Liane Simons
I just got back from a month travelling in Ireland and Devon, UK, with my
daughter. It was wet and cold and blustery most of the time and I felt
sorry for the buggers for whom this was midsummer, there was a lot of
talk in Ireland about another wave of emigration, young ones leaving for
work (many to the mines in WA), now that the Euro bubble has popped
leaving everywhere it blew up deeper in debt than ever.
However, there are a lot of great things about Ireland: the Guinness, the
pubs, the trad music, ruins of all types and most of all the people and
their indomitable spirit.
Another bright light is the blossoming Transition movement, which has spread virally around the planet in the last five years but started there, in Ireland.It’s founder, Rob Hopkins, was a permaculture teacher who put peak oil and climate change together and realised it was going to take more than veges and fruit trees to get us through the perfect storm that is brewing globally. He moved with his family to Totnes in Devon and it was there that I went to participate in a weekend with other Transition leaders.
There was one other Aussie, Clare, from the Blue Mountains, a couple from Israel and Denmark and most of the others were from the UK and Germany.
One woman lived in a small town where she felt like a lone voice and wondered if she should just pack up and move to Totnes, which is the English version of Byron, or persevere and try to wake up some of her slumbering neighbours. Others were busy doing great things already. But for me, coming from Byron, so rich in awareness, community and sustainability initiatives, my question was ‘Is there a role for Transition in Byron Shire and, if so, what is it?’ After more than two years blundering around this huge amorphous thing that is Transition I came away with a clearer context but still unclear as to the answer.
If you would like to explore this question and connect with others that care about how we can build a community that can respond gracefully to whatever our uncertain world might deliver, come and join us for In
Transition 2.0 the movie and eat some wonderful food provided by the Mullum Community Garden team. Gold coin donation, supper at 6pm, movie starts at 6.30pm, August 7, at the Byron Shire Council chambers, Mullumbimby.
Contact Liane 0429 802 905.
