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Tuesday, April 5, 2011
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Building eco-domes
Welcome to Kai-Matutsi Or the Land of N.O.D.H. This Blog has been started as a communication tool for people in the Russian River Area of Northern California who are interested in becoming part of a planned artist and self sustaining organic village and community Farm. Using the Eco-dome community model.
Kai-matutsi
Kai-matutsi is a Pomo Native Amercan word, it is used to describe spirits that lived on the Earth and below. The word associated is with 'earth occupation.'
Our Vision and Mission
We adopt these as the core of our lives together, to provide a shared direction and boundaries to our community. We will revisit these agreements every year; although they cannot be changed without the consent of all the members, it is important that we keep them fresh and connected with our organic intentions and dreams.
Purpose: What are we doing?
Our purpose is to live happily in a beautiful ecovillage: a human-scale, mixed-use community that works towards ecological, economic, cultural and spiritual sustainability.
Principles: How will we go about doing it? What values give boundaries to our freedom?
We know that we don't know it all, so we make space and time to receive guidance -- from each other, and from other aspects of the universe.
The feeling of connection, which some of us describe with the words "connection to loving source", is a feeling we seek to cultivate as the foundation of our relationships. We commit to appreciating ourselves, each other, and the world as a way to generate that feeling of connection.
We are committed to the "many paths, one mountain" ethos: we welcome people of any spiritual path, so long as they do not require others to subscribe to their beliefs. Although these agreements are, in a sense, dogma, we want a minimum of dogma and a maximum of freedom, while we make the agreements necessary to accomplish our shared goals.
We will not discriminate against people based on age, sex, sexual preference, skin color, national origin or religion.
We will discriminate against people who are violent or abusive to our community members or to our village.
We value honesty: community members commit to speaking truthfully to one another and listening curiously for each other's truth.
We value impeccability: community members commit to making clear agreements with each other, and changing or keeping those agreements.
We commit to learning from our interactions with each other, owning our own shadow stuff and seeking to create the results we want rather than blaming ourselves and others.
We seek to benefit the ecosystems we live with, by increasing biodiversity and releasing as few pollutants as possible.
We seek to create a healthy local economy in which everyone enjoys the wealth they need to live well.
We value elders and youth, and make a space at the heart of our community for our oldest and youngest members.
We share our community with the world as a model for what is possible.
We work with natural systems, other local communities, national and international organizations in a cooperative and harmonious way that accomplishes our goals with a minimum of energy wasted on conflict.
Vision: This vision will continue to develop during the process of finding land and building the community -- it is slightly more fluid than the Purpose and Principles.
1. Community size. We imagine ultimately living in a community of about 100 adults, although that is ambitious and long-term and we accept that the number may be considerably smaller to begin with. The maximum number of adult residents will be 150. We expect to begin with a smaller initial group of residents on site, and expand from there.
2. Location. We are creating an ecovillage near Russian River, California, to suit our purpose, principles, and vision.
3. Site. We intend to live close to a rail link, and within 1 hour's travel of a reasonably large connurbation, for the sake of earning our keep. We imagine the site will be one with existing buildings and out-buildings, ie a farm, etc. We would like to be able to build new buildings on the site of a sustainable and carbon-neutral nature. We intend for the site to be a compact village-centre development alongside working farm land and wilderness areas. We must have room for gardening and planting trees. We must have water on-site, either as easily accessible ground-water and/or as a stream. We must have a village-centre site that will not be flooded by heavy rain or rising sea levels.
4. Economy. We intend to create a secure community subsistence economy, for example growing food, managing woodland, maintaining our tools and machinery, producing energy, dealing with waste... This doesn't mean we all have to be farmers, but it would mean each community member putting in an agreed number of hours each week, and learning skills that could end up maintaining the community in apocalypse or hard times. (2 - 8 hours per week? )
We also intend to grow a (booming) market economy. The skills and desires of community members will shape this; current community interests include: a healing arts centre, a birthing centre, a school, a rentable meeting hall and guest rooms, arts / artisanal crafts, 'net based work and commuting to nearby urban centers.
The subsistence economy exists to support the whole community; the market economy is more individualistic and each community member will ultimately be responsible for creating their own wealth of this type. However, both are needed for the long-term health of the village. If an initial group of investors puts money down to purchase and develop the land, we intend to provide those investors with a profit.
