Before one embarks on a career in Permaculture, ample experience with background knowledge and fieldwork is necessary and recommended.
Those who love to commune with nature and have time to invest can start with an online or residential Permaculture Design Course. You can check out our Permaculture Courses at www.tribepermaculture.com/courses
Next, here are some paths you could choose after completing your Permaculture Design Course:
1. Volunteer/Internship with a Permaculture Organisation / a Permaculture expert
Practical experience and skills are essential to be a Permaculturist. You can work with an experienced instructor for a while, and exchange your skills while gaining a practical understanding of the many facets of designing a site.
2. Permaculture Instructor
Become a certified instructor and either host a course by yourself or team up with other instructors. The more diverse the group of facilitators, the more nuanced the understanding of the subject.
3. Permaculture Designer
Acquaint yourself with the art of designing Permaculture landscapes in different contexts. You can specialize in rural and urban landscape design. Use your creativity to transform every inch of land into a niche.
4. Workshop Facilitator
If you do not want to take up the entire course for teaching, you may conduct workshops on individual aspects of Permaculture, be it a theoretical or practical skill.
Next, here is our experience of the ground reality of consultation work
Our Journey
- What brings our team together is our common desire to live gently. A career can be approached as a source of lucrative compensation, social recognition, and long-term security, but that is largely based upon the question, "What is in demand these days?". Instead, our guiding question is "What does our heart demand?". This has allowed us to focus on what we each naturally gravitate towards. Instead of exhausting our reserves trying to become someone, we now focus on acknowledging who each one of us already is. Our work is an expression of what we love, each member of our team carving a unique role for themselves. Each member of our team brings something of value, from the arts (drawing, photography, writing, cooking, philosophy, cunselingo/therapy, community building) to the sciences (agriculture, forestry, architecture, geology, ecology, hydrology, earthworks) and beyond (negotiation, mediation, finances, contacts, communication).
Challenges in permaculture careers - We prioritise taking time for ourselves above all else, and when it becomes difficult to put into practice, we encourage each other to be curious about new ways to make space for each others' progress. If we let our joy and interests motivate us, we don't need to rely on deadlines. Procrastination is a cry of the soul, a call to reconsider the direction of our lives. Whether it be clients or team members, we acknowledge that different people have different needs and are navigating different phases of their lives. It is essential to support them in their journeys and look at the long-term effects of personal development on professional development. We look for slow and simple solutions.
Embodying and Inspiring Independence
- As Permaculture consultants, our first concern is to evoke the spirit of Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share within our clients. It is a holistic intention to work towards the well-being of as many organisms as we have the awareness to include in our design. Merely attempting to fulfill a client's material fantasies in exchange for a paycheck would reduce the project to a business transaction. Instead of keeping our knowledge private and confidential, we see this as an opportunity to empower our clients to become independent in their ability to design their landscapes as compassionate stewards of the planet. This is our chance to rekindle the regenerative ancestry within all of us.
Additionally, there are other applications of Permaculture outside of the realm of consultation and education. They are:
1. Develop your own farm Build your own paradise and live a Permaculture life. Let your family, friends & neighbors be inspired by your farm and create their own regenerative spaces. There is no end to how much can be learned from the natural world, despite being limited to one's own site. 2. Build a community space Community building is an essential part of building a better society. You can make a community space for permaculture enthusiasts to visit, learn and share experiences and skills, and build lasting relationships. You can host various programs and invite guests to the space to make it more lively. 3. Start a sustainable business As you set up a farm, you start obtaining your yield. The yield can be processed and the abundance can be shared with others and get returns. Also, you have multiple options to produce sustainable products today. Start with one (don't forget the true meaning of sustainability). 4. Reinvigorate your existing business
Permaculture can be applied to every aspect of your life. Transform your current business into a regenerative one, opt for renewable energy sources, reduce avoidable overheads, make use of the 'R's (reduce, reuse, recycle...), design your system to be localised, make work easy and enjoy your free time.
Finally, here are some of our experiences with the lesser-known facets of Permaculture:
Social Permaculture
- We strive to create an environment where we don't feel under pressure to advertise our work for the sake of recognition or approach clients for the sake of business opportunities. Most of our projects have come from referrals through our mentors, peers, friends, and family. We forge lasting relationships with our clients, skilled laborers, students, and interns and they have often ended up becoming part of our team. In between projects, we learn new skills, relax, take on artistic pursuits, and travel. We take on new commitments only after considering whether the following resonates with us:
-the intention of the client
-the ecological impact of their project
- potential for creativity/community/enjoyment
Urban Permaculture
- We don't see Permaculture as a means of livelihood, but rather as the result of the right livelihood. Whatever our scope, whether in the city or the countryside, whether as consultants or enthusiasts, the emphasis is on living efficiently, interacting with the beauty and bounty of our surroundings harmoniously, and sharing the abundance from what has been shared with us freely. We are environmentalists/humanitarians/philosophers just as much as we're contractors/designers/consultants. In this work, it's easy to get lost in the professional role and overlook the way we live our personal lives. We continue to remind ourselves and our clients that true Permaculture cannot happen without learning to notice, question, reflect, adapt, relax and enjoy more, regardless of the context.