A women's community garden: a small step towards a future of peace?

Abstract

This article describes the experience of Women's, Community, Permaculture, Garden - a piece of local contextualised action that was the response of a group of women to institutionalised violence against women and the earth. It outlines the essential elements of the Garden, discusses the experience of the garden collective, its outcomes, and its relationship to working for peace and against violence. The truth of this is that many of us have lost a simple connection with nature. The loss may well be experienced as violence which is only too evident in the struggle for survival in third world countries, in women's rap and violent acts against women in their homes, in the degradation of our soils, the pollution of the oceans and waterways, the huge losses of forest and the increases in greenhouse gases. This damage has been directly attributable to humans, a consumer society, a focus on financial profit, and a philosophy of ownership and domination of nature and women. Within this 'culture of violence' power is a central consideration. Vellacott (1982) names this violence as resourcelessness.