Earth Activist Training (EAT)
Permakultur-Hof Stein-Häger, Germany,
August 14-27, 2023
Facilitated by Starhawk and Alfred Decker
Earth Activist Training and 12P Permaculture Design are happy to invite you to a two-week intensive Permaculture Design Course (PDC), offering the internationally-recognized 72-hour permaculture curriculum with an additional focus on social permaculture, organizing tools, and spirit.
Come and share a life-changing experience with an intercultural mix of participants!
If you have questions about the course, contact us HERE
If you have questions about the venue or registration, contact us HERE
Course objectives, descriptions and content
Earth Activist Training (EAT) is an intensive course that combines theory and practical hands-on learning with a grounding in spirit and a focus on social justice and ecofeminism. Come learn practical earth healing and gain the skills to regenerate land and community. We use a diverse set of teaching tools that encourage experiential and participatory learning, combining theory with practice, lectures with hands-on projects, sound science with ritual, meditation, song and story—and lots of fun! We will challenge consumerism, and explore ways to advocate for and create a culture of sustainability, compassion and equity.
Completion of the course earns participants a Permaculture Design Certificate – the foundation for further permaculture work and study and a prerequisite for the Diploma in Permaculture Design. Participants will learn Permaculture design principles & techniques. The PDC covers a broad range of subjects to provide a holistic overview of Permaculture systems and sustainable living.
Some of the topics / themes to be covered are:
- Evidence for change & the ethics of sustainability
- Principles of Permaculture
- Observation & landscape analysis
- Ecological planning & design methods
- Organic food production and food security
- Climatic factors in design
- Soils: natural soil improvement
- Integrated animal systems
- Water : harvesting, conservation, and management
- Agroforestry & forest gardening
- Appropriate technologies & renewable energy systems
- Mapping & design exercises
- Techniques and design strategies for both urban & rural applications
- Ecovillages & sustainable human settlements
- Creating community rituals and ceremonies
- Cultivating inner sources of hope and resilience
- Honoring ancestral and indigenous wisdom
Where can I go after this course?
- Embark on new farming practices
- Start a permaculture diploma program
- Find ways of dramatically reducing energy consumption
- Begin land-based ventures & small businesses such as: nurseries, landscape design consultancies, etc.
- Realize goals towards self-sufficiency
City dwellers have found that even with little or no land, Permaculture shows them how to work with their home to produce food, reduce energy needs, live more ecologically and in closer connection with their communities. Educators, farm advisers, international development workers, garden directors, builders, master gardeners, and landscape architects have all reported that what they’ve learned in this course has become a foundation for their work. Farmers, nursery owners, foresters and livestock farmers have all found that Permaculture design has multiplied their incomes, reduced their work, and improved the health of their stock.
This course aims to be a courageous space for people who are/were exposed to any form of discrimination. You are welcome!
EAT Teaching Team
Starhawk
Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer, and one of the foremost voices in earth-based spirituality. She has lived and worked in collectives for thirty years. Her thirteen books include The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing and its sequel, City of Refuge, The Earth Path, her first picture book for children, The Last Wild Witch, and a book on group dynamics, The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups. She is the director and cofounder of the permaculture teaching organization Earth Activist Training.
Alfred Decker
Alfred Decker is an award-winning permaculture designer, a certified educator with the Permaculture Association of Britain, and one of Europe’s leading permaculture educators. Since his first PDC in 1998 in California (where Alfred and Starhawk were students together), he has been involved with permaculture projects and social movements and projects throughout Europe and the Americas. Based in Catalunya (Spain), Alfred is the founder of the 12P Permaculture Design consultancy, and teaches widely throughout Europe. These days he is dedicated to facilitating permaculture teacher trainings with a focus on refugees. 2023 is the sixth year that Starhawk and Alfred will be teaching together in Europe, having already collaborated on 11 courses together.
Course Venue & Date
Permakultur-Hof Stein-Häger is a permaculture project in the hilly Uckermark, one hour by train north of Berlin in the Brandenburg region. Wild nature, wide views and young trees offer space for beautiful camping close to nature. The facilities are simple but beautiful.
The project is the work of Johanna Häger, a permaculture designer since 2009, putting herself at the service of the earth and future generations. She has lived at this site since 2007, intimately involved in its design and development. She is a carpenter, landscape architect and ardent forest gardener. Together with a small team, she will support and provide the course with practical sessions and vegetables from the farm.
Address: Stein-Häger-Hof, Querweg 2, 17268 Gerswalde
Dates: 14 - 27 August 2023
Begins: Dinner on the night of August 14th 2023
Ends: Certificate ceremony on the night of August 27th 2023, followed by dinner, party and “No Talent Show”. Departure is the following morning, or after the certificate ceremony if you need to leave early.
Course Fees
For the other costs beside food & accomodation (teaching, materials, travel, large tent rental, accounting, etc.), EAT offers a sliding scale that encourages people with higher incomes to give a bit more. The scale for this certified training is between 1130€ - 1480€ per person, in addition to the food & accommodation costs listed below. This is the normal pricing for the PDC courses offered at this site. Those who can afford to pay more on the higher end of the scale will help those who can only pay less. The sliding scale recognises the differences in economic reality depending on what country a participant comes from, as well as their individual circumstances, so this is a practical way that people with more resources can act in solidarity. If you want to propose a different price based on your economic situation, please share with us what you want to contribute and why you need support.
We have an amount of pay-what-you-can scholarships for people of color working in environmental and social justice movements. That is part of our way of supporting reparations and of bringing in more diversity to our permaculture movement. If you are a BIPOC interested in one of these scholarships, please contact us HERE.
Starhawk and Alfred will participate in two upcoming EAT diversity scholarship fundraisers planned for Earth Day (April 22nd) and around Starhawk’s birthday in June.
If anyone is interested in helping with Europe-focused fundraising for this course, please contact Alfred HERE.
Your fees include:
• A life-changing learning experience
• A PDC Certificate
• Digital resources
• A new generation of permaculture doers for you to join!
Food & Accomodation
The food is mostly organic and a lot of the vegetables will come straight from the garden. There will be vegetarian, vegan, and omnivore options, the latter being ecological and locally-produced meat and dairy products.
Camping in your own tent or caravan is the normal accomodation. However, it is possible to rent a nearby apartment, for more information please send a message HERE
The costs for food and accommodation charged by the site are 600€ total per person.
Registration form
Here you can register for the "Earth Activist Training" from the 14-27th of august 2023. There might be an error message popping zu stating an error during submission of the data. In that case, just try again.
* If you want to make a different payment proposal or ask for a scholarship, please communicate that in the form or contact Nesin: nesrin [at] posteo.de