Magzter Gold (Sitewide CA)

Magzter Gold (Sitewide CA)

Digital Delivery

Dumbo Feather June 1st, 2020 Digital Back Issue Cover

Dumbo Feather Issue 63 (Digital)

(Write a Review)

Single Digital Issue

Issue 63

$3.88

Powered By Zinio

Zinio

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Instant Start

Also available on ZINIO Unlimited logo

Get unlimited access to Dumbo Feather (Digital) + Back Issues & 5000+ other magazines

1-month free trial

Renews at $8.99/month after trial.
Cancel anytime.

Get unlimited access to Dumbo Feather (Digital) + Back Issues & 5000+ other magazines. Renews at just $8.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Start Trial Learn more

24 Articles

Dear reader, In the first few weeks of lockdown, as conferences and travel were being cleared from my calendar, the two-hour work commute wiped from my day, meetings at coffee shops and catch ups at bars no longer viable, I felt what many have found confronting to express: relief. I was being told to feel panic, to feel uncertainty, to feel like the whole world had fallen apart, but I didn’t. I felt permission to get off the treadmill, to narrow the lens with which I viewed my life, and to finally give contentment a chance. I want to acknowledge my context here, as I know this has also been a difficult and tragic time for many. I live with my partner in a house that has a large, productive…

The Power of Going Local

“ I have seen caring human hands turn cracked, bone-dry earth into rich soil capable of feeding entire communities, while simultaneously restoring habitat for wildlife.” Local. A simple concept with the potential to change the world. The antidote to consumer capitalism. The key to solving our seemingly endless ecological crises. A guiding principle to take us back home: to community, to the natural world, and to prosperous, place-based economies. Throughout human history, our cultural traditions, societies, personalities, even our bodies have evolved in relationship with community and local ecosystems. Our direct reliance on one another and the natural world around us formed the basis for deep, long-lasting connections with other people and with our place on the planet, which in turn supported healthy, grounded identities. Place-based economies also gave rise…

The Power of Going Local

What it Means to be a Neighbour

“ Like most species on the planet, we humans are a social species. It is more natural for us to co-operate than compete.” When people empty supermarket shelves in a rampage of panic buying, it makes the news. When people charter buses to travel from Melbourne and Sydney to raid the shelves of regional supermarkets, that makes the news. When people come to blows in a supermarket aisle over their struggle to secure the last pack of toilet rolls, that makes the news, too. Such things are bound to make the news, because they are news. They are spectacular examples of how badly—how unusually—we humans can behave when we let our fears and anxieties get the better of us. When a shopper stands back to let someone else take the…

What it Means to be a Neighbour

The Rewards of Investing Locally

“ One of the best ways of mitigating risk is to have a personal relationship with the person or business you’re investing in.” One of my favourite cartoons, by the wonderfully weird Gary Larson, is of a crisis clinic on fire, floating down a river, about to plunge over a waterfall. That’s what my life was like in 2008, the year I decided to divorce, start paying child support for two young children, move into a new house and take a new job. Then the financial crisis hit. My new job vanished, and opportunities for consulting work dried up. When all was said and done (I won’t belabour the details), I wound up nearly $100,000 in debt. Most of it was put on credit cards, charging me 15-25 percent interest…

The Rewards of Investing Locally

How Agriculture has Shaped Us

“ Pre-agricultural society owed its survival to co-operation, to groups working together. They survived because of the dense web of social contacts and the vast number of reciprocal commitments they maintained.” I remember writing years ago about how lovely it would be if, for just one month, the whole human world went quiet. I imagined a beautiful stillness descending on the streets, so that we could begin to think again, contemplate our situation, remember what it feels like to be alive, right now, in this astonishing universe. In that time of reprieve from the Great Noise, who knew what transformations might arise, what values would have a chance to emerge, what forms of fairness, or considerations of kindness. We might remember how good and necessary ordinary fellow feeling is, because…

