Thirteen Principles of People Care By Starhawk Earth care, people care, fair share: permaculture is a design system firmly

based on these three ethics. hile there are many different ways to formulate them, they form the heart of our philosophy and practice. !rom them, we deri"e the principles that guide us as we work with the land, build our structures, and design our systems. #ne of the strengths of permaculture and one of the things that distinguishes it from many different eco$philosophies is that we include a high "alue on the care of people. e don%t see people as a mere blight on the landscape, but as an integral part of nature, as her healing hands and watchful, appreciati"e eyes. &nd yet it is in the realm of people care that we often run into the greatest difficulties. 't%s easy enough to design a guild of plants(much harder to design a guild of people to choose them, prepare the soil, plant them, put the tools back where they found them, keep them watered and tended o"er time, and get along well with each other from sheet mulch to har"est. )any hopeful groups and enterprises founder on the personality conflicts that arise when we try to work together. &re there a set of principles and ethics that might guide us in human relationships as elegantly as our familiar principles guide us in planning a garden or healing a landscape* Below are thirteen principles that ' find are helpful guides. They come from long, hard e+perience. '%"e li"ed collecti"ely for more than a ,uarter century. '%"e worked collecti"ely in a "ariety of settings for much longer than that. '%"e had empowering, -oyful e+periences and utterly dreadful, costly debacles, as well as e"erything in between. ' can%t say that ' always succeed in following e"ery single one of these, but they are all frames that ' find helpful in the practical application of the ethic of people care. Treasure and nurture relationships. Patrick hitefield has called permaculture .the art of designing beneficial relationships./ hile we%re considering what legume might best feed which tree, we might also consider what beha"iors might best nurture our relationships with each other. 'n design, consider the social component, planning spaces and structures that can nourish our human interactions. &ll of the other twel"e principles deri"e from this one. 0e"ote Time, &ttention and Energy to !riendship and 1o"e: 'f relationships are to thri"e, they need time and attention -ust as plants need nutrients and water. E"en work relationships benefit from social time, from parties, potlucks and dancing as well as goal setting and production. )ake time, and "alue social interactions as well as getting the work done. &nd when we

design systems, make sure we structure them to lea"e time for family, friends and lo"ers. 2eep 3our ord:

'f you say you%re going to do something, do it. 'f you commit to a pro-ect, follow through. 'f you promise to show up for a meeting, a -ob, a consultation, a date, show up. This is a core basis for trust. 'f you are trying to build a business, and you don%t follow this principle, you soon will ha"e no clients. 'f you are part of an eco"illage or a permaculture guild, your ability to lead and influence the group will depend on how deeply people trust you. E"ery broken engagement or unfulfilled task will undermine that trust. 0o &n &chie"ement 4ob: That%s what my immigrant grandmother used to say, and it annoyed and embarrassed my second$generation mother. But ' like her phrasing. 'f you do a -ob, make it an achie"ement. 0o your best. Take pride in the ,uality of your work. 5esist that e"er$present temptation to say, .&h, close enough for permaculture/ and then walk away. The ,uality of your work reflects your pride in yourself and your respect for those you work for and with. &nother way to frame this principle might be !inish hat 3ou Start. #f course, ' like the rest of you can look around and see at least ten different unfinished pro-ects: that%s part of country li"ing. But '%m working on myself6 &nd if you take on a -ob for somebody else, make sure you see it through from beginning to end. 0on%t lea"e them with the hole dug for the pond but the lining not put in, the foundations undermined but the new concrete work undone. 'f you aren%t prepared to finish the -ob, don%t start it, or be clear from the beginning where your participation will end. Care of Tools: #ut in the Ca7adero 8ills, where ' li"e, many of my neighbors went back to the land in the 9:;<s with ideals of simple li"ing. They tell me that in the early days, they bought tools and hea"y e,uipment together, with the reasoning(why do we each ha"e to own one of these* &nd e"erything they owned collecti"ely got trashed "ery ,uickly. 'f we want a world where we limit consumption and share tools and resources, we need to care for and maintain other peoples% tools better than we would maintain our own. '%"e li"ed collecti"ely for decades, and spent many an agoni7ing hour trying to find that missing drill bit. 'f there were such a thing as mortal sin, in a culture that truly supported collecti"e li"ing, it would be using a tool and not putting it back where you found it. Cleaned and greased6

