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.

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

Morag Gamble

Rosemary Morrow

Daryl Taylor

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”

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