Background & Briefings - Matthew Mitchell

 

From: Steve Irons [mailto:steve.irons@docdownload.com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 25 February 2014 2:59 PM
To: 'Clive A Marks'; 'editor@tasmaniantimes.com'; 'dlhume@hotmail.com'; 'a.j.brown@griffith.edu.au'; 'Jane Goodall'; 'Peter Botsman'; 'Mark Drummond'; 'David Donovan'; 'jrobens@interlated.com.au'; 'middenway'; 'senator.milne@aph.gov.au'; 'Amanda McKenzie - Climate Council'; 'Rod Wall - Coastal Design Link'; 'kathrynw@unimelb.edu.au'; 'belljim692@gmail.com'; 'juergen.moritz@gmail.com'; 'adam.bandt.mp@aph.gov.au'
Cc: 'Matthew Mitchell'; 'nick.rose@australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org'
Subject: RE: A magnificent piece of writing from Charles Massy
 
My friends
 
Since Matt Mitchell came on board we are starting to get an idea of the people out there that are active in the arenas of constitutional reform, environment, global warming, political change and personal engagement, and their close and well-understood inter-connectivity, stuff we have been talking about and that has lead to the setting up of BloggerMe, and your support and encouragement. Some idea of the active partipants you can get from some of Matt's emails that I have started to collect at
please be careful with addresses on this page but if you think you have details, groups or information that fits here you might like to inform me or Matt and I will include it here.
Recently he introduced us to the recent Charles Massy paper which has been well received (see nick rose) and looks to cause a real stir; he places these interconnected arenas in the concept of 'country', something also which BloggerMe has been working hard to achieve, as his concept of 'country' has real meaning in Australia, (as it does across the world) and real activists that are involved in 'country' at a number of levels in Australian life, capable of taking it forward.
I am sending this to you first as I know that it is something that fits with your current deliberations and you may like to link up with him and bring others into the picture.
 

Kind regards
Steve

 

L: http://au.linkedin.com/in/steveirons

From: Matthew Mitchell [mailto:matthewwinstonmitchell@yahoo.com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 25 February 2014 9:56 AM
To: Michael Croft; Neesh Wray; nick.rose@australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org; Justin Walsh; rasha.tayeh@gmail.com; Angie G; chris.chapple@gmail.com; growingchange@bigpond.com; Serenity Hill; cynthia@bluetongueberries.com.au; katrinamyers@barhamavocados.com.au; l.salathiel@gmail.com; Michael - AFSA; Suzette Jackson
Cc: Tammi Jonas; Miranda Sharp; Sam; Hayley Morris; Bob Phelps; Frances Murrell; sheridan.jen@gmail.com; Sophia; Juliette Anich; Jenny Warfe; astrid nova; Dianne Bolton; William Davis; Victoria Clarke; Steve Irons; Michael Taylor; Sandi Keane; Mike Byrne
Subject: Re: US food security and the future of Australia
 

Drought in USA threatens their food security. Look how vulnerable many of their crops are. And this is the model that our policy makers want us to move to:

http://m.motherjones.com/environment/2014/02/wheres-californias-water-going

Not to mention the enormous environmental cost of shifiting water on such a scale from other needy areas.  Raises the issue of managing water resources better as argued by Steve Irons (bloggerme.com,au).  Australia is the driest continent on earth and we just want to treat it as something that can be extracted from - as the world's mine and unsustainable farm - to support this temporary and destructive system across the globe. The colonial model still applies - extract and ship to support the empire. The empire now being under corporate rule with consumers as subjects. 

We need to start defending this country, as the current mindset would leave it an impoverished ruin. 

That said there is light in the dark tunnel of human consciousness:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/24/light-the-dark-vigils-across-australia-following-asylum-seekers-death

Matt

 
 
 
From: Matthew Mitchell [mailto:matthewwinstonmitchell@yahoo.com.au]
Sent: Monday, 24 February 2014 2:07 PM
To: Nick Rose [mailto:nick.rose@australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org] ; astrid nova [mailto:astridnova@gmail.com]; Michael Croft [mailto:michael@mountaincreekfarm.com.au]; Dianne Bolton [mailto:dbolton@swin.edu.au] ; Gillian Collins [mailto:gillianuu@yahoo.com.au]; Jenny Warfe [mailto:warfej@bigpond.com]; Sandi Keane [mailto:deputyeditor@independentaustralia.net]
Cc: Steve Irons
Subject: Massy Paper and Indigenous Recognition
 
 
Dear All,
 
I feel that a proper reconciliation as mentioned in Massy (as attached - circulate with acknowlegement of author - thanks Nick) is critical at this point.  It really bothers me that more has not been done in this regard!  Perhaps there is an underlying attitude in Australia of lack of empathy for others which comes out in relation to Indigenous and Boat people?
 
In any case, Steve Irons has a very interesting proposal to reconstruct Australia along environmental lines (the FOWTOR model) . His divisions are based on water flows across Australia and linked to former Aboriginal nations.   The details are available here:
 

http://www.bloggerme.com.au/
 

I am a supporter of Steve's ideas, and we are hoping to get project going around this, and a new Australian constitution to suit, in the near future.
 
Cheers,
 
Matt
From: Steve Irons <steve.irons@docdownload.com.au>