Green Riot born during my one year of activism, educating my self how I can have a bigger impact in the world mixing sustainability and ecology. I been in hundreds of seminars, forums, talks, festivals: Inclusion Festival RMIT, Melbourne Week Design, Urban Gepography sessions in Melbourne University, Humans Rights Festival, Zero Waste Festival, ecology, sustainability, circular economy, SDG's UN, Photo Festival, Garden State Festival, Melbourne Knowledge week.
This events took me for very different paths, first one was my passion for green spaces in urban settlements and the dream to do a PHD about it, and the influence of how individuals and community groups are changing and reshaping The Australian lifestyle for a more ethical-sustainable one. Then I decided to explore community groups: community community gardens Australia, Repair Cafe St Kilda, Bike Kitchen St Kilda, Brisbane Tool Library, Open Table, Food Not Bombs, Permaculture movement, Degrowth movement, ecological restoration groups, guerrilla gardening groups.
I still don't have the spot in a PDH, but this was a push to make Green Riot real and use the tools I have. I decided to document trough photography the work of those groups, so been in contact with Raw Garden, Food Not Bombs, Mellidora, Urban Guerrillas. Those groups stole my heart. I am looking for space to share my key findings about those groups and exhibit my photos, to expose the work those groups are doing.
The last path is, after 3 years doing research about sustainability, ecology, food security, all took me always to Permaculture, and I decided to studied with David Holmgren. I am currently half way in this half year course.
To apply some creativity as well, I decided to do a workshop Practical Utopias, with the amazing Margaret Atwood, the Canadian writer of distopias, one of them Handmaid's tale.
The story of this photo
I took this picture in Zero Waste Festival, during winter in Federation Square, I remember was a rainy and cold day, but I waited until the end just to met Joos Backer, just be there, listening his journey and his ideas thought me a lot, about how is normal always to feel burned out, as an activist. Inspired in Practical Utopias and my final assessment for that, I asked him
"I can imagine going to your neighbour and he supplying you fish, and you sharing with him your most amazing tomatoes, using the beautiful community Melbourne has, because we had the energy, we produce it by ourselves, and we grow out food, so we don't need longer to rely in big companies o industrial agriculture. We are ready to start rewilding every space in Melbourne".
When I asked about what kind of governance we would have in this duty, the moderator, Dale Martin said give people a voice, and comeback to the ancient democracy in a localised community based future.
Kate Luckings, added "I would love to see contentment and happyness, treating mental health, to overcome the believe we are consumers, that's misery, we are more than that".
Joost is incredible amazing, we need more Joost Backer's in this world, we have them, for this reason I created Green Riot, to find all the groups are making a difference to make planet Earth fairer.. During this event I got a plant, a beautiful small ficus, I name it baby Joost. Because I like to have my hero's close to me. Then I can be inspired by my Green Riot everyday to make a change in my neighbourhood, in my daily life. Because individuals acts, always have buttery effect impact.
The second Photo is my Permaculture teacher David Holmgren, getting all the knowledge from the source with @Mellidoraproperty
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