NASCO conference: part one

I returned from the NASCO conference two days ago now, yet excitement and enthusiasm are still lingering in my bloodstream: energising and inpisiring me to approach life a little differently than before…

And it wasn’t just the three full days of workshops, seminars and intense discussions about cooperative living, anti-oppression, environmental justice, democratic education and community building that left me bursting with life. Though these activities did just that. It was perhaps the other things that happened between the cracks of these larger activities that left the greatest impression – a crazy leaf fight in the park with six grown adults, discovering a giant see saw in the backyard of new found friends, reading books outloud in the car, playing road trip games, a quiet lunch basking in the sun listening to the heart of a new found friend, being offered homemade pizza after a ten-hour drive, immediately feeling safe open my heart to people I’ve only just met, snuggling up with new friends to read bedtime stories together…

being ASKED what my identity is…

and not being defined by other people’s assumptions about my sexuality, gender, marital status… not being defined as the half of someone else…

and not being defined by my education…

and not feeling the need to live up to societal values of ‘normality’…

…feeling safe to be just ME!

A ‘me’ that has permission to evolve, change and morph along with the impermanence of life…

All these experiences that emerged gracefully between the more formal activities reminded why I here in the first place. They reaffirmed my belief in social justice through living cooperatively. And restored my hope that this is possible. We were living it – love, compassion and honesty with complete strangers… Welcoming them as you would a loved one.

So many stories, which I’ll share in time… along with some of the ideas which emerged from the more formal activities… right now I’m off on a random sponteneous hitchhiking adventure to Trois Rivier with some friends…

 

 

nasco conference

I’m heading down to the states on Thursday morning to participate in the North American Students of Cooperation’s annual conference. Providing education and resources to its members and co-op organizing groups, NASCO acts to educate the public in cooperative principles and practices, and promotes the co-op movement as a whole.

Each November, over 400 participants from all over the United States, Canada and beyond converge in Ann Arbor, Michigan to share ideas, learn new skills, and look at issues affecting the cooperative movement worldwide.

Since Coop Sur Genereux is a member, I thought it would be fun to: a. learn more about cooperative principles; b. go on a roadtrip to Ann Arbor, Michigan (11hours one way); c. meet some new, interesting people

Alongside three days of workshops, seminars and discussion groups focussing on cooperative living issues, I’ve also signed up for a full-day’s leadership training in anti-opression and popular education.

This year’s conference theme is In Our Backyards: Defending the Environmental Commons and aims to focus the conference on the social injustices of mainstream environmentalism…

Here’s the conference blurb:

In an era where the word “green” is used to describe everything from construction practices to the economy, environmental sustainability is in the spotlight more than ever as environmental injustices continue to threaten the health, safety and sustainability of communities everyday.

As leaders of the cooperative movement, we must ask ourselves what it means to engage in environmental issues at the local, regional, and global level.  How do we transform mainstream environmentalism into environmental justice and create and support just, sustainable (re)uses of land? What opportunities emerging from economic and environmental crisis exist to grow the cooperative movement?

At the 2009 NASCO Institute, we will build on last year’s exploration of cooperatives and land rights to explore the role and future of cooperatives in the current greenwashed recession with an internationalist perspective.  We will develop strategies for promoting healthy relationships with each other, with our land and resources, and across cultures.  Through workshops, discussions, film screenings, panels, and caucuses, we will rethink how we produce, transport, and consume; share everyday tools for just sustainability in cooperative practices; and create cooperative solutions that spark change in “our backyards.”

So stay tuned for a report from Ann Arbor!

Womynhood, gender and housing collectives

I’m now officially a member of the housing collective coop sur genereux. Montreal: I’m here to stay! Well, for a while anyhow…

Coop sur Genereux

The Coop is a 15 person housing collective in the heart of the Plateau, one of Montreal’s most buzzing neighbourhoods. We come from all different walks of life. Some of us work, others study, some of us create, many of us do all three and more… Alongside sharing communal space, food, skills and life, our core mission is sustainability through building community beyond the 15 dwellers. In the past the coop has done this by opening our space for community dinners, artsy events, skill share workshops and couch surfing.

The collective is also dedicated to sustainable living through composting, gray-water recycling, urban agriculture, dumpster diving, and organic bulk buying. We build relationships with quebec farmers and vendors in our neighbourhood to support local farming. We also have a community garden for growing our own herbs, vegetables and fruit.

Education is another important facet to the collective’s notion of sustainability. We hold regular workshops and skill shares where friends, family and neighbours teach and learn useful things in a non-hierarchical context… anything from cooking, bike maintenence, yoga, knitting, beer brewing to painting or pickling.

The collective also runs Food Not Bombs, which is a movement across the world that reverts food waste by cooking up feasts of goodness for street folk and anyone else who needs it.

We’re about to hold a visioning meeting this week to revise our mission and plan some exciting projects over the next few months…

Gender Workshop…

My first weekend at the coop saw me dive straight into the frenzy of activity here. The collective had invited Nealy from NASCO (National Association for Student Cooperatives Organisation) to present a workshop on gender issues in the housing coop environment.

One aspect of the workshop involved the group defining terms such as transgender, sexism, patriarchy, heterosexism, queer, transexual etc… We then created a power tree to examine how these concepts can and do operate. We then examined ways to create a safe space with zero tolerance for these concepts.

It was exciting to celebrate many of the things our collective is already doing to create safe spaces in regards to gender and sexuality issues. For example, we have gender neutral bathrooms, we randomly assign house chores to break down traditional gender roles, we promote open mindedness about sexuality and consciously strive to refrain from making assumptions about guests, other coopers sexuality…

It was an interesting task to do in a bilingual group, particularly with the challenges faced with a language such as french where a pluralistic notion of gender is embedded so tightly in the language itself.

I find words are so powerful and believe that they assist in perpetuating exsiting oppression against minority groups. Using gender netural language, for example, can be a powerful way to be inclusive of all relationships (eg. bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual… etc) and step away from heterosexual as being the social norm. So I might use the term “partner”, “lover” or “sweetheart” instead of “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” if I’m speaking english…

When it comes to the French language, doing this presents challenges because the particles one uses is directly related to the gender of the person you’re talking about. This presented interesting challenges in creating a collective language to use in our bilingual space…

On being a womyn…

The other half of the workshop involved creating an identity pie, which we shared with the group. I found this to be a powerful way to deepen my connection with my new housemates. I felt initial resistance to doing this task because I’m constantly trying to remove labels that people generally assign to my identity. But by using my own words, instead of stereotypical boxes, I found the exercise to be very insightful.

One thing I realised is that I’ve had such an interesting journey with identifying as a womyn. During my late teens and early twenties,  I actively rejected my identity as a womyn. I shaved my head, refused to wear dresses, and engaged in traditional ‘boy’ activities… I didn’t have the tools to escape the power hierarchies created by the traditionally dualistic conceptualisation of man vs woman except to reject the notion of being a woman.

I’ve grown up a lot since then. And I think I understand systems of patriarchy and sexism much better (esp. having lived through them for a further 10 years!). So by understanding gender as a fluid concept and removing the dualism from gender traits, I can excitedly embrace my identity as a womyn. Actually, I now feel it’s a very strong part of my identity. So as I enter this new phase of my life, I’m exploring what being a womyn means and how it feels. And in discovering the strengths and gifts that come with being a womyn, I’m exploring how this intersects with other aspects of my identity: race, sexuality, spirituality, creativity etc…

I feel so privledged to be living in this space with so many creative, interesting and loving people. And my mind is expanding deep along new paths and returning to old abondoned ones. I feel alive!