I started running woodwork classes with Fiona McBain through the Zero Waste initiative not long after Ruth and I moved back to Perth in 2018. We made a point of encouraging women to come along as well as men right from the start - I got the idea from one of my best eco friends, Richie, who had been teaching women woodwork that back down in Wales.
It's been brilliant fun helping women to get to grips with saws, cordless drills etc and they love it! I often hear that that they've not been encouraged to do anything practical as kids and were shunted into home economics, needlework and so on. Many of them go on to make amazing things - it's very interesting to see that really woodwork and other practical stuff isn't necessarily a male gender thing at all. In fact, some of my women students actually get on better with using these tools and making stuff than many of the men.
MOVING ON FROM HIERARCHY AND PATRIARCHY
I'm really interested in the bigger picture of how men and women move on from the general current way of managing things, the top-down hierarchy, generally a patriarchy. You don't have to be a genius to look around and see that it's not working for us in the world. (It's one of the themes I explore in my first novel,
The Monkey Wrench Kid). I hear a lot about poor management, especially in the NHS, and how incompetent people are often promoted as it's very difficult to sack anybody. Where do we go from there?
MANAGEMENT AT PERTH COMMUNITY FARM
I'm one of the core team of friends who manage Perth Community Farm. We're very keen that there shouldn't be a boss as such - though we do have a chairperson. If one of us has an idea about something we'll generally chat it over or try a small experiment as a demonstration and make it a group, cooperative process as much as possible. A lot of my own input to the farm comes from my experiences of other projects, through working on farms, small holdings and community gardens in my travels - including the excellent Cwm Harry garden, in Newtown, Wales. I've seen lots of things that work in practice and others that don't, but rather than try to impose some sort of personal vision on a place I think it's healthier for me to suggest, experiment and demonstrate, so that all people involved can feel empowered and an important part of the design and development process as well as the spadework.
CWM HARRY - LORRY PARK TO FOOD ABUNDANCE AND COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Cwm Harry was an amazing place to work - it was set up on what was a barren lorry park at the back of an industrial unit on a trading estate. Over a few years, and with mainly voluntary help, it became lush and abundant, and with the roundhouse we built there, also a brilliant meeting place for all sorts of eco activity.
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| CWM HARRY GARDEN BEFORE - the barren lorry park |
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| CWM HARRY AFTER... lush community abundance |
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CWM HARRY AFTER...
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