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The Green Unconference 2021

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For thirteen days, as world leaders, community leaders and climate youth activists met at COP26 in Glasgow to make decisions that affect our common future, We at The Green UnConference gathered daily to listen to each other’s stories.

From the mountains and rivers of the Himalayas to the seas and forests of Palawan, Siargao, Dumaguete, Boracay, and Baler. 

From our metropolises in Manila and New Delhi and Bangalore 

From intentional communities in Crystal Waters, Queensland, Bulacan, Japan, Bangalore, Udaipur, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan

We have seen rivers of gold and silver stars. 

Healing ourselves, our relationships, our projects. 

Weaving together our golden threads of light, spun from passion and purpose, a touch of magic — affirming that at this critical time in the history of humanity and our beautiful planet — we are here for one another, and for Mother Earth.

TGU 2021 truly connected rivers of people, projects to the ocean ecosystem. 

The journey was the destination. It taught us that life is about the little things. 

We are so grateful to co-travel with Binhi Supper Club, Daloy, Ecoversities Alliance, FarmLab, Good Food Community, Green Releaf, Re:Source Labs, Healthyndahan, Inner Moon Well-Being, Isla Medisina, Jabez Perma Research PH Tala, Jail University (TBC), Kayumanggi Organic, New Deli by Kashmir, Permayouth, Project Thrive, ReGEN Nations, Ritual (TBC), Soul Kitchen El Nido, Swaraj University, The Living Library, The Social Enterprises, TI Eco-Village, Weekend Wild Child, and Local Futures 

Together we distilled and displayed what works for our collective wellbeing. 

Our goal was to weave and celebrate learning and unlearning and together reimagine the new map and blueprint of the beautiful world we know is possible if we indulge and converge for radical collaboration. Collaboration begins by knowing our stories and what makes us flow and grow as living systems. We showcased what we need to do to come closer for collaborations and co-create larger connected systems. 

We established that we simultaneously need a culture of inner and outer transformation and transitions to birth the new humanity that takes compassionate care of mother earth and all life on it. 

We focussed our themes similar to the COP26: Regeneration, Agriculture, Energy, Youth, Gender,  Women, Adaptation and Indigenous People, Social Enterprise, Transitions in Education, Transitions in Tech, Nature, Biodiversity, Transport, Travel Cities and Built Environments.

Please visit GENOA FB Page to tune into the Transition Journeys and stay tuned for the TGU 2021 short Film to be launched soon!

The Green Unconference 2021: Transition Journeys

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The year was 2015. The first TGU 2015 gathering was in Manila, Philippines. A simple and soulful act by friends, with Karla and Amena wishing to weave their world for healing and wellness. The seed was sown for TGU 2017 and TGU 2019. A biennial gathering, a celebration of all things green, nurturing life with compassion, courage, consciousness, and collaborations. 

The Green Unconference 2019

Now in this time of the pandemic, we are being called on to transition to a way of life that supports our collective health & wellbeing.  

In this time of climate crisis, we are being called on to transition to living in a way our planet can thrive.  

The Green Unconference 2021 is a gathering of intergenerational earth carers, wisdom keepers, healers, activists, regenerators, regen-preneurs, creatives, reimagining and making change happen to birth the new healed humanity and transition our earth to a beautiful world we all know in our hearts is possible. 

This year’s theme is Transition Journeys, and we are partnering with groups who are already transitioning and inspiring others to transition. 

Official partners are

GENOA -Global Ecovillage Network Oceania & Asia 

Kai Farms

Kids for Kids 

Lokal Lab Siargao

MAD Travel

Our timing and themes coincide with the COP26 Climate Conference October 31-November 12, 2021

We are collaborating with many people and groups all over the Philippines, India, Australia, and beyond. 

Our line-up includes online as well as face-to-face events where they are possible. We are also curating transition travel journeys next year when possible. These journeys will allow immersion in projects and interaction with people and communities that are supporting regeneration at the grassroots. 

TGU is a call for friendship, to regenerate our relationships and live from a place of unified loving awareness in service to the wellness of all life. 

We welcome you to journey with us for the kind of joyful, radical collaboration these times call for. 
We are supporting and energizing a culture of gifting. Registration is free. We welcome participants to gift what their heart desires. Funds raised will go towards supporting the regenerative community projects of partners.

Ecovillage Transition in GENOA

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This article is a short summary of the GENOA community call written by Roky Biswas and Thao Kin

On 21st September 2021, GENOA conducted its monthly community call for restoration and transformation of the earth as a global ecovillage. The topic of this month is Ecovillage Transition – transforming existing communities into regenerative communities. At the beginning of the sharing and discussion Amena Bal – GENOA Network steward & Fundraising Coordinator – led the whole group into a meditative spiritual prayer. After that, Thao Kin – GENOA Networking coordinator – described the purpose of this call where she emphasized that a lot of the work in the Oceania & Asia region are with existing communities; supporting and working with how the communities can be more regenerative.  Anna Kovasna from GEN International took us through a tour of the Ecovillage Impact Assessment which is now officially launched, every community and project with a profile on GEN website can now take this impact assessment either as individual or collective.

