Have you dreamed about living in a sustainable land based community?
Do you want to learn more about a community lifestyle? And get your hands in the earth?
Come join the members of La’akea intentional community for one or both days of fun, learning, and working on our land.
Enjoy a delicious potluck lunch after our morning work party.
Join us in the afternoon for free classes in community living, permaculture and communication skills
Get to know what we are up to, and how we have been living in harmony for 20 years!
This is a great time to come meet our members, ask questions about living in community and get a peek into our daily life.
Limited to 6 people each day!
La’akea Intentional Community, Pahoa, Big Island, Hawaii
Register Here
Schedule:
9 am-11:30 am
Morning Permaculture projects/class
Work together on the land! Get your hands in the earth harvesting and planting together!
Each morning we will join in the gardens and orchards for learning and working together on the land.
12-1 pm Enjoy a potluck lunch.
Bring your favorite dish, or just bring your own lunch if you don’t wish to bring anything for the group.
Afternoon Workshops:
Attend our free workshops, or take home a meal voucher for joining us later on one of our regular weekday community dinners.
1-3 pm First workshops
3:15- 5:15 Second workshops
Details:
Workshops on October 28th:
Oct 28th, 1-3 pm:
Is Community for You? The Pros and Cons of the Lifestyle–
with a panel of La’akea members
One might think that finding the right community is the perfect solution for many of life’s ills. What exactly is it that community can or cannot offer? Let’s explore this together with folks who have lived in and out of community.
Oct 28th, 3:15-5:15 pm:
Bamboo Tour- with Sundog
Get a tour of our buildings and the uses of local bamboo. Sundog has experience working with Bamboo especially and will share what he has learned.
Workshops on October 30th:
Oct 30th, 1-3 pm:
Invisible Structures of Community – with Tracy Matfin
Invisible Structures –
In this participatory presentation we’ll look at several policies and practices that enhance community efficiency and cohesion.
Oct 30th, 3:15-5:15 pm:
Exploring Syntropic Agroforestry – with Teo Jerge
Syntropic design is a phrase coined by Ernst Grosch. These areas are very productive, easy to care for, diverse food forests with ease of care being a big part of the design.
About Permaculture
Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is a term created by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren to describe a land use system that draws on the knowledge of natural ecosystems, traditional indigenous practices, and modern scientific and farming techniques.
Mollison defines permaculture as “the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems that have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, shelter, energy and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.”
A permaculture approach is one of working with rather than against nature, of looking at systems in all their functions rather than asking only one yield of them.
Permaculture is applicable in urban, suburban, and rural environments and offers a proactive approach to meeting human needs in ways that are sustainable for future generations.
Permaculture design is a “whole systems” approach to land use planning based on patterns of symbiotic relationships between land, water, wind, sun, soil, animals, and people inherent in living systems.
A significant portion of our modern population has lost the knowledge of how to grow food, build community, build shelter, and connect with the ‘aina (land). We feel called to give loving attention to each other and our home base, Mother Earth.
This unique, exciting event is for you, if you want to:
* Learn locally proven methodologies from presenters who understand how to grow food in Hawaii.
* Get and introduction to achieving food security and creating sustainable home systems.
This will give a sampling of some of the ways we relate to the land and each other, all led by our members.
This is a great time to come meet our members, ask questions about living in community and get a peek into our daily life.
Costs: Free!
Register Here for Community Days
_________________
Public Seed Exchange
for the local community on Oct 26th, 10 am -4 pm
Enjoy sharing seeds, knowledge and friendly local community in this day of workshops and presentations.
Tour of La’akea Land and our Permaculture Systems on Oct 26th – with Tracy Matfin
Learn about how we work with nature in our permaculture community, to create a beautiful and functional environment on our farm. We will walk along our paths and find lots of berries, flowers and leaves to nibble on the way.
About the Location
This event is hosted by La’akea Permaculture Community, nestled into a tropical rainforest and near a natural volcanic steam vent. The ocean is a 20 minute drive and offers warm pools and black sand beaches.
We are a small, family style, egalitarian, intentional permaculture community on the big island of Hawai’i. Come join us for a deep dive training in our vibrant community lifestyle! We have successfully lived together for 20 years.
We are a committed group of people working together closely as a means to health, relationship vitality, economic stability, personal and spiritual growth.
We integrate the social aspects of sustainability into daily life: how to live together with honesty, love and peace, and share power and leadership.
We do not have one central leader, but instead share the cost of the land and the leadership equally.
We have a few openings for farm supporters who stay with us for at least a month. See our Application page.
La’akea has been exploring permaculture and integrating their systems since 2004. The 23-acre La’akea site is full of the results of creative hands-on design projects.
The community offers a wide variety of real-life examples of sustainable living techniques including;
- extensive gardening beds, orchards,
- small livestock management of poultry,
- nursery and planting systems,
- composting toilets, tropical edible landscaping, mulching,
- examples of natural building and much more.