to be guided

Asking “how if at all can I help” informs how to be in right relationship

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“How we raise our children is facilitating a denaturing of our human-ness. The opportunity is to be centred within & rebuild our culture” 

Dan Kittridge is the bare footed gent who coined the term Nutrient density off the back of his dao-ist strategy to create a life that afforded him the time & space to be at home with his young family, living simply with just 10k per year on the land.

Over the next 20 years he became clear that his role was simply to serve & that it's not his job to know what he's doing or attempt to implement a plan rather to be sensitive to what's shown to him & respond in a way that was lead by love enabling him to get out of his head, get out of the ‘shoulds’  & get into the heart, asking instead, what flows.

The result has been the creation of the bionutrient institute, a global speaking profile & a life long commitment to renaturing which he says sits at the centre of solving the poly-crises we face.

“Having the right to land to provide adequate housing & food for every family should be a foundational right. The land cannot be sold but you have access to it sufficient for a simple life.”

"As long as we engage with a colonised mind of separation/fear/division, we will not be able to engage with an indigenous mind of love/flow & unity"

“As long as the structure of our lives require us to work jobs for money that are separating us from nature, we are paddling upstream. It becomes difficult to tune into the flow of nature.”

Loved this? Try these:

Manda Scott - Becoming accidental gods

Damon Gameau - A call to arms for storytellers 

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Casual Support - Buy Me A Coffee
Regular Support - Patreon
Buy the Books - Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters  & Huddle Creating a tomorrow of togetherness

We talked about:

“We are not the body we are carrying around we are effectively individual consciousness that has physical attributes. Accepting this changes the way we interact with each other.”

What is a soul - is it ecological? Or is it transcendent love? 

Getting ourselves into right relationship requires a serious restructure of our way of being

Beginning to decolonise starts during early childhood 

The money vs time equation

The rule of law is a paradox of control that can be equally exasperating & supportive

Understanding that there is a greater order & you don't have to control everything - you just have to be receptive to what is shown to you.

Using nature to model ourselves- symbiosis. Be your own brilliant unique system & then add mycelium to connect others brilliance

The role that feelings have in the way we make decisions

We dont need to KNOW anything - we are already wired with the knowledge we need

If we just work with nature - we will remember who we are and what we are supposed to do.

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Tyson Yunkaporta is an Apalech man who is an academic, researcher arts critic & father. He is also the author of Sand Talk,  an extraordinary reading experience.  Like many of Australia’s First Peoples, he has a complex identity and history but it's this that gives him authority to write and speak in a way which connects the wisdom of the past to the needs of the future. 

The way he thinks demands a longer term perspective.  He is both philosophical and practical,  compassionate yet realistic. He is filled with an other-worldly understanding of humanity.  In this conversation he urges us to consider the non linear complexity of the world. 

He challenges our expectations, points out cultural shortcomings and invites us to recognise indigenous concepts and their history. Importantly he shows how these patterns have the potential to be incorporated into our non indigenous thinking which  builds hope and possibility to benefit us all.

“I don’t have answers but I know that stories connect us to country. Country knows the answers. Notice it and be a custodian".

Episode Summary
Minimising abstractions between lore and land
The illusion of the environment which is hidden by siloed systems
Let’s look like dickheads for a minute while we work out the path forward
Looking for seasonal signs and responding to them
Lore carries recipes for how to live our lives with story and pattern
Coming back into rhythm with the natural world
Running out of time - the time to reconnect with country is now
The dominating authoritarianism in the western world demands people are disconnected from the landscape
Mutual aid activism - not about throwing bombs but making sure everyone is fed.
Self determination being thwarted by authoritarianism
Stop looking at things and look at structures, systems and patterns instead
Quietly getting on with it - syndicate your neighbourhood with the next neighbourhood
The bullshit of nation building is key in the decimation of connection to country.
Activism is an industry 
Positive and negative feedback loops to understand how symbioses interlock with others
Story, ceremony and ritual for real thinking and real meaning making
Until art became capital it was something that every human did every day to understand their place in the world
How do we find a way of storytelling without reducing it to words
"Image, dance, song - can all portray story but they have no depth of meaning if they don't have place"
The lore is in the land 
"Leave those who are pecking over the carcass of the earth to their dying beliefs and the rest of us can get on with rebuilding relationships, stories, knowledge and place. Quietly and with people"
Why we need to stop self flagellating acknowledgments of country and start building relationships

References

Viktor Stefanson - fire country management
Sand Talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
The other others - podcast.