How Agriculture has Shaped Us

Lessons from the Village

Socialising A 101 guide to being social in Sardinia Go walking between 9:00am and 11:30am or 4:00pm and 7:00pm. If you stay inside during these times, say, to read books or be alone, it is highly likely that people will talk about you like this: “I don’t know why she is like that, she is a little strange.” Here, within these appropriate times, you will be asked to join others for an espresso, a tumbler of red wine, a 30-minute streetside conversation during which somebody will pass and shout, “Hey you, [insert nickname here—everyone has one in a small village. Me, I am Mary Poppins for the most part], where you been!?” If you do not go out at these crucial times, you may never acquire any friends. It’s a fact.…

Lessons from the Village

PETER MACFADYEN RECLAIMS DEMOCRACY

SUBJECT Peter Macfadyen OCCUPATION Former mayor of Frome INTERVIEWER Berry Liberman PHOTOGRAPHER Joe Hulbert LOCATION Frome, UK DATE May, 2020 Legend has it that a group of unimpressed locals met at a pub one evening and concocted a new form of governance. In their view, the main feature of their standing local council was “a lack of ambition.” Years of sticking to 19th Century models of governance—because that’s just how it’s done—had created a complacent council doing the least amount within the tightest parameters. That night was the beginning of a quiet revolution in the small UK town of Frome, with 10 of the locals being voted into council as independent members a few months later. One of those locals was Peter Macfadyen, a humble, mild-mannered Englishman with strong views on…

PETER MACFADYEN RECLAIMS DEMOCRACY

PAT McCABE IS A VOICE FOR PEACE

SUBJECT Pat McCabe OCCUPATION Activist and cultural liaison INTERVIEWER Helena Norberg-Hodge PHOTOGRAPHER Steve Herrera LOCATION New Mexico, US DATE March, 2020 Pat McCabe (Weyakpa Najin Win, meaning “Woman Stands Shining”) is an ambassador between two worlds. A Navajo mother, grandmother, artist and ceremonial leader, she has been deeply immersed in land-based, indigenous ways of living and being. Having grown up in a multicultural neighbourhood next to Stanford University in California, she is also accustomed to the realities of the modern, industrialised world. It makes her an invaluable bridge-builder and cross-cultural communicator, and a powerful voice for the deep and broad transformation needed in the modern world to deal with its ecological and social crises. Pat works with communities across Turtle Island/North America, helping to heal uprooted identities, broken relationships, and all the…

PAT McCABE IS A VOICE FOR PEACE

MANISH JAIN BUILDS “ALIVE-LIHOODS”

SUBJECT Manish Jain OCCUPATION Un-educator INTERVIEWER Alex Jensen PHOTOGRAPHER Haroldo Castro LOCATION Udaipur, India DATE April, 2020 A radical pamphlet on education caught my eye in a library in Ladakh over 10 years ago. Outspoken critics of development and education? I had to meet them. This eventually led me to an institution called Shikshantar in Udaipur, Rajasthan, to meet the people behind the pamphlet and one of their founders, Manish Jain. A close collaboration and friendship between Manish and Local Futures quickly struck, and has lasted for many years, spanning films, forums and conferences together. Manish is deeply committed to regenerating our diverse local knowledge systems and cultural imaginations. He is one of the leading voices on the planet for “de-schooling” our lives. He has served for the past 21 years as…

MANISH JAIN BUILDS “ALIVE-LIHOODS”

The Radical Hope Club

Marching down the main street of our town demanding climate action last September felt hopeful. It was a School Strike 4 Climate, led by the teenagers in our area, inspired by Greta. My primary school-aged kids were by my side, posters painted, enveloped by a mosh pit of anticipation, but still innocent to the true gravity of climate change. Like so many places around the world that day, we took to the streets with everyone we knew; holding hands, chanting, smiling at each other with a mix of concern and unity. The march concluded a few streets down in a park with Mia, a local teenager, belting out a powerful and impassioned speech over a PA that rallied us all, including our young children. On the walk home, my 10-year-old…

