COMMONground England

Common Ground is charity based in Dorset, which has been at the forefront of community conservation and environmental education in England for the last thirty years. They are not a think tank or political pressure group. They are a small, grassroots organisation that collaborate openly to reconnect people with place, nature and inspires communities to become responsible for their local environment. They believe that enjoying where you live and celebrating the connections people have with place, the wildlife and landscape on their doorstep, is at the root of meaningful conservation. They want to build identity and pride in the particularity of places and support different communities in creating a quality of life which is more sensitive to nature, is more caring of the buildings and landscapes which express our continuing history, harbours our memories, and perpetuates knowledge of ordinary lives and local culture. With the right tools, people can uncover intimate attachments to place, places and placedness for themselves, developing the kind of enjoyment and resolve that strengthens community resilience and cohesion in uncertain times.

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PLACE & PLACEDNESS

When we begin to consider 'placedness' from a vantage point at the confluence of three catchments imagined as 'place'  – LAUNCESTONponrabbel  say – a raft of questions arise. In fact we looks out onto CULTURALlandscaping that has essentially been overrun by a 'culturally' determined sensibility and that was defined by a placedness that existed for millennia – one now displaced. 
 Given, the apparent onset of CLIMATEchange, and the already apparent shifts in climate patterns evident, there is much musing to be done. Why this? Why that? Who this and that and how this and why?

The dialogue below comes from a SOCIALnetwork exchange that in someways is self explanatory. However, it turns out to be a collision of at least two different sorts of BELIEFsystems – the status quo v SOMEthing else. 

It turns out that CYBREspace, as it happens, is an amazing 'place' because it leads you almost anywhere and all at once.

[DcM] When considering the question of what is an ecologically sustainable agriculture? One question that arises is what is the most enduring ownership and. management structure? 

[RJ] Firstly, ‘ownership’ of this farm comes with a whole raft of contentious Eurocentric [SETTLERcolonising narratives that have very little to do with “sustainable agriculture” given that we now have strong evidence that another form of ’human agriculture’  would have been operating in this place for millennia. This "farm", up until the ‘colonisation experience' as you say had “enduring ownership and 'management”.  ‘Succession’ is a loaded concept that invokes rankism and a clash of cultural sensibilities and sensitivities.

[DcM] Like this farm, succession is problematic for many family farms. Given that each farm is a unique human ecosystem, how is the accumulated knowledge of managing that farm sustainably and regenerativly sustained and carried forward? 

[RJ] Well the human ‘eco-system’ you seem to be talking about is based on transplanted CULTURALparadigms and as it has turned out, this has nothing whatsoever to do with either sustainability or regeneration, given the default ‘exploitative’ CULTURALparadigms that have been in play on this ‘place’ for almost TWOcenturies. The  “accumulated knowledge” you speak of comes from ELSEwhere. .... I suggest, that it comes with a full load of ELSEwhereness with a 'placedness' that is foreign to this GEOGRAPHIClandscape. For example, look at this farm on GOOGLEearth and  you’ll see that the ’place’ is virtually treeless. IF you’re operating in a ‘place’ and grazing sheep, it is said, that you need to make a choice between growing trees or grass. In dryer climes like the MIDDLEeast such choices are the makings of desertification.

[DcM] Recently the University of Western Sydney collated a study paper on Common Land Trust options for Australia. Both here and internationally they, in various forms, depending on legal jurisdiction, are seen to be a way of managing intergenerational succession more seamlessly; Allowing young people without capital who are interested and willing to farm or rent the land. 

[RJ] Again you priveledge, and presume, the supremacy of ‘ELSEwhere’ paradigms on the assumption that WESTERNsensibilities are superior, and from a superior cultural paradigm. That UWS should be, or seems to be, still operating in such a paradigm, and in the 21^st C, its a bit of worry, BUT there we go!

