GUY RITANI and TOAD ANDREW DELL on Queering Permaculture /246
Photo of a bee searching for pollen among fallen seed pods and a wilted blossom; courtesy of Saurav.
Environmental and ecological sustainability movements have often negated their complicity in white supremacy, heteronormativity, patriarchy, and capitalism, citing that their pursuits and causes are objectively positive because they are on behalf of the so-called “natural world.” This week on the podcast, we dig deeper into this topic with Guy Ritani and Toad Andrew Dell of PermaQueer. We discuss greenwashing, queering permaculture, what culturally relevant permaculture looks like, the ethics of frugality, and the importance of recognizing our responsibility in the web of things.
Within this thoughtfully powerful conversation, Guy and Andrew remind us of the boundless wisdom that systems, at all scales, fail and it becomes our responsibility to respond to these failures with the willingness to listen, learn, and adapt as we cultivate resilience amidst uncertainty. Recognizing “patterns of degeneration” in Western overculture, PermaQueer invites us to think about how we can shift into healthier cultures and offers advice for folks who are just beginning to dip their toes into the world of permaculture, as well as seasoned practitioners.
“Food systems might run out, water systems might run out, and either you’re waiting around for that to happen or you’re pragmatically thinking and using what you can and what you have to make change.”
Photo of Guy Ritani
Photo of Toad Andrew Dell
PermaQueer is an ecological education project that focuses on accessibility to LGBTQIA & BIPOC folx. Toad and Guy who run PermaQueer, teach Permaculture through a queer lens with attention to the decolonization of its practices with more inclusion and access to marginal demographics. To them, permaculture provides a method of accessing and managing resources that care for communities needs with relatively small financial inputs. PermaQueer actively apply a critical lens to the inherent heteronormative, colonial, patriarchal and capitalist, white supremacy systems entwined in a lot of sustainability movements. They are working to outline how practices such as permaculture, regenerative agriculture, and other sustainability movements fit appropriately in an inclusive, decolonized and deeply thriving future.
♫ The music featured in this episode is “Garden of Sound” by Eliza Edens and “What Am I To Do” by India Blue & Joshu.
Episode References
Retrosuburbia: The Downshifters Guide to a Resilient Future by David Holmgren
TEDXPermaQueer: “Responding As A Community To Climate Change”
PermaQueer’s Recommendations
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
Retrosuburbia: The Downshifters Guide to a Resilient Future by David Holmgren
Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta
“Whitewashed Hope” Collaboration Post
TEDXPermaQueer: “Responding As A Community To Climate Change”
MultiAmory Podcast: “Restorative Justice”
We aim to be a gathering place for ideas and solutions ensuring that the growing body of work that we steward remains accessible to the public. If you want to see us continue, or perhaps are especially moved by the episode you are listening to today, please become a monthly sustaining member through our Patreon or consider making a one-time donation directly to us through our website. To stay up-to-date on our work, sign up for our newsletter.
For The Wild is a slow media organization dedicated to land-based protection, co-liberation, and intersectional storytelling. We are rooted in a paradigm shift away from human supremacy, endless growth, and consumerism. As we dream towards a world of grounded justice and reciprocity, our work highlights impactful stories and deeply-felt meaning making as balms for these times.