The focus of this call was to learn from the practices of Ecovillage Transition around the region. We welcomed Thalea Tane – Aotearoa New Zealand, Hiroko Katayama – GEN Japan, Hai Chao Wang – Sunshine Ecovillage Network, China, Karen Wang – Sunshine Ecovillage Network, GEN China, Tanya Mottl – Narara Ecovillage, GEN Australia – five-speaker from four different countries have shared their experience about the regenerative activities in their communities.

Marrying the ecovillage map of regeneration with the local/indigenous wisdom 

Thalea Tane from Aotearoa/New Zealand, shared about her research and experience on ecovillage, she showed how to incorporate the concepts, tools, ideas from GEN to communities in Aotearoa. She said, “In our traditional communities, they already have this regenerative sense.” She is a tutor for sustainable living courses, builder of earth brick homes, facilitator of workshops, developer of people and communities.  The Universal Maori Principles – Mana, Tapu, Mauri, Kaitiakitanga –  are the same principles that the GEN cards have. When she uses the Ecovillage cards, it speaks volumes to her people as it resonates with the Maori principles. They have the belief system that we are the guardians of their landscape – the land, the rocks, the trees, the animals, etc. in their surrounding environment. One of the things that they have realized in Maori culture is that we need to re-indigenize ourselves and the community. People need to go back to the principles passed down by our ancestors and these principles are no different than the GEN principles. She has been incorporating the GEN playing cards for her community, this made the community feel that they are one with GEN.

Modeling a new world that we can live in

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Hiroko Katayama from As One Community shared that Japan has a capitalistic economy and people do not have much interest in environmental or ecovillage issues. In Japan, her community has been networking with different communities and ecovillages. GEN Japan works on networking to connect, raising awareness, education and supporting domestic initiatives around the country. They have also been trying to engage young people in the ecovillage activities and teaching the ecovillage concept. 

ScienZ Method

Communities like As One Suzuka are experimenting and creating a model to showcase a “new world” – showing how eco-communities are the gateway of the next civilization. They are interacting with mainstream society through trade, selling goods, education programs, workshops and other activities. The As One Community has developed the ScienZ Method for living together – learn more about ScienZ Method here.

Demonstrating and educating the ecovillage lifestyle 

Haichao Wang is the co-founder of Sunshine ecovillage in China. Together with Karen Wang, he shared a very motivating experience from his ecovillage concept and practice. In 2015, Sunshine Ecovillage ran the first international ecovillage forum in China. This is the first time the ecovillage network was introduced to China. Now there are already more than 100 aspiring ecovillages in China. People living in the cities are slowly realizing that they need green life. While city people would like to bring their city life back to villages, Haichao and his team bring the ecovillage concept to them to show that there are different ways of development. They wanted to demonstrate what eco-living really looks like by the life in their ecovillage. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the community created online programs for people to learn about ecovillages.

This ecovillage has about 20 ecovillage-related online courses and workshops on permaculture.  The community organized a eco-person gathering activity every new year (Jan 1st). In this gathering the community awarded one person who has outstanding contribution to the regeneration of China for the ecovillage transition. With the high rate of urbanization, the Chinese government is trying to promote rural revitalization. The Ecovillage team in China are building a model ecovillage (like Sunshine Ecovillage) for people to see and learn from. 

Envisioning with the aboriginal community

Tanya Mottl shared how GEN Australia has been engaging with the Jumbun Community to look at the way that the community wanted to come back to their traditional values and not depend on the government so much. They held a 3-day workshop which led to envisioning and strategizing with the local community. A key initiative they are undertaking is a truth-talking circle. The message that came out is strong and clear: we have the power to change this. GEN Australia  is also supporting Permayouth working with the local school in Jumbun. They have created the ecovillage design cards to be culturally appropriate to the community. The Jumbun Community shared that the ecovillage cards align with their community values. What they’d like to work on is to engage their youth in the regeneration of the community. 

The rich sharing from representatives around the network has sparked interest in all of us. It is important to realize that the process of Ecovillage Transition is very much context-dependent, we can utilize the sharing from our network, with the guidance of the Map of Regeneration and adapt it to our local context. As shared from the group discussion, building ecovillages is challenging in many countries and people who are living in urban areas would like to seek ways to live regeneratively where they are as well. This gives us the opportunity to explore how members of the ecovillage network can engage the urban sector and communicate eco-living to more people in different contexts.