The Radical Hope Club

The Cape is an award-winning sustainable housing estate less than two hours’ drive south-east of Melbourne. Australia’s first net zero carbon estate, homes here have an average energy rating of over eight stars, which means they are comfortable year round, even during heat waves or in the middle of winter, with minimal heating or cooling. Nearly 40 of the eventual 230 homes are now occupied by sea-changers, e-changers, first home buyers, young families, older families and retirees. The Cape estate produces 3-4 times more energy than it consumes, with simple passive solar design and a small mandated amount of rooftop solar on every home. This means that The Cape exports power to neighbouring towns and communities during high demand periods in summer when the same towns have historically experienced power…

The Coalition of Everyone

Around the world, our democracies are failing us. They’re making rules the majority of people don’t agree with, creating ever-widening divides of inequality, and barely meeting minimum standards of transparency and accountability. Here in Australia, we vote every three years and then, for the most part, we wait and see what happens. We protest when things go really wrong, but usually we’re not invited or encouraged to have a say in the decisions being made for our communities. And that’s problematic for a number of reasons. It contributes to a culture of hopelessness at not being able to make change in our neighbourhoods. It creates a lack of trust in our governments and public institutions. And it makes people feel like their voices aren’t heard, or don’t matter, and that…

The Coalition of Everyone

Walking into the elaborate urban experiment that is Holzmarkt, a sign over the entrance declares, “Big dreams need space and courageous investors.” In the fast-changing social and economic landscape of Berlin, it has miraculously achieved both. Holzmarkt grew out of the famous Bar 25, a squat-turned-club on the banks of the River Spree, less than two kilometres down the river from Alexanderplatz and the centre of Berlin. Co-operatively run, it’s a place where people from all ages and walks of life can come and find an activity to enjoy, from a relaxed lunch by the river through to dancing into the early hours of the morning. It is now home to more than 20 independent projects, including a reincarnation of the original club Bar 25 called Katerblau, the upmarket Katerschmaus Restaurant, a…

Fawkner Food Bowls

I grew up in a Catholic parish, which my mother was very involved with, knowing everyone. But at age 15, being queer and a feminist, I rejected the Church and lost a whole world. I briefly found that same sense of connection in the women’s room at uni and in student activism, before floating through my twenties and thirties in long-term relationships, consuming art, travel and all that cosmopolitan Melbourne had to offer. What was missing was real connection to the people around me. I longed for a local, connected community. In my suburb of Fawkner, Melbourne, religious and sporting groups abound. I wanted to belong to something else. I spent many hours wheeling my baby around the uneven footpaths, dreaming up ways to bring people together. At the other end…

Fawkner Food Bowls

The Village Well

The Village Well in the simplest terms is a local lending organisation, similar to a bank. It’s an alternative to putting money with one of the big banks. As we know, banks take the money you deposit, give you a small return, and then lend that money to other organisations, or people, and charge them interest. So if you deposit $5000, you might get one percent return on it, then they’ll take that $5000 and lend it to somebody else and make five percent return off them. That’s essentially how banks make their money (it’s a bit more complicated, but let’s keep it simple for now). So instead of giving that $5000 to a bank that will then lend it to a business that you might not know or like…

CERES is an environmental education centre, urban farm and thriving network of social enterprises located along the Merri Creek in Melbourne, Australia. For thousands of years Wurundjeri people lived on the country where it now stands. The Merri Creek was an important site for them to meet, swim, play and gather food. Following European invasion and the growth of Melbourne city, the site was quarried for bluestone and later turned into landfill for household and construction waste. As industry moved in, the local creek became polluted and the trees and wildlife disappeared. In 1982, a small group of people in the area approached the local council about utilising the land to grow vegetables and make compost as part of a “work-for-the-dole” program. The project was brought to life, and explorations in alternative…

