This article is written by Michael Ney from Eco Village Voice, Australia
Soon after moving to Crystal Waters Ecovillage, Qld, Australia, I was asked to produce a documentary. Watch here – https://bit.ly/cwdoco01 – I was so inspired to spread the ideals of “ecovillages” that Eco Village Voice was born. Whilst I wish for a team behind this operation it has been mostly up to me – digital media producer, photo-journalist, filmmaker… but of course I couldn’t do it without our fantastic writers too.
Global Ecovillage Network was always a bright light. GAIA education and FIC and others have been inspirational too… I can only hope to grow into such an organisation. With big plans, we launched in November 2019 with an Ecovillage Film Festival, followed by Issue 1 of the magazine in January 2020. The website sprang into life with videos and our first podcasts. Months later Issue 2 arrived, plus a major webinar. Permaculture was always a primary focus… and we are blessed here with many leading lights such as Morag Gamble, Robin Clayfield, and Steve Cran.
As the pandemic arrived in early 2020, I found myself spiralling into my own first long term health dilemma; not COVID related but I was unable to continue – until recently. Thankfully, I managed to keep social media and newsletters going, but had to stop work on other production. I had no idea it was to be a year before the next issue!

We share the wisdom of “eco” community living, permaculture and regeneration; that is widening now to spiritual views too. Many free preview magazine excerpts of Eco Village Voice magazine promotes organisations globally and provide networking opportunities. This serves our advertisers to get noticed beyond our paid membership audience. We encourage collaboration and share ecovillage stories, events, products and services. The visually rich style of our magazine will always feature nature with inspirational pages and community messages.
I am personally heartened to read “GENOA explores a new paradigm of holistic sustainability – meditation, yoga and mindfulness“… Lately, I’ve felt urged to also spread this important intention. As an aside… one of the most exciting events, even if it is somewhat “out there”, is a recent global meditation initiative called “Fire the Grid“. I’ll explore this further in the next editorial. It is a welcome antidote to the despair and waning hope that seems to be taking hold in the world. I’ve always believed our planet itself is a living entity, and now more information is coming to light.

“Each one of us is an energy being. We, as energy beings, are attached to a huge hexagonal grid that surrounds and works throughout the planet. In the planetary grid, each one of us has our own hexagon surrounding us. At any given moment, we are either feeding our hexagon with light (high frequency state) or we drawing light from it (low frequency state). Every choice and every action we take affects the planetary grid. Collectively, WE determine the future of our planet.”
Hear the story of Samoiya Shelley Yates, Initiator of Fire the Grid – https://youtu.be/Jqkr84IXkHo and this “Fire the Grid” update – https://youtu.be/RXEjrTOjZQE
Whilst it is so good to be developing healthy communities, working with the earth – and permaculture offers many solutions – we must not lose sight of our spiritual nature. Indeed, harkening back to the genesis of Findhorn, even the nature spirits play their part too. So, Eco Village Voice also explores a wholistic world view. Feedback welcome. Please email me if you’d like to get involved in our production side too – editor@ecovillagevoice.com
Funds from all new Eco Village Voice members go into our ongoing tree planting campaign – with donations to EcoForce Global <https://www.ecoforceglobal.com/>, TreeSisters <https://treesisters.org/> and also Carbon Positive Australia <https://carbonpositiveaustralia.org.au/>.
The future is looking bright again so we welcome you to join us at: https://www.ecovillagevoice.com – To receive everything on offer, our membership is only $5USD per month. Save $10 a year with the $50 USD annual membership… includes the magazine, podcasts, webinars, video channel, and monthly newsletters.
About the Author

Michael Ney. Editor, Eco Village Voice
Michael Ney is a digital media producer, editor/publisher of Eco Village Voice, photographer and filmmaker. In 2018, he produced a 90 minute documentary about Crystal Waters Permaculture EcoVillage. Michael first worked in many theatres in Sydney, Australia, and after several years moved into television production. He later ran his own commercial photography and audio-visual company “Midnite Stills”. When computers arrived in late 1980’s he opened a pioneering multimedia company “Virtual Realm Xchange” for CD-ROM and web projects for The University of Sydney and many others. In 2001, Michael refocused on his first love – filmmaking – and his production company “Sensory Image” combined documentary and commercial work. In 2014, Michael rebranded as “Eagle Spirit Media” and now focuses on cultural creatives, sustainability, eco publishing as well as elearning content. – https://ecovillagevoice.com/eaglespiritmedia