For more information, you can watch the replay of this call on youtube here.

Below are some resources to dive deeper and explore other Ecovillage Transition work in the region:

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce and invite you to take the Skills and Capacities Mapping, this will help us to understand and map the abundant skills and expertise of people within the GENOA network. With the results of the survey, GENOA will build future connections, projects, and consultancy services, which in turn will strengthen resilience for each member and also the network as a whole.

To stay updated with our events and news, please subscribe to our newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/gxtA65

Cover picture credit: GEN Japan

GEN-Japan Online Series: Creating Communities & Surviving Together

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How will we live in the age of with corona? In addition to climate change and Fukushima, we need to take a sincere look at the reality we are facing now, and live out the future brightly and powerfully with people from all over the world.

 It is with this hope that GEN-Japan’s online series, “Creating communities and Surviving Together,” will be held from January to March 2021.

GEN-Japan, which started as a non-profit organization in 2016, has been actively promoting awareness of eco-villages and localization for the past three years, in collaboration with Keibo Shin’ichi Tsuji, a well-known cultural anthropologist and an activist of Local Future Japan. 

GEN-Japan has been organizing EDE and consulting on community building in various regions as well as actively promoting eco-villages and localization for the last three years.

This three-month project, we were able to deepen the relationship among more than 20 practitioners of ecovillages, localization, and transition activities who agree with our aims, and connect with a total of 500 citizens and younger generations who are looking for their future way of life. Especially, Helena Norberg=Hodge appear to give the great speech. She is a director of the organization, Local Future, “Human has amazing ability in genes. Essentially we can live such community living as a big one family. People around the world are restoring ecosystems with their own well-being by strengthening their communities and localizing their economies. People have the power to do this.

This project has led to the birth of new eco-villages and communities that want to join the Network, the start of new online projects in cooperation, and mutual visits and information sharing in preparation for Earth Day in April and World Localization Day in June. The role of GEN-Japan as a platform is expected to grow further. 

It is certain that this movement will lead to the survival of the human race, and at the same time, to the blossoming of a rich humanity in harmony with the Earth throughout the world, and a chance to open up a new civilization with a fundamental joy of life.

In the depths of the crisis of climate and corona, the silence, the darkness, the heaviness, the anxiety, the loneliness, even the resentment, feed us.

It is time to step into a new story that has been fermenting in each of us like miso.

From separation to relationship. From separation to connection.

Let’s find ourselves as “Aida” everywhere and meet each other in “Aida” communities.

by Shin-ichi Tsuji

The first event, on January 15;  The keynote speech by Shin’ichi Tsuji: “The Next World Opened up by “Aida” , and the world-historical perspective of Pracha Hutanuwar, led us to deeply explored the view of humanity and society that is the basis for the realization of a sustainable world. Many of the participants looked up and started to move towards the next step.

Some words from participants….

Somehow, humans have been destroying the “space between”. Also, “I don’t know” is not allowed anymore. This, Tsuji pointed out, is the reason for the various problems in our society today.

Today, we take it for granted that “I” and “you” exist separately and independently, and we are forgetting that there is a vast “space” between us. For example, even the hundreds of trillions of bacteria and microorganisms in our bodies and in the air interact with each other and create new existence while nurturing the “aida”. At the base of all this, are we also “one of the beings that have appeared”? The culture and community became a device that could accept the overwhelming “unknowability” of the whole.　(Female, 30s)

Tsuji quoted Satoru Saishu’s words about “Duality. In the first place, “I” is not given to us “from the beginning. I think. I am not the “I” of separation seen through the selfish attitude of “I think, therefore I am,” but rather “I am your you. I am a being that is connected to all. We are inseparable from ourselves and others.

And he gave us a message to encourage us.

Let’s regain the “Aida” that is not just “Subject” and “Object.

You and I are one, and we are connected.

Don’t be afraid to enter into the “aida” without fear of not knowing.

And let’s build a community!

I’m very motivated.

(Male in his 30s)

In February, 16 localizers and eco-village builders from as far south as Okinawa and as far north as Hokkaido, who support the purpose of this series, appeared.  Following the themes to create something new raised by Shinichi Tsuji, they presented their activities and issues in five groups. Amena Bal introduced the activities of GENOA. and on the last day, Giovanni Charlo, the director of Gaia Education, introduced EDE, a human resource development program to nurture people who can actually build communities. Finally, facilitated by Tsuji and Hiroko Katayama of GENJapan, representatives of major movement organizations such as Permaculture, Transition, As One Network  and Workers Co-op, all drew the mutual future activities.

Few words from speakers

“Although we have heard of each other, we were able to  communicate to understand sincerely this time.”