Resilient Byron & Renew Fest

My first major experience of the full creative power of community was back in 2014, living for weeks at the anti-gasfield protest camp at Bentley in Northern Rivers NSW. The communal response was epic, and successful, but when I returned to my hometown of Mullumbimby I was left wondering what could be done—beyond protesting? Using some of the self-organising processes I encountered at Bentley, I set up two public events to explore what a “Sustainable Mullumbimby” might look like. Out of this, several organisations were born, spanning renewable energy, youth, mental health and more. The events themselves evolved into an annual festival of full-system regenerative change called Renew Fest, which I still direct with a small core team and over a hundred volunteers. Since 2016, we have brought together all…

Resilient Byron & Renew Fest

Resilient Channon

The dramatic Mt Nardi/Terania fires of November 2019 made climate change very real and personal for our small rural community of The Channon in Northern NSW. Our rainforests were burning—the same rainforests that had been protected from logging in the historic Terania Creek protests 40 years ago. What emerged from those fires was a remarkable community response to help defend our neighbours and the forest. We experienced how overcoming adversity creates deep cohesion, connection and indeed joy within a community. When the fires stopped blazing, many of us felt a need to build wide-scale resilience as a community. A small group created a half-day workshop called “The Channon: Enhancing Community Resilience through Connection and Action,” which saw our local hall buzzing with over 100 local people. We began the workshop…

Resilient Channon

DAVID HOLMGREN RETROFITS THE STREETS

SUBJECT David Holmgren OCCUPATION Permaculture educator INTERVIEWER Nathan Scolaro PHOTOGRAPHER Brenna Quinlan LOCATION Hepburn, Australia DATE April, 2020 One of the great legends of our time, David Holmgren is best known as the co-originator of permaculture, which he introduced to the world with his good friend Bill Mollison in 1978. Together, they developed a design system for living with the land based on ecological principles, generating one of the most important farming and gardening movements in history. Permaculture is applied to small- and large-scale land projects in the most privileged and destitute parts of the world, and has been referred to as “Australia’s most significant intellectual export.” Meaning “permanent culture,” it is based on 12 key principles, including “integrate rather than separate,” “observe and interact” and “use and value diversity”—principles which…

DAVID HOLMGREN RETROFITS THE STREETS

JUDY WICKS IS A LOCAL FOOD LEGEND

SUBJECT Judy Wicks OCCUPATION Entrepreneur INTERVIEWER Anja Lyngbaek PHOTOGRAPHER Jean Brubaker LOCATION Philadelphia, US DATE April, 2020 I am sitting across from Judy Wicks, local economy pioneer in the US, and mentor to a multitude of activists concerned with the survival of independent businesses and place-based economies. We are facing each other on a screen: me from a homestead in the mountains of Mexico and Judy from her home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Some years back I heard Judy speak in New York and was deeply inspired by her creativity, integrity and resolve. Her visionary restauranteering paved the way for a farm-to-table movement, while her efforts to unite independent businesses and producers locally have acted as counter-movement to corporate America. Efforts like BALLE—the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies—have also inspired a host…

JUDY WICKS IS A LOCAL FOOD LEGEND

JOHANN HARI MAKES CONNECTIONS

SUBJECT Johann Hari OCCUPATION Writer INTERVIEWER Helena Norberg-Hodge PHOTOGRAPHER Ryan Lash LOCATION London, UK DATE May, 2020 Johann Hari knows how to answer a question. An introspective journey to better understand his own struggles with depression turned into a worldwide odyssey to research the fundamental causes of the world’s mounting mental health crisis. His travels brought him into contact with some of the world’s most cutting-edge scientists and doctors, as well as many extraordinary individuals and communities whose moving stories shed light on a topic that too often remains shrouded in darkness. The resulting book, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression and the Unexpected Solutions is a New York Times best-seller—lauded by everyone from Oprah to Elton John—and has revolutionised mainstream understanding of depression and anxiety. Johann possesses…

