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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.

Celebrating the Partnership with Hans Handmade

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During these times GENOA recognises the immense need for community and radically interconnected solutions for our collective future, helping to heal our planet from the ground up. We are dedicated to actively forging partnerships for building resilient communities and organisations for climate care by scaling collective impact towards a healthy planet and people care. Our focus on partnerships is to create a shared well-being economy based on social and economic justice in service to ecology. 

Through these partnerships, we are able to engage with kindred spirit organizations and stakeholders who are aligned with the ecovillage movement, who aim to achieve the UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and/or apply ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) framework for better reporting and disclosure of their impacts and externalities. 

As we activate pathways for partnerships, with a grateful joyful heart we are celebrating our friendship and partnership with Navjot Kaur, the founder of Hans Handmade. 

Navi and Hans Handmade have pledged to share a part of their profits with GENOA projects, paying it forward to communities on the ground that are healing and helping for regeneration.

Hans Handmade pieces are made from carefully selected, ethically sourced materials to create the highest quality fashion that you can wear for years. 

Navjot Kaur Hans is the creator and designer of Hans Handmade. She is a mother, and entrepreneur with a passion for sustainable fashion that supports communities. 

Having been born and raised in the Philippines with roots in India, it seemed natural for her to start a brand that combined those two together. Each bag is designed by Navi in India, then produced in a small weavers workshop in Manila, Philippines. 

“Since I was a child, I’ve always loved fashion. Back then, I spent on trends and what we would now call ‘fast fashion’”, Navi explains. “I studied in a boarding school in India, and every year I would come home with a suitcase packed with last season’s trends. When no longer on trend, they would be forgotten and I would buy new things to replace them. As I’ve gotten older and become a mother, I’ve become a more conscious buyer. I appreciate the value and tranquility of living minimally. I prefer to purchase ethically made, long-lasting pieces, to know where my fashion is coming from, and who made it. This is the ethos of Hans Handmade.” 

As a mother, Navi’s compassionate heart feels the deep desire to give back to our Mother Earth acknowledging her love and generosity to nurture us with all her abundance and beauty. 

We are inviting all other enlightenment organisations, institutions, and enterprises that would like to nurture a connection to our mother earth to partner with us and create the beautiful healed healthy earth we all know is possible. 

Let’s partner up and make a difference!

For partnerships please contact amena.bal@ecovillage.org, ngothao.kin@ecovillage.org

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

Welcoming Amena Bal into the Role of Fundraising Coordinator

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After reaching a collective agreement in the GENOAcouncil, we are excited to share with you the news that Amena Bal, one of our network stewards and GEN ambassadors, is stepping in into our office circle as Fundraising Coordinator. Amena has been actively involved with GENOA this year and understands deeply GEN and GENOA values and how we work. She is very keen and energized to build our economic dimension stable and abundant. With her economic background, experience and networks, we think Amena would be the best fit to take on this role in GENOA. Below are some words from Amena, as she steps into the role.

Dear Family, 

As I step into this role, I am remembering my university days majoring in conventional economics, never thinking that decades later I would be working towards creating an economy in service to ecology that unites all spiritually. For this, I am grateful for the work of GEN in our world. 

I currently serve as GEN Network Steward and am humbly honored to coordinate the fundraising energy of GENOA, making our economic dimension stable, healthy, abundant, and wealthy – attracting and generating funds to fulfill all our dreams, projects, purpose and to offer support to all those who serve GENOA. 

Before moving to India in early 2020, the Philippines was my home for over 10 years. It provided a nourishing ecosystem for my personal regeneration through which I was able to serve as co-creator and steward of Kai Farms. Birthing Kai Farms- a permaculture farm, was like giving birth to life, an outcome of my personal rebirth into the path of regeneration. Working with land and communities in the Philippines gave me immense experience on how to create and sustain regenerative business models. 

The GEN restructuring process envisions us to be financially self-sufficient anchored in networks. I sense this to be a very creative time to move ourselves and our networks into an entrepreneurial mindset, creating win-win-win projects that regenerate finance and add value to local and national economies – creating systems that view wealth holistically, are in the right relationship, seeking balance and honoring robust circulation and edge effect. 

I am keen that our fundraising circle and solutions, widen our relationships with mainstream and add value by creating a regenerative shared economy slowly transitioning us from donor dependency to self-sufficiency and in the long term building capacity to fund ecovillages, also creating systems to enhance ecovillage to ecovillage support, weaving more friendships. 

Our first step would be to create a CoP – Community of Practice for fundraising and financial sustainability. We welcome all those who are interested in learning about creating a fundraising network focused on generating personal and community wealth and also exploring social enterprise and impact investment. 

If you are inspired to volunteer with us and work as a fundraising freelance consultant, join our journey of reimaging, restructuring, and regenerating together.  

Excited to connect and co-create abundance write to amena.bal@ecovillage.org 

With a grateful heart, Love, and Light to all

Amena Bal

Introducing GENOA’s Network Stewards Circle (NSC)

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The restructuring of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) ecosystem has created at its heart the Network Steward Circle (NSC) which links the Regional, Global Nodes, NextGEN, and GEN Elders together. It is made up of 3 members from each Node/Circle. Its core purpose is Network coordination, stewarding GEN’s shared purpose, and to serve as the General Assembly of GEN International. The Circle is also a forum where geographical and cultural diversity, diversity in age, race, voice can work together in balance and harmony, truly anchoring GEN as an inclusive network.

