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Members
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Community has been a passion and home for Biko for the past twelve years. He has lived in a variety of communities, from Shivalila - a small very communal group, to Breitenbush - a larger less communal one in Oregon. Biko has gained many relationship and communication skills from involvement in Peer counseling, non-violent communication, vipassana meditation, process psychology, men's groups etc. He has an ease with children. He loves to juggle and is a part time teacher for the Hiccup circus which is a local circus, teaching skills to the children in the area. Biko spends much of his time in the gardens or orchards or making trails here on the land. He has a deep passion for sustainability and growing food. |
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Dona Willoughby spent 31 years in allopathic medicine specializing in women's health care. She has taught high school, community college, and university students, as well as family practice residents. Her interests lie in how culture affects relationships and how to shift our current patterns to more sustainable, healthier ones. For the past two years she has lived in and toured eco-villages around the world. She is currently a full time La'akean Communitarian. |
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Judy Dolmatch, a native New Yorker, lived 20 years in Ashland, OR, before becoming a member of La'akea. A Gemini, born in June, 1952, she has a passion for innovative ideas, enlightened communication, and dynamic co-creativity. Judy is a licensed clinical social worker with specialties in psychodrama, group facilitation and EMDR for trauma resolution. She is a teacher and practitioner of Playback Theatre, comedy improv, and a founder of the ARTrageous Camps, co-created gatherings that employ the arts and ceremony for leadership skills, rites of passage and personal growth. (www.artrageouscamp.com) For Judy, La'akea is "the road not taken," an opportunity to thrive in conscious community, connect deeply with the land, and provide a haven for those seeking healing, awareness, and beauty. |
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Tracy grew up in the bay area, including living on a sailboat for some years. She studied enviromental science at U.C. Berkely, and went on to be a high school science teacher for a decade, instigating as many progressive projects into her curriculum as allowed, her love of nature coming out in her leading the hiking club on many weekend hikes and restoration projects. Tracy became interested in community and tried starting an urban one in Portland called the Cully Collective, which is now the Portland Permaculture Institute and may be found at http://www.portlandpermaculture.com . With many lessons learned from that adventure she set about creating community here at La'akea. She brings with her skills in non-violent communication, vipassana meditation and group facilitation. Tracy continues her love of involvement with children by continuing to teach as a home school teacher to children in the area. |
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Amara has been studying alternative healing since 1978. She was trained in psychic reading, healing and meditation for two years at the Berkeley Psychic Institute. She created, edited and published Heartsong Review, a resource guide for New Age spiritual music, for nine years. Amara has been studying, practicing and teaching various forms of peer counseling since 1983. She developed her own approach to peer counseling, called Wholistic Peer Support, integrating many ideas from RC with spiritual meditation practices, psychic healing and body centered techniques. She studies and teaches Tantra and Sacred Spot work, a method of sexual healing. She is a minister, Sheikha (teacher) and initiator on the Sufi path, and has been studying that path, which encourages honoring of all religions, since 1983. She has created and staffed many weekend Dance Workshops as well as led and participated in many rituals since 1980, being attracted to the honoring of Nature, women and the natural cycles. She has been a graphic artist and scrimshander since 1980. She currently is producing reproductions of her art as banners and prayer flags, which can be seen at www.karunaarts.com. Recently she has become passionate about creating and recording music, and has published several CD's of original music. She identifies as polyamorous (many loves). One of her primary goals is to empower as many people as possible to be effective, supportive allies for each other, and to encourage people to grow emotionally and spiritually, to be free and have fun. Being at La'akea is the fulfillment of a lifelong commitment to community. |
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Berni (Bernd Riechelmann) grew up on a farm in Germany, became an engineer and emigrated to the US. After years of working as an inventor, he became depressed. He felt that his life, although materially successful, was meaningless. So he began to look beyond the world as he knew it, beyond what he had been taught about the world so far. He studied at Esalen Institute, explored Eastern philosophies, researched intentional communities and alternative lifestyles. Now his focus is on living a simple life, living in harmony with himself and with the world around him, being supportive, kind, honest, loving, tolerant, nonjudgmental. His other focus is on sustainability. He is very concerned about Peak oil, global warming, and overpopulation. La'akea fortunately, with its subtropical climate, is one place that may be able to sustain itself when fossil fuels, and thereby food, become unaffordable. Berni loves to fix things, finding perfect solutions to problems of repair. Above all, Berni is grateful to be alive and healthy. |
Teachers
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Douglas Bullock, has, along with his brothers, designed and developed what has been described as the best example of Permaculture in North America. His family homestead is on Orcas Island (permaculture-portal.com) Douglas has extensive experience in all aspects of Permaculture design and installation, as well as an "encyclopedic" knowledge of plants from around the world. |
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Beatrix Pfleiderer, PhD is a medical anthropologist and transpersonal psychotherapist who specializes in deep ecology, ecopsychology, and group consciousness work. She has traveled extensively throughout the world studying healing cults and ritual. |
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Lonnie Gamble is the owner of Surya Nagar Farms, co-founder of Abundance Ecovillage, and was the former president of Hydroelectric Power Development Co., specializing in wind, solar, thermal, and biomass energy systems. Lonnie divides his time between his Strawbale permaculture homestead in Iowa and his tropical Permaculture homestead here in Hawai'i. Teaching November and February. |
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Michael Kramer has been teaching and doing design consultations in permaculture since 1992. He is a Registered Investment Adviser Representative of Natural Investment Services (www.naturalinvesting.com), a leading national socially responsible investment firm. He is the former Executive Director of Permaculture Drylands Institute and Youth Ecology Corps. He has designed permaculture training programs and workshops for teenagers and young adults, colleges, school teachers, architects and builders, and business owners. He has published on how permaculture principles are applied to interpersonal relationships and education. |
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Jude Hobbs. As a horticulturist, permaculture designer, and instructor, Jude's focus is on environmental design solutions for urban and rural settings. Since 1982, her firm, Cascadia Landscape Design, has specialized in soil building, water harvesting, and appropriate plant selection. Jude is also an associate with Agro-Ecology Northwest, a research and consultancy group working with small-scale farmers. She has written A Guide to Multi-Functional Hedgerows for Oregon State University Extension Service. Jude has presented permaculture workshops and courses throughout the West for 12 years, developing curricula that encompass diverse learning styles. She tends a forest garden in Eugene, Oregon. |
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Toby Hemenway is the author of the first major book on permaculture for North America, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (Chelsea Green, 2001; www.chelseagreen.com/Garden/GaiasGarden.htm), and associate editor of Permaculture Activist, a journal of ecological design and sustainable culture. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Whole Earth Review, Natural Home, and Fine Gardening. He consults on many aspects of ecological design, and teaches permaculture throughout the country. A former geneticist, Toby lives with his wife in an evolving permaculture garden in southern Oregon. |
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