Take 5esponsibility for 3our )istakes: Permaculture systems are rarely perfect when first implemented. They are comple+, li"ing systems, and usually need obser"ation, tweaking and ad-ustment. ho would ha"e thought my graywater system would back up all the way to the second floor -ust because ' narrowed the outlet* That%s not so much a problem when we are working in our own home or on our own land, but it%s a much bigger problem when we work for someone else. 'f we%re going to make our mistakes on other peoples% land, we need to be a"ailable to return and fi+ them. 8uman relationships are also li"ing and comple+, and often need tweaking and ad-usting. e all make mistakes(say the wrong thing, hurt each others% feelings, beha"e with less than perfect sensiti"ity. e need to take responsibility in relationships, as well, to be willing to compromise, apologi7e, and make amends. &n apology, as some genius once said, is something that actually makes the other person feel better. Sometimes a simple .'%m sorry/ is enough. &n apology is not a long -ustification of why you were actually right to do what you did and why the other person is wrong to take offence. & statement about what you ha"e learned, or what you intend to do differently, might be more effecti"e. #r e"en a ,uestion: .8ow would you like me to handle a similar situation in the future*/ E"en if you are accused of something ,uite unfairly, you can acknowledge the other person%s feelings: .'%m "ery sorry you were hurt by this./ #r e"en, .' can%t take this in right now, but ' will go away and think about it./ =alue 0i"ersity: e know how important di"ersity is in natural systems. 't%s also important in human systems. 0i"ersity of "iewpoints, ideas, approaches, personal styles. 0i"ersity of race, belief systems, class background and economic resources. 0i"ersity of skills, talents, and desires. &ll of these gi"e us a multifaceted look at any situation, multiple eyes and points of obser"ation, and increase our collecti"e intelligence and creati"ity. Embrace Conflict: &ll groups ha"e conflicts, o"ert or co"ert. Conflict is not a sign that something is wrong, it%s a sign of life. 'f a group or pro-ect supports people%s empowerment and indi"iduality and "alues di"ersity, its members will ha"e different goals and ideals that will sometimes clash. Conflict is drama(it keeps us engaged and keeps things interesting.

But the wrong kind of conflict, or an uninterrupted dose of it, can drain a group. hen is conflict producti"e* hen it is open, o"ert, passionate, and about ideas, issues and actions, not personal attacks> and when underneath it all there is a basis of lo"e and trust. 5esol"ing conflict re,uires fle+ibility and a willingness to hear another side of the story. Some people ha"e a gift for turning any disagreement into a matter of staunch, unbendable principle, with no leeway for compromise. But to work in groups, we need fle+ibility. #ur strong principles sometimes need a little wiggle room, or at least, a recognition that two strong and "alid ideals may be clashing and hard to reconcile. !or e+ample, a permaculture group might hold the "alue of making courses accessible to e"eryone, regardless of means, and also hold the "alue of making work sustainable for teachers and organi7ers. Sometimes it%s hard to do both at the same time(but that doesn%t make one goal right and the other wrong. Both are "alid. Confront 0irectly: hen you ha"e an issue with someone, tell them about it. 'deally, tell them face$ to$face, in a timely manner. Sometimes it is best to respond in the moment: other times it helps to take a day to think about what happened and sort our your feelings. But it is ne"er helpful to stew about something for weeks or months, without telling the person in"ol"ed, and then suddenly blast them at an une+pected moment. ?or is it helpful to gossip behind someone%s back when you ha"e not dealt with them directly. 'f you are too hurt or afraid to confront someone alone, ask a friend for support, or to help find a neutral mediator. 'f you can%t meet face to face, talk on the phone. #nly as a last resort, send a pri"ate email(and make sure it is pri"ate6 8uman communication is about @<A body language, and while it is "ery easy to start a conflict online, it is almost impossible to resol"e one in writing. 0o not, under any circumstances, yield to the temptation to send that three$in$the$ morning email out to the international listser"e of hundreds of people, most of whom ha"e ne"er met you or the person in ,uestion. This sounds simple, but it is not always easy to do in practice, and many of us come from families and cultures where direct confrontation is frowned upon. e can help each other by setting clear group e+pectations. 'n one group ' belong to, we say to each new member that by -oining this group, you agree to confront each other directly if a conflict arises. e agree to do so within forty$eight hours. 'f we let se"en days go by without bringing the issue forward, we agree to let it go and not let it fester. 'f someone comes to you with gossip, a helpful answer would be, .8a"e you talked to B directly about this* hat kind of support can ' gi"e you to do so*/ Sometimes we do need to "ent to a friendly ear, but a true friend will call us back