Thanks to our podcast partners:

Wwoof Australia
Nutrisoil

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Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters

Shout out to the rockstars who smooth the sound Open Door Studios

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Our most downloaded backyard adventurer is chatting with us again but this time with better sound and more sleep under his belt so  we are witness to a  more true version of this humorous, odd character.  A self titled 'polyjobist; a generalist at many things, he shares the challenge of writing a book after a decade in academia, worrying about breaking the law to make films and shares why he took up his granddads wood chopping axes despite his mediochre capability.
Our conversation is all 'Miles' - it follows tangents,   is really personal and stays true to his advice giving allergy. 

Show Notes

• Falling short on expectations and promises
• Fear of being sued - breaking the law to film documentaries
• Reframing your view of the world from your child-like baseline
• “Bad River” - soon to be released film series
• ‘I don’t like being a negative storyteller but the time for me to have an opinion is here
• I suppose I love attention but I’ve got hermit written all over me
• A really quiet kid that began to bust out into his physicality which helped define him
• Was he an undiagnosed dyslexic kid? Is that formative in creating who he is?
• Learning maths by building things 
• Why he took up grandads ax’s to become a wood chopper
• Being the mouth piece for those who you surround yourself with
• Storytelling via various mediums: Film, book 
• Being Beau - thinking in tangents, following abstract thoughts, speaking in first person, finding your voice
• My greatest skill in life is being a hard worker
• Why recording his book as an audio book taught him where his writing faults are
• Phenomonology - crating definition and essences out of subjectivity
• The challenges of being a story teller 
• Our life is about defining our essences
• While being attracted to individualism - life is simply just better when lived with others
• Being watered down as an individual by becoming a parent
• Why community is defined by doing the dishes
• Reducing moving parts - from film making to doing dishes
• Island foods - planning a trip with Paul West, Jade Miles and Beau Miles and three basic foods
• Describing himself in three words: Hardy, Resilient, Odd
• I think we are all odd but I'm just willing to say it
• His allergy to advice giving
• If a story teller is doing their job, there will be a million outcomes as others interpret the insights. This is desirable rather than a singular outcome
• Living like tomorrow matters  MUST look different for every single one of us -that's where the magic sits
• Living life with an intentional unknowingness
• As a film maker he doesn’t want to know what the outcomes will be, he wants a surprise and that raw, honest reality of one day at a time. 
• His hopefulness comes from where he lives

References

The Backyard Adventurer
Beau Miles You Tube
Beauisms - Instagram
Casey Nistadt - New York story teller

Thanks to our podcast partners:
Wwoof Australia
Nutrisoil

Buy the Book
Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters

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Sharing her evolution from academic keyboard warrior to her current reality of being an agroecological pork and beef farmer who's pretty darned handy with the butchers knife and equally as sharp of mind in her contributions to the UN small scale farming policy initiatives.

Tammi Jonas is indeed a force of the natural world, never backwards in coming forwards but mellowing with every decade and sharing her successes and failures for the sake of thousands who are following in her footsteps towards a life of farming democracy.

Episode Summary

• We dive right into how she fits it all in
• Leadership - her style of leading from the front with doggedness and squared soldiers
• Research and UN food systems mobilisation 
• Credibility that comes out of the dirt
• Her commitment to food sovereignty across aaaalllllll the tiers of the movement
• The brain breaking need to relate local practices to global policy
• Linking good global initiatives to local practices
• Applying food sovereignty thinking to general consumption issues
• Taking power back  one skill at a time
• We can’t buy ourselves out of this mess - we literally need to joyfully work competently through the upskilling and sharing of 
• The illusion of choice when you see thousands of items for sale in a supermarket is not a place to genuinely begin
• Why she considers herself an “agroecological” farmer (political, social, Agroecological theory of change is considered a science, social movement and practical - dedicated to circular bio economies rather than a purchasing of inputs. Agroecology rejects capitalism but values labour over yield.
• ‘Benefaction’ - enabling the farm to do their tasks joyfully
• The rich reality of running internship programs - who are welcomed with the knowledge that they are becoming food sovereignty warriors
• AFSA - first-peoples-first initiative
• Solidarity - garnering unexplained wholeness but remembering we are all here for each other
• Why there's value in building a new system rather than creating one from the ashes of the old one.
• Why the rise and fall of farms and community orgs is part and parcel of the movement and should be encouraged
• Being comfortable to share the successes AND the failures as a gift for the greater good
• Building a de-growth mentality to avoid the ruthless capitalist system
• Creating small scale farming businesses that are FUN rather than slaves to growth
• Keeping her eye on the end game dilutes her need to be binary and rage filled
• Why the States are not actually similar to the Australian culture  - they are wedded to a growth mentality that we don't  have so we have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
• Why it’s ok to scale back from the initial vision
• Framing ‘enough’ as being disentangled from the capitalist system - seeing the sky, feeding her community and others and being ok to go slow when needed.