JOHANN HARI MAKES CONNECTIONS

Banking on a Cleaner Future

As our social, economic and political worlds are being reshaped through crisis, we believe a more just equilibrium is possible on the other side. Clean money and community-focussed banks are not only possible, they are essential to a world where people are valued over profits. We spoke to Bank Australia’s Head of Strategy and Communications Fiona Nixon about the challenges and opportunities of this moment. MIRANDA CAMPBELL: We are in uncharted waters in so many ways right now. What are you discovering about yourself and others as we live through this moment in history? FIONA NIXON: As an introvert, I’ve always thought time alone is great, but I’ve really learned that human contact and interaction is fundamental to wellbeing and that this is universal. I’ve also learned we are very…

Banking on a Cleaner Future

The Original Philosophy of Flow

We have stopped. A pandemic encircles the world. Many of us are either partially or entirely isolated, keeping our distances. The planes are mostly grounded, the non-essential stores are closed. The hospitals are filled with people who are sick and dying. And the world has become much quieter. Except for our minds. Some of us are swirling in restlessness and resistance to what is. Many are raring to get back to work, penned like wild stallions; others are in fear and dread about an uncertain future—or of death itself; some are in grief and sorrow, seeing the toll in lost lives and hardships; and still others are in denial, mentally gyrating as fast as possible to avoid confronting our new reality. My own moments of resistance have inspired a return…

The Confident Heart/Mind (Hsin-Hsin Ming)

The Great Way is not difficult If you are easy in your preferences. When grasping and repelling are both absent Everything becomes clear and undisguised. In the slightest resistance, however Heaven and earth are set infinitely apart. The Way is perfect, like vast space, Where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess. Indeed, it is due to our choosing To accept or deny the true nature of things. Live neither in the entanglements of outer pursuits Nor in inner feelings of avoidance. Be serene in the suchness of things And confusion will disappear on its own. When you strive for inner quietude Your very effort fills you with disquiet. As long as you strain in dualistic ambitions You will not know peace. The more you conceptualize it, The further…

In This Issue

Description

Details

Reviews

Recent Digital Issues Browse all

Recent Dumbo Feather Digital Issues Browse all back issues

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription November 1st, 2020 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 65: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription September 1st, 2020 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 64: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription June 1st, 2020 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 63: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription March 1st, 2020 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 62: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription November 12th, 2022 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 71: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription July 1st, 2022 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 70: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription March 1st, 2022 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 69: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription November 1st, 2021 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 68: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription July 1st, 2021 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 67: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription March 1st, 2021 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 66: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription November 1st, 2020 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 65: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription September 1st, 2020 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 64: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription June 1st, 2020 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 63: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription March 1st, 2020 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 62: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription November 12th, 2022 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 71: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription July 1st, 2022 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 70: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription March 1st, 2022 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 69: $3.88

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Subscription November 1st, 2021 Issue

Dumbo Feather (Digital) Issue 68: $3.88

Reviews

0

0

0

0

0

No reviews yet

Ask a Question

Click stars to rate

Please select a rating for the review.

Please enter title for the review.

Please enter content for the review.

Please enter order number.

Please enter your first name and last name.

Only letters allowed for first name and last name.

Please enter your email.

Upload photo

Cancel Submit

Processing...

Thank you for your feedback! Your review has been submitted and will be published soon.

OK

Be the first to ask a question about this product

Please enter content for the question.

Please enter at least 10 characters.

Your question can not be more than 150 characters.

Please enter your first name and last name.

Only letters allowed for first name and last name.

Please enter your email.

Submit Processing...

Thank you for your question! Your question has been submitted and will be published soon.

Answer this question

Please enter content for the answer.

Please enter at least 10 characters.

Please enter your first name and last name.

Only letters allowed for first name and last name.

Please enter your email.

Submit Cancel Processing...

Thank you for your answer! Your answer has been submitted and will be published soon.

OK

×