Meet GENOA Network Stewards!

Network Stewards are engaged, trusted individuals, network weavers/leaders in active communication and collaboration within their Node or Circle. They are network weavers ready to work in a global team and deeply committed to GENOA’s purpose and the Ecovillage movement.

Thalea Tane, Aotearoa New Zealand

Thalea has served as an integral member of the GENOA council and is pleased to continue a role as one of the three NSC members representing the GENOA circle for 2021. As an active indigenous member of her Tribe(s) in Northland, Thalea continues to educate and advocate for the revitalisation and co-creation of regenerative communities across Aotearoa, Oceania and SE Asia. As a tutor in Sustainable Living and speaker in national judicial conferences, International forums and summits, Thalea has also represented GEN/GENOA in the United Nations COP25 Climate Change Conferences in Madrid. Thalea will continue to dedicate herself to working alongside circles, indigenous nations, governments and key stakeholders who align themselves with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and are responding to the Climate Change emergency in solidarity with grassroots communities.

Amena Bal, India

Amena joined the GENOA NSC to serve Mother Earth and to be an active voice for wellness and oneness in our world through being part of meta networks. As a permaculturist, living in TI Ecovillage in South India, she is on a mission to spread the ecovillage movement and share regenerative living through creating synergy between loving-kindness and integral ecosystem sensing and designing. A spiritualist and devoted energy healer, her main purpose is to heal and compassionately harmonize communities with their environments. Working with land, youth and women is very close to her heart. Her life is dedicated to connecting and working with communities and projects that are creating circles of a new healed humanity living happily in beautiful balance with Gaia.

Thao Ngo (Kin)

Thao Ngo, often called by her friends and colleagues as Kin, is a learner and educator from Vietnam. Kin is passionate about ecology and is on a long exciting quest of her life learning from and caring for Mother Earth. Being a young soul in the network, Kin has been a member of NextGENOA since 2016 and joined the GENOA Office team in mid-2020. She is happy to step into the role of GEN regional liaison in GENOA and a member of the NSC. In addition to her role in GENOA and NextGENOA, Kin works with non-governmental organizations in Vietnam in organizing and facilitating training on ecological education and eco-lifestyle. Kin believes in the power of reconnection and re-enchanting the world. She is learning to be a Deep Ecology facilitator and trainer.

Karen Xingtong Wang, China

Karen has been living in Sunshine Ecovillage since March 2018 and working as the General Secretary until now. She is also the Secretary of China Ecovillage Network. In Sunshine Ecovillage, she mainly takes care of the community by building the ecovillage with 4 dimensions in a holistic system together with all members and in charge of public relations outreaching works as well as Sunshine Eco Academy. She has taken EDE twice and TOT once and organized EDE as the facilitator and translator in China twice. She is very familiar with Ecovillage building & designing and facilitating related workshops. 

Before joining Sunshine, she worked as a mandarin teacher for 9 years and organic farming for 4 years in Shanghai. In 2021, she will put most of her time and energy into building the international ecovillage-based education system in GENOA especially East – Asia, and start the Green School Program for children in Sunshine.

NextGENOA Released their Introduction Video!

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NextGENOA is the youth body of GENOA and is a member of NextGEN. We are a network of young people from Asia & Oceania countries who are committed to caring for the earth by practicing and promoting sustainable living and ecovillage values within and beyond the region.
We invite you to watch this 5-minute video to understand more about why young people are coming together, see what we are doing in different corners of the region, and feel the green youth spirit. This is a product that has been brewing for a long time, some footage and interviews dated back to the EDE Course in Gaia Ashram in 2016. We are happy to introduce our youth ecovillage network in Oceania and Asia to you in this uplifting and colorful way! 

Deep gratitude to Eugenie Dumont who created the video; and also to all our dear friends who provided us with the footage and interviews. Find out more about NextGENOA on their Facebook and Instagram pages.

GENOA Visioning 2021

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Earlier this month, some of the GENOA active contributors and the operations team met for two sessions of online visioning meetings. In these meetings, we embarked on a visioning process facilitated by our dear friend, Hema Wu, to come up with objectives that we would like to achieve in the year 2021.

Each team member had the opportunity to share our dreams for GENOA this year, and together we weaved the common threads into objectives and ideas. We’d like to share the three objectives we have this year with all of you:

  1. Ensuring the continuance of GENOA Office and Council through financial sustainability
  2. Ensuring the efficiency of the network by having more structured governance and better communication within the network
  3. Build trust and partnerships: strengthening and formalizing partnership within the network and kindred spirit organizations on a foundation of education and building collective wellness and abundance

We invite you to join us in achieving these objectives together. At the moment, we are working on finalizing the outcomes of our visioning meeting and the projects we’d like to focus on this year. We’ll also update you with more details on how we plan to come closer to these objectives.

Are you interested in co-creating with us? Please keep an eye out for collaboration opportunities with us by following our social media channels and this newsletter!

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