References

Jonai Farms
Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms
Farming democracy
Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Thanks to our podcast partners:
Wwoof Australia
Nutrisoil

Buy the Book
Futuresteading - Live Like tomorrow matters

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You might remember this pocket rocket from Masterchef,  perhaps you've heard her on the wireless, has she entertained you at a conference or was she the genius who convinced your kids to love their veggies via 'phenom-e-nom '.

Alice-in-frames loves life and doesn’t take herself too seriously but definitely has multi dimensional attributes.  A poly-math who's mischevious pixie like-grin and twinkling eyes defy her hard working  focus on reaching her singular goal of 'getting us all to love food - fresh food - especially kids.
 
Her self proclaimed super power is seeing everyone else's gold and connecting people to create an outcome of alchemy. If her best selling book 'In praise of Veg is anything to go by, this dynamo is on a ticket to success - What a gift to those in the kitchen...and the farm...and the classroom...and the family dinner table!

SUMMARY
Her current lockdown project - writing a new book and launching tumami
Eating more plants as a self care mechanism
Recalibrate your resolution in Spring
Teaching skills is in her wheelhouse - reconnecting kids to their food
Harnessing pester power for good and allowing kids an agency to share
Talking about food from a place of curiosity and open hearted kindness
Seeing kids more like a garden than like a piece of wood - soft, evolving, in the moment
Pandemic acceleration of people valuing food
Creating food markets that are direct to consumer
Going without other things to ensure food is her priority
Food empowers people to connect in a sensual way 
Tumami is the everything spread - what actually is it though?  40 days of two ingredients
Being a poly math because its fun and it adds value to her community
Why she wears a lot of hats and a lot of frames
Being a chameleon in the way she presents
Four eyes and proud! Her self proclaimed myopic ambassador role
Powered by people - plugged into a battery and flying high
Her legacy vision - changing the way we speak about food to kids, getting them to love veg
Why she can’t meditate but can lose hours potting broad beans
Futureproofing the relationship that the next generation has with food 
Coming at projects from a place of hopefulness and seeking allies 
Food is the hook to engage kids early and teach them everything from there
'Phenomenom' - a free resource for everyone to engage kids in knowing their 
Enough is a feeling, its a spark, connection, growth, fulfilment, my family.
She wants to finish every single day and feel like she's squeezed the bejesus out of it. 
Super power: seeing the super powers of others and connecting people. Contagious enthusiasm, she's been gifted a voice that people listen to and find comforting

References

In Praise of Veg - Alice Zaslavski
The Gardener and the Carpenter
Tumami paste - the everything spread
Phenomenom - free website resource to teach kids about food
Alice in frames - website 

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Next season will kick off next Monday but in the meantime, we are satisfying your insatiable hunger with throwbacks to our fave episodes from season 1. Enjoy these wonderous humans and all their brilliance.

Before you ask, yes this is Charlie Showers of Black Barn Farm - Jade's other half.

Charlie is a fair food advocate, holistic orchardist, landscape scientist and insatiable reader, with an appetite for knowledge that sees him getting up before the birds to devour scientific papers, books and teachings, before putting it into practice at Black Barn Farm.

In this conversation, he shares decades of wisdom with his trademark patience, clarity and intellect. He covers the power of community and regional pride, a new way to frame our 'hypocrisy' in this time of transition, the reality of first generation farming and a sugar-free account of a 'working marriage' and unified vision. You'll get to hear Jade's answers too ;)

No hopium, all clarity in this complex interview that inspires action!