5. Governance. We use consensus decision-making structures, perhaps with a board or council that delegates authority to groups and individuals. This allows everyone to have their say, but also gets things done quickly without getting bogged down in having the whole group discuss every aspect of every decision, eg what colour to paint the barn. Privately run businesses operating on site may have to make agreements with the community, eg rent, available space, etc, but they will not be run by the community.
6. Legal structure. We imagine a company such as an LLP (limited liability partnership), with one voting share owned by each adult community member, would own the freehold common land and buildings. In addition to this voting share in the LLP, members may purchase leasehold properties from the LLP. This means that members can own or rent their private dwellings, and that these dwellings can be bought and sold on the open market as long as leasehold requirements are met. There will be some sort of filtering process for people wishing to become village members.
7. Culture/society. Community rules / norms will be decided upon by consensus as the village grows. We expect to eat together on a regular basis; to provide childcare together; to welcome nudity in some areas, such as a community hot-tub; to have regular community-building get-togethers, etc. We want to live a life where we can have private space but lots of chances to hang out on the porch with neighbours and kids; where kids are nurtured and safe, old people active and respected, everyone in it together, no hierarchy by sex, integration of generations. We are interested in shared home-schooling of the community's kids, but even if we get this organized it will not be compulsory. We intend to have a 'barn-raising' culture, whereby the community comes together in a spirit of fun if a big project needs to be achieved or if someone needs help, eg building a new dwelling.
8. Spirituality. We welcome village members of any creed, so long as they subscribe to an inclusive 'many paths, one mountain' ethos, respecting other people's spiritual processes. We would like members to be willing to commit to telling the truth to other villagers and to commit to learning from their interactions with each other. We are looking for villagers to be more committed to learning and creating positive outcomes for themselves and the whole community, than to being right or making others wrong (particularly when shadow stuff comes up and it's crunch time). Our ideas about spiritual sustainability mostly revolve around the ideas that people need to be committed to personal learning and growth, and to seeing all relationships (including with Earth) as opportunities for learning. Part of this practice is appreciating, loving, or "holding in the highest regard" both one's self and others.
9. Ecology. Basically we would like the creation of our village to benefit the local and global environment overall. We are interested in learning about and using new and established ways to, for example, maximise bio-diversity, minimise CO2 production, minimise wastage, etc.
10. Architecture and Infrastructure. Currently, we intend to purchase land with a few buildings already on it. Long-term, we intend to expand the existing structures, and build enough new structures to provide workshop, gathering, office, and all the other village-centre spaces members require. We also intend to build a cluster of high-density dwellings in the village centre, and perhaps a few other clusters of buildings, with a wide diversity of green building styles according to the tastes and resources of the people building the homes. The site will have a permaculture master-plan developed in consultation with all the members. Some members are committed to incorporating sacred geometry into the design of common buildings and aspects of the site design. We will seek to provide broadband internet, locally-generated electricity, high-quality water, sewage disposal and heating of some kind to all the homes and common buildings, mostly through building-scale, rather than community-scale, infrastructure.
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About Me
- The Redneck Gypsy
- Someone who sees. I am an artist and I specialize in mixed media, and paint on found objects, recycled, or repurposed objects, fallen limbs from trees, wood panels, furniture and canvas. I also sculpt, make bead-work, and traditional style native american handcrafts. My artistic focus is on environmentalism, social equality, and positive life affirmation. I honor both my Cherokee heritage, and my American values as a man of faith. I am a self taught artist and have been painting and doing craft work my whole life. I grew up in Hinesville and have come home from California to Re-discover the South. I am a USAF vet who served in Desert Shield in 1994-98 and use my art as both therapy for myself and to inspire others to create things of beauty from the discarded and lost that we a see all around us.
Why NODH?
"And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nodh, on the east of Eden." (Genesis 4:16)
And we shall toil this earth as it is now our responsibility, Kai Matutsi will be a place for all people to come together and claim their birthright as caretakers of the earth. We are the Other People, not just the sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve, but the children of Lilith and Isis, Astarte and Diana, Hecate and Demeter, Kali and Buddah, Coyote, Spider, Wolf and Fox....
In infinite diversity in infinite combinations there is infinite knowledge and wisdom.
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