“I gained confidence in the direction of this movement”

“A deep realization that we can all advance the movement together by demonstrating our own strengths, and the reassurance and trust,” “ It was a really warm and good time that we shared together”.

Localization in Japan

Friday, February 19,  8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.　

 (Facilitator) Shin-ichi Tsuji, Hiroko Katayama

Initiatives in Isumi City (greenz.jp, Nao Suzuki) / Activities to connect the forest and the sea in Itoshima ( NPO Itonami, City council member, Yoshihiro Fujii)

Initiatives in Kamogawa (Chiba pref. Yoshiki Hayashi)

Ecovillage in Japan

Saturday, February 20, 13:30 – 16:30

 (Facilitator) Daisuke Yoshitake, Takaaki Kumakura, Hiroko Katayama

(Talk) Tetra Tanizaki

UMIKAZE (Kento Ito) / WA Island (Shin Kunugiza) / Misumi Eco Village Saihate (Sink Kudo) / Yoichi Eco Village (Junka Sakamoto) / As One Suzuka Community (Ryu Kishinami)

“Welfare and Child Care Create a Community

Saturday, February 20, 20:00 – 22:15

 (Facilitator) Hirosui No Seiketsu: From the perspective of community building

From the perspective of community building (Ryo Yamazaki) / Nasu Machizukuri Hiroba (Takaaki Kaburaki)

General Incorporated Association Sukoyaka-no-Wa (Kyoko Kibayashi) / NPO Sachi House (Maki Kawamura)

The Future of Living and Creating a Place for Learning

Sunday, February 21, 10:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

 (Facilitator) Sawyer Kai (Hiroko Katayama)

Well Yokodai (Hirotaka Toya) / Yakushima Earth Tribe (Hiromi Suzuki)

Dana Village (Minori Ogawa) / Permaculture and Peace Dojo (Sawyer Umi)

The Future of Localization and Ecovillages in Japan

Sunday, February 21, 13:30 – 16:30

 (Facilitator) Shin-ichi Tsuji, Hiroko Katayama

EDE  (Gaia Education CEO) Giovanni Ciarlo

Transition Town (Toshiro Yoshida) / As One Network (Masashi Ono)

Permaculture (Shinji Yotsui) / Workers’ Co-op (Nobuhiro Tamaki)

On March 19, the last month of the Big Gathering, Helena Norberg-Hodge took the stage. and said, “At this time, people around the world are restoring ecosystems with their own well-being by strengthening their communities and localizing their economies. People have the power to do this. Helena is a linguist, founder and president of Local Future, a global non-profit organization, and is world-renowned for her book “Ancient Future” and the movie “The Economics of Happiness”.

On March 20, Henry Coleman, a 25-year-old project leader of Local Future, called for participation in the World Localization Day in June, Ngothao Kin from GENOA introduced the activities of NEXTGENOA, and Wang Shan from Shanghai gave a presentation on localization in China. Wang Shan, a native of Shanghai, introduced the state of localization in China. 

As a model case of localization, As One Suzuka Community was introduced, and we discussed how we can cooperate with them to promote the movement.

 Tsuji, Sawyer Kai, Azumi Nozaki, and Masashi Ono discussed how to create communities where children and the younger generation can live freely in the future.

At the end of the session, ten community building practitioners from around Japan who took the stage in February, appeared at the finale with their friends and families in each site. They sent messages of congratulations to each other.

GEN-Japan will continue to provide more opportunities to freely discuss what is needed to create a healthy community. With the cooperation of many of you, we were able to make this a three-month series to begin with. I would like to thank all of them and at the same time, I would like to work to further strengthen our ties and foster cooperation toward the realization of a sustainable and conflict-free world.

By Hiroko Katayama
GEN-Japan Executive Director

Hiroko Katyama is the Executive Director of GEN-Japan, an
established non-profit organization since 2016. She has been
actively working in building trust and network among people and
organizations that has purpose along the line of social and
environmental regeneration for five years. Sensing into the current
context and wishing for a clear vision to a regenerative future, she
and her team have been planning and facilitating this online event
since last fall, and achieving it with a lot of support.

Re-imagining Education Conference by Ecoversities Alliance

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The Ecoversities Alliance is a community of over 100 transformative learning spaces around the world. They were present in our last year’s Restore and Re-story gathering, holding a very insightful panel session titled “The Great REset- What do we have to RElease, REstore, REclaim and REimagine?”  that featured four Ecoversities’ members around Asia who have taken up the challenge to re-imagine education, healing from collective trauma and nurturing the shift to planetary consciousness. This year they have just hosted a four-day online conference on these topics. Read more about the outcomes of the conference and their reflection by downloading the file below:

Ecoversities Re-imagining Higher Education ConferenceDownload