In June earlier this year, GEN Australia and Jumbun co-hosted a workshop at Murray Falls in far north Queensland. The workshop explored the ecovillage framework and principles of social, ecology, culture and economy dimensions, integrating into whole systems design, to create pathways for communities to transition to being thriving communities. This design system aligns beautifully with indigenous culture and values, as it is holistic and regenerative.
A key initiative that emerged from this workshop is Gumbudda in our Mala – GioM (Cyclone in our Hands) program. GioM has been designed by community for community, to support a collective approach to community led decision making. The program is intended to address the underlying discord, allowing an opportunity for truth telling and healing, progressing to a unified approach to creating an independent, active, and thriving community.
Nicole, coordinator at Jumbun shares, “we all have to prepare for the storm, sometimes it may not affect us but sometimes it can destroy us…but it is in our hands to take control and implement mechanisms that will weather all that come our way. If the foundation of community is strong the potential cyclones/storms will not impact us and we will be resilient to their effects. We have to built a solid regenerative community by allowing the people to have ownership and control of the ‘where to from here”.
As a community Jumbun recognises that to move forward we need to explore ways in which they can build self-reliance for their community and be in control of their future decision-making. Jumbun wants to be independent and strong in order to grow their local economy; whilst retaining their cultural heritage and traditional ecological knowledge so they can create a pathway and a plan that is robust and resilient for the future generations.
Jumbun began this process in October in partnership with Hands on Heritage and GEN Australia, beginning with engaging their elders and moving out to the broader community. The process will span over the next four months, and will feed into visioning and strategic planning of their ecovillage transition plan to be a regenerative community in January and February 2022.