SHOW NOTES

• Sitting with the contradiction inherent in your morals and lifestyle
• Reconciling hypocrisy in your everyday existence
• Being self aware without it becoming unbearable 
• His childhood role-modelling of ‘family statesmen’ who committed to the needs of their community equally with their own
• Maintaining curiosity about our system, culture and economy to impart change
• Why farming is the best place for him to share knowledge at a community level and make meaningful change 
• Why showing rather than telling is the most powerful way to inspire
• Being exposed to those who have a different way of being, whirrs the thinking cogs
• The importance of self time to recuperate and maintain balance when you’re an introvert
• Why endless hope is not always helpful, and hopium is a recipe for ignorance
• What a new future might look like
• The raw reality of starting up a long-game farming enterprise
• The potency of creating a dream together
• Undertaking change journeys as a couple
• Ideas to ‘blow your mind’
• Living examples of how systems interact with and impact on each other
• Awe of the Indigenous Australian cultural understanding of the complex web of the world
• Making ‘complexity science’ more mainstream for the betterment of all
• His evolution of changemaking from panicked urgency to slow and steady solutions
• Why being more settled will make his children better change makers
• The evolution and personal nature of success
• Importance of a ‘solutions based mindset’

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

Black Barn Farm website & Instagram

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Next season goes live Monday 11th October. Until then  we've selected four of our faves to share with you again - they are just SOOOOO good, they're worth hearing again so enjoy having these wonderous humans back in your ears!

If you've never met a Perma Pixie, prepare to be delighted. 

Taj, aka. The Perma Pixie, is bringing a little old school witchcraft and spades of permaculture wisdom to Melbourne - and now, to you.

This chick beats to a drum of ‘reciprocity’, a philosophy that acknowledges that we’re part of a cycle that should give as much as it takes. 

She’s been delivering permaculture education courses for over a decade (not bad for a young sprout!) and has recently started clinical work as a qualified herbalist. Social patterns and interactions are her greatest love, equal to her fascination with plants and their healing capacity. 

This conversation is a must for anyone interested in natural medicine, staying grounded in the fray, the freedoms - and struggles - of running a small business, how to balance impassioned action with self care, and how to be regenerative within a culture programmed to run us dry.

Her deeply felt connection to the seasons, and life steeped in reciprocity and relationship, will either resonate deeply or sow seeds in the garden of your mind. 

Enjoy!

SHOW NOTES

• How her early ADHD diagnosis encouraged her to seek calm in the natural world.
• Taking a circular approach to living in reciprocity with nature.
• The power of seasonal acknowledgement; combining the ‘doing’ with the ‘sensing’.
• Having the courage to trust your instincts to follow the path of the heart.
• Finding balance in the juxtaposition of being an anti-capitalist while running a small business.
• Reframing financial stability.
• How being an extrovert has enabled her to build a network of nourishers.
• Ways to create nurturing community hubs and nodes, which in turn create valid community connection.
• Why it's worth summoning the gumption to talk to total strangers and be open to spontaneous interactions.
• The fundamental need to have a relationship with our own bodies to take ownership and responsibility of our most important asset - and avoid being a ‘baseline’ human.
• Actively avoiding a sedentary body and mind. 
• Her permaculture and herbal medicine journey - and how it led her to the plants which nourish her.
• Why a world filled with sharing is better than a life lived alone. 
• How she calms the voice urging her to "do more".
• Finding balance as a one-woman show when her greatest desire is to be outside - not behind a screen.
• Why to do a "needs analysis": What are your needs and what can you offer?
• Why relationships are what fundamentally give her hope.

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

• Website: The Perma Pixie/Insta: @thepermapixie
• Visit: CERES Community Environment Park
• Movie: The Craft

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futuresteading)

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Next season kicks off on Monday 11th October - until then, enjoy having these humans of wonder back in your ears!

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Dan Palmer is co-founder of Permablitz, Landed, Holistic Decision Making, Making Permaculture Stronger and Very Edible Gardens. He has a PhD in systems thinking and contagious levels of enthusiasm for supporting the journeys of others. He recently moved with his wife and two daughters back to New Zealand.