[DcM] If we are to get serious about regenerative agriculture philanthropists, benevolent institutions and governments have an opportunity to ensure regenerative agriculture can thrive in perpetuity, free-er from the hazards of ignorance, folly, debt, speculation and rent seeking; that are so crippling a sustainable rural land use at the moment. 

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[RJ] Embedded in what you say here there are some ‘status quo assumptions’. It may be appropriate to point out here Ronald Regan’s understanding of 'status quo' .. ‘It’s Latin meaning, the mess we’re in”.  He didn’t say much  that I applaud but I’m with him on this!  

[DcM] This then in time offers a source of proven motivated and knowledgeable trustees to oversee the trust deed, as the succeeding generation get to understand the ecosystem and their role in managing it productively and responsibly for perpetuity.
[RJ] Still, it seems, you persist in the thinking that what's portrayed as the 'dominant 'CULTURALparadigm'  provides the PROPERway to go forward into "perpetuity".  'Ownerships' - see COI – and all other possibilities. – climate change, rising sea levels, BURNINGlandscapes and more still carry all kinds of baggage.

MORE NOTES: Abstract Proceedings for August, 1904 – The monthly meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania was held in the Society's rooms on Tuesday evening, August 9, the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Dodds, K.C.M.G., presiding. A party of officers of the Italian warship Liguria ...... Mr. J. W. Beattie then exhibited (mainly for the benefit of the Italian naval officers present) a magnificent lot of photographic slides of Tasmanian scenery, and which excited frequent applause on the part of all present. The Secretary then read the following paper, prepared by Colonel W. V.Legge, R.A., entitled '"Note on Stone Knives of the Tasmanian Aborigines Found [in a contested CULTURALlandscape].The Secretary also read the following paper, which he had prepared, dealing with some Tasmanian aboriginal waddies, or throwing sticks. The secretary also read a paper ............." PLUS THIS ITEM read [from]the following paper, prepared by Colonel W. V. Legge, R.A., entitled "Note on Stone Knives of the Tasmanian Aborigines Found at [this CONTESTEDplace]" : "These knives were found in a bank, or small tract of rising ground, about 100 yards from one of the broad, deep reaches of water which are characteristic of the Break o' Day River....."

SEE  Gregory P Lehman February 6 - · This is a rare opportunity to stop and think about the foundation of property and wealth in Australia. ... This property has never been bought or sold. Yet it has owners who can legally sell it. The current owners are a sixth generation family who was gifted the land by the colonial governor. That governor paid people like GA Robinson and John Batman to remove the families who were already living there, and had occupied that land for a thousand generations. It is a matter of record that Batman was responsible for several massacres of Aboriginal people in the area. ... I am told that there is no basis in Australian law to question the legitimacy of the current ownership or this sale. But the moral questions remain." ..... Click here to visit Gregory Lehman's FACEbook

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CONTESTED PLACE

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BLACK SWANS AND THE CATCHMENT

Some Symbolism

In European cultural imaginations the BLACKswan (Cygnus atratus) did not, indeed could not, exist. Things of rarity were compared with a BLACKswan, in other words, as a BLACKswan did not exist, neither did the supposed, speculated upon, imagined, characteristics of the RAREbird with which it was being compared exist.

It turns out that this was so until it wasn't.

The 'idea' passed into various European  cultures as a popular proverb, in which the stage was set for the irony. The narrative typically started out with the first four words ... "a rare bird in the land". 

The BLACKswan in the European imagination was a metaphor for that which could not exist albeit that it turns out that it did. Like it is with research, something is so until you look hard enough, and long enough and with great care. Often the unimagined is found serendipitiously while looking elsewhere– or quite close to home.

In Aboriginal cultures it seems that the BLACKswan has many moral stories embedded in their totemic  meanings and imaginings. At the confluence of of the Esk Rivers and the Tamar , reportedly understood by the First Tasmanians as ponrabbel, there must have been such imaginings given that the BLACKswan was in abundance and a great provider. 

PLACEproject #1

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