Social Gatherings

CelebrATE!

Tom and I are excited to open our gates to people for CelebrATE! on Labour Day weekend, and to showcase our permaculture property which is currently providing us with around 90% of our food, 100% of our cooking energy needs and most of our animal feed.

The not for profit Permaculture Research Institute Sunshine Coast Inc. (www.permaculturesunshinecoast.org) is organising CelebrATE!, a two day celebration of Permaculture, Music and Food on our Permaculture Demonstration and Education site “Maungaraeeda” (Place of Food) in the Noosa Hinterland town of Kin Kin on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

With Bill Mollison’s sad passing last year, we wanted to organise something around the time of his birthday to celebrate his life and his gift of permaculture to the world. Bill’s gift of permaculture has meant so much for us and for so many that we felt it would be a great idea to celebrate this with Permaculture, Music and Food!

postercelebrateWe have such a great abundance of food now that we are able to supply local shops with our surplus and we are doing a lot of preserving, de-hydrating and freezing of produce. We make our own cassava and green banana flour on the property from our homegrown cassava and green bananas, which easily replace grain flours. Grains are not readily grown in a sub-tropical climate, so we decided to use what we grow on the property and not buy in flour or grains anymore. We make our own compost and fertiliser, and no longer have any need to go to the shops (only for some toilet paper at this stage… but we are working on that!). We are slowly making headway on creating as much animal feed on the property as possible, although we have been set back a bit by the dry weather this summer.

For more than 10 years both music and permaculture have been major parts of my life. I have a deep seated passion for both. Music is very much part of the People Care ethic of Permaculture. I have seen people elevated by listening and dancing to music, I have seen the joy of people playing music and know from first hand experience that it is a fantastic healing tool! Gardening affects people in a similar way, and I felt it would be ideal to combine Permaculture and Music in an event. This will be a hands on event, no theory, no talks or lectures, only workshops. Until the end of the day, when you can decide to sit back and be entertained, or to join in the fun and dance to the incredible bands on offer!

The event runs over Labour Day weekend: Saturday 29 April from 3pm until Monday 1 May 4.30pm and we will immerse people in 3 workshops per day, plus a tour and a music jam. We will finish the days with music and dance (optional 😉 ). Food is all inclusive and is made by fantastic local chef Jodie Williams from Black Ant Gourmet. All food is locally grown and our farm “Maungaraeeda” will try and provide as much of the food as possible.

We have been able to secure some great presenters, like Tom Kendall, Jason Davies, Amanda Moore and Jodie Williams to run permaculture related workshops on subjects like Food Forestry, Chicken Management, Urban gardening, Nursery skills, Compost making and Preserving and Fermenting.

Amazing musician Linsey Pollak will run a music jam on Sunday afternoon to show that everyone can make music, and I (Zaia Kendall) will teach a workshop on odd rhythms on Saturday night. Linsey and I will play on Sunday night with the Unusual Suspects, a 25 piece street band playing dance music with a Balkan feel.

On Monday afternoon we will have vocal master, wordsmith, musician and loop artist Mal Webb perform with violinist Kylie Morrigan, followed by the Formidable Vegetable Sound System, who will thrill us with their Permaculture based lyrics and uplifting, energetic beats.

Tom Kendall will conduct a tour of all the Permaculture Systems on Maungaraeeda Farm, showing examples of water management systems, energy producing systems, animal systems , holistic grazing, natural building, a number of composting systems and much more. There is also the possibility to see the morning routine with the animals when we feed the chickens, feed and milk the cows, collect manure to feed the bio-digester (to make biogas) and feed forage to the goats.

You can stay for the two days and two nights with a season ticket. There is camping accommodation (byo tent) and basic toilet and wash facilities. You can also come for one day or just to see a band in the afternoon or evening.

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For all the details on CelebrATE!, including bio’s of presenters and bands and ticket prices, and to buy tickets, please visit www.permaculturesunshinecoast.org. The event is 15+ due to all the workshops being hands on and tickets are only available online (no tickets at the gate!)

We at Maungaraeeda are very much looking forward to a packed weekend with lots of learning, beautiful food, uplifting music and great (new) connections!

Zaia Kendall

Zaia grew up in a family of musicians in Holland, and has a background in top sport and web development and design. She co-founded the PRI Luganville and PRI Sunshine Coast Inc with Tom, and runs all the background stuff, like finances, business administration, website design and maintenance, writes articles, records and edits videos and also organises the cooking and the kitchen on site. She has been researching and studying nutrition and health for 20+ years, has a certificate in Nutrition and continues to study by research, reading and daily observation. She is a certified member of the International Institute of Complementary Therapists and is a holistic food, health and lifestyle coach. She is also an active member of several musical projects and bands, involved in community music and runs occasional percussion workshops. Visit Zaia's website at DIY Food and Health.

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