We hear Dan’s thoughts on consciously shaping a vibrant and beautiful life, getting paid for your passion, how to be vulnerable and cut to the chase (rather than participating in superficial BS), the deception of ideas, the illusion of separation from the natural world and why to ask better questions.

SHOW NOTES

• Away from reductionist thinking and towards a holistic framework. 
• Discovering holistic management and the influence of Allan Savory.
• How to uncover the deeper intention beneath the goal or dream.
• What are the core ingredients of a fulfilling life?
• How linear thinking sustains our industrialised society.
• Why you can’t just ‘join your life back up’ to create a whole - you need to go right back to the DNA of your values and beliefs.
• How to tap into deep harmony and coherence.
• Why life can’t be like a knitted jumper. 
• “Deciding your way” towards the life you want.
• Why self work isn’t selfish - it’s a precursor to genuine altruism.
• Honouring the need for financial security in a world that hinges on money.
• An uncompromising approach to making profit from your passion.
• Having hard conversations vs. modern ‘communities’ that stroke our egos.
• Why Dan’s excited to be alive at this time in history. 
• Sending positive ripples into space and time. 
• The gnarly question of how to instil hope, buoyancy and knowledge in your kids. 
• Approaching each day as a living whole. 
• Our obligation to contribute to the beauty of the universe. 
• How we’ve been hijacked by the idea that the world is a machine. 
• How to lead with feeling and back up with thinking.
• “The intellect is too crude a net to catch the whole” - Christopher Alexander
• Why we don’t need to “reconnect” with nature - we have never been separate. 
• How to relax back into underlying non-separateness.
• Understanding “life sheds” rather than arbitrary borders.
• Why advice and “answers” can disempower people.
• How can we ask better questions?  

LINKS YOU’LL LOVE

• Making Permaculture Stronger 
• Permablitz
• Landed
• Holistic Decision Making
• Very Edible Gardens
• Allan Savory
• Brian Goodwin
• Charles Eisenstein

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futuresteading)Buy the Book! Futuresteading - Live like tomorrow matters

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So we don't leave you twiddling your braincells while we record the next season, we've done you the favour of going waaaaaaaay back into the archives of season one and dusting off four our our faves for you to stick in your ears for your weekly dose of inspiration.   
Next season kicks off on Monday 11th October - until then, enjoy these humans of wonder!

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 If you’re looking for reasons to be hopeful, this conversation with Brenna Quinlan provides a lifetime’s worth. 

You probably know her as “that permaculture illustrator” - and boy, can she communicate complex environmental and social ideas with a few deft flicks of her paintbrush!

Although she now lives in WA with her permie partner in crime Charlie McGee,  at the time we chatted with Brenna she was  a tiny-hut-dwelling resident of Melliodora and she shares what life looks like day in day out when living with the co founder of permaculture.

Brenna is a breath of fresh air and optimism, with oodles to share about where humanity’s headed - and how we can make the transition altogether more joyful.

Listen in. Smile big. Draw a (hopeful) picture.

SHOW NOTES

• Brenna’s early love of art and “crashing” adult art classes.
• Her story of riding across the Americans in her early 20s, learning about farming and community.
• How she was “the right sized piece of the puzzle” when she fell into illustrating Retrosuburbia... and making creativity her career.
• Why she didn't stress about "using her uni degrees" and instead let creativity and opportunities germinate where they may.
• How and why to be part of a greater movement, rather than going it alone. 
• The importance of surrounding yourself with like-minded people.
• Her simple daily rituals and joyful pleasures featuring: goats, uphill bike rides, library books.
• Why cycles of day and night, the seasons and and end-of-day gratitude practice are essential parts of her existence.
• Why ‘alternative living’ is an opportunity to connect more with others, rather than persisting with unfettered individualism (the death of community?).
• How her life at Mellidora works: rent for work exchange, living alongside others, zero waste, a permie bubble. 
• Why taking a leap of faith into a different life = nothing to lose. 
• How she channels her environmental grief into positive forward motion.
• How to find what makes you come alive - and go for it!

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

• Website: Brenna Quinlan @brenna_quinlan
• Book: Retrosuburbia: The Downshifters Guide to a Resilient Future - David Holmgren
• Book: On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal - Naomi Klein

Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futuresteading)
Buy the Book! Futuresteading - Live like tomorrow matters

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