to our responsibility to be direct. 'f someone does send that three &.). email, a moderator can send it back, saying, .This is not an appropriate use of this list./ 'f there is no moderator, other people can respond with the same message(perhaps coupled with pri"ate offers to help resol"e the issue in a more constructi"e way. Sometimes there are issues or conflicts that go beyond the indi"iduals in"ol"ed and need to be aired more publicly(but if so, all the parties in"ol"ed should ha"e some prior warning that the news is going out, so they don%t feel ambushed. &sk Before 3ou &ssume: & lot of hurts and misunderstandings arise when we assume we know what another person%s intentions or moti"es are. &n ac,uaintance passes me by without speaking or nodding, and ' assume she is snubbing me because she resents middle$aged women who remind her of her mother. So ' get mad, and start complaining about her to all of our mutual friends. The gossip, of course, gets back to her, and she feels hurt and angry. hereas if ' had -ust asked her, .8ey, 8elga, how come you don%t say hello when we pass by each other,/ ' might learn that her glasses are broken and she can%t see, or that her closest friend has -ust died and she is shrouded in grief. e often make -udgments about other peoples% moti"ations, psychological profiles, hidden agendas .She -ust wants attention./ .8e%s narcissistic./ .She%s afraid of intimacy. But it is important to remember that we don%t really know what someone else%s internal reality is. 8elpful ,uestions are things like, . hat do you want*/ .8ow would like this to be different*/ . hat are you feeling*/ . hat was your intention*/ Be Cenerous ith &ppreciation, and Ci"e Constructi"e Criti,ue:

e all do a lot of work, often as "olunteers or for free. 't%s important to appreciate one another%s contributions, and to do that openly, generously, and often. But we also need to criti,ue each other(our designs, our work, and sometimes our words and actions in relationship. &nyone who works in a creati"e field knows that a thoughtful, constructi"e criti,ue is a gift, and a mark of respect. Se"eral things differentiate a constructi"e criti,ue from an attack. 'n constructi"e criti,ue, the intention is to impro"e the work or the relationship. & constructi"e crti,ue is specific: not, .' hate that design6/ but .' think you%"e underestimated the amount of water it will take to plant that many fruit trees./ & constructi"e criti,ue is timely(immediate or soon after a hurtful incident takes place, or while there is still time to influence the outcome of a pro-ect. 't%s gi"en

pri"ately, not publicly, or at least, gi"en pri"ately before it is made in a public setting, which includes email listser"es. The most thoughtful, well meant criticism can be humiliating to hear in public. 'f ' whisper to a friend, .4oe, your fly is open,/ that%s a helpful criti,ue. 'f ' shout out to a whole crowd, .8ey, e"erybody, 4oe%s fly is open6/ that%s an attack. Constructi"e criti,ue is about something that can be changed, or at least, learned from. 'f possible, it includes a positi"e framing of what you want, not -ust what you don%t want, especially around beha"ior and relationships. 'f you%re criti,uing my work, ' want to know where my story mo"es you and where you get bored, not how you think ' should fi+ it. But if my loud swearing at the newspaper e"ery morning is getting on your ner"es, ' might want to know not -ust that you%re annoyed, but that you want breakfast to be a time of peaceful meditation and slow transition out of sleep. )arshall 5osenburg, who writes and teaches about non"iolent communication, makes a helpful distinction between a re,uest and a demand. & re,uest is something you can say Dno% to, without paying a hea"y moral or emotional penalty. 'f ' say to my partner, .Sweetie, would you get me a cup of tea*/ that%s a re,uest. 'f ' say, .'f you really lo"ed me, you%d get me a cup of tea,/ that%s a demand. 8onor the Shadow: Permaculturists tend to be hopeful, cheerful people(we are always transforming problems into solutions, we get to make things and grow things and create things and we keep our hands in the dirt, soaking up pheromones and generating endorphins. e%re like the deni7ens of 1ake obegon: our women are strong, our men are good$looking, and all the children are abo"e a"erage. #ur collecti"e culture places a high "alue on being positi"e, bright, enthusiastic and optimistic. But we also need to make room for the balance, to "alue the emotions that we might think of as negati"e, but which are part of the human e+perience. e all ha"e secret moments of deep grief and despair at what is being done to the earth. e may carry intense rage and anger, bitterness and sorrow, or spend sleepless nights in fear of what is to come. e need space to hold and honor those emotions, as well. &nger is life force energy, telling us that something we hold dear is under attack. !ear is information that something precious is threatened. Crief and despair ha"e their own cycles: if we allow oursel"es to feel them, sink into them and mo"e through them, we often emerge with renewed creati"ity. 'f we don%t allow room in our li"es and groups for these emotions, they often sneak in through the back door and taint our relationships or distort our thinking.

Practice 1o"e and &cceptance: e may be far too cool to say it, but isn%t lo"e what earth care and people care are based on* The true heart of permaculture practice is our deep and passionate lo"e for the earth, for li"ing things and growing things and the intricate patterns of relationships among them all. 'ncluding our fellow permaculturalists. e may not always like each other, but on some deeper le"el we can lo"e one another, accepting our ,uirks and di"ersity, acting with compassion and lo"ing kindness, and taking -oy in our true wealth(the rich web of relationships we wea"e together. Starhawk is the author of ten books, including The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing, and The Earth Path. She is a permaculture designer and teaches Earth &cti"ist Trainings, permaculture design certificate courses with a grounding in earth based spirituality and a focus on organi7ing, acti"ism and social permaculture. www.earthacti"isttraining.org www.starhawk.org