Rewilding with Permaculture Students in the Jamaican Forest
- Sep 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 2
Seventeen adventurous and passionate students of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, made their way down to the equator along with their professor to join One Regeneration’s team in Jamaica. They came to learn more than permaculture principles and natural building techniques for a study abroad programme, Pathways: Permaculture and Beyond. They became pioneers and comrades in every way.
The Classroom Versus the Outdoors
This bunch of dedicated students open to life’s learnings jumped on a plane straight out of a snow storm and headed for the tropics. The group at large did not know each other and most of them had never visited the Caribbean. Planning for a three week trip to the unknown required a problem solving mindset as well as an air of letting go from attachments and ‘normalized comforts.’
How do you learn how to thrive outside of your comfort zone?
Throughout their three week adventure they had the opportunity to bond with the land and all that it is home to. They journeyed from Orange Hill in St. Ann, through Kingston, to St. Thomas and back. They stayed on farms like Durga’s Den, visited alternative communities like Source Farms as well as organic growing communities like the tucked away Mt. Pleasant cocoa farm.
These student nomads consumed artisanal products made in the homesteads of Jamaica, learnt permaculture principles while living on a farm, and worked on physical projects that applied these very principles. Two such significant projects were the building of an earth bag dam for the GWG Research Station and natural plastering work on a compost toilet along with other earthen structures at Durga’s Den. These regenerative works were in addition to their final permaculture projects at 'base camp.'
Over time students got their hands dirty in mud or immersed fully into life ‘outside’. They ate, slept, showered, worked and socialized under trees, over rocks, on logs, upcycled furniture or the good old ground. As a result, the group pushed their boundaries, expanded their personal learnings and subsequently contributed to the regenerative practices making a difference in the Caribbean and wider world. The energy they expended went toward building communities, exchanging knowledge and wisdom, and co-creating with organic and inorganic life.
What were some changes that may have required flexibility and adaptability?
No readily available WIFI and telecommunications
Limitations on fresh flowing water which often meant water conservation and changes to habits.
Very hot days and working through them anyway
Eating mainly fresh provisions from the land thus limiting choice and preference
Not always agreeing but having to move as a group anyway
The dissolution of individuality in sharing space and purpose as part of a community
Using compost toilets
Sharing space with wildlife
Travelling regularly and making home like nomads
How does the natural creature respond to their natural environment and change?
Embodied Learning and Education
Whether you are a university student or a parent designing a path forward, you unconsciously or consciously decide what there is about life that is worth knowing and experiencing, in service to your needs and desires.
Maybe there are no straight lines in your patterns, maybe your needs and wants are seasonal or cyclical or travel up and down and around. Maybe they shift with environment and inspiration or purpose. This makes the 'not knowing' perhaps scary. What should I do next? What should I be?
The "ing" in the process of learning, creating or being can be overwhelming or daunting and demand our trust and patience. Trust that we will grow after all and that we are growing even if we do not observe the daily shifts immediately. Trust that we will gain in life all of the abundance that we are afraid of not having. Principles of metacognition can help us to help ourselves by learning how we learn best. Knowing ourselves fully or more intimately may include what is revealed by 'us' in relation to 'the other.' Some believe we are still pack animals.
What are the boundaries? What are the dependancies? What is one life and what is the other? Where does one life begin and the other end if all life is connected? Indigenous thought and ways of being may nullify the concept of 'rewilding'. This is simply because co- existence and living in harmony with the elements are not perceived as 'wild' or 'wildness.' Does the modern understanding of wilderness deny humanity's genesis as part of the natural world? Have the machines been doing the work of being human and are we now having to embody being human again and learning how to do this for ourselves?
So what are the right subjects to study anyway and how can getting to know yourself within regenerative communities and spaces benefit you? Are we well balanced and happy animals if we primarily focus on academic learning? Are we disadvantaged as ceatures if we uphold knowledge over wisdom? Does the written word actually make us civilized? Who or what are we pointing fingers at and calling uncivilized? What is involved in design and how can we master design?
It was heartwarming to witness students from 19 to 44 years old from diverse backgrounds share a fun and challenging permaculture excursion through some of Jamaica's natural terrain. This pathway took them to parts of themselves that were unknown and unexplored. Some even picked up some extended family along the way. It would be interesting to find out how this time in the forest impacted the rest of their student life, now that they had lived as Caribbean permaculturalists.
Considerations
What happens to learning when some modern stressors are reduced or eliminated?
Can academic objectives benefit from 'rewilding' inclusion?
What Learning Looks Like
Thank you to Emma, Arrya, Mikhailia a.k.a. "Moss", Aaron, Sam, Curtis, Blossom, Oyza, Jenna, Finn, Margot, Tiana, Donella, Ru'ya, Avail, Andrea, Katie and our special guest, Duward for your bravery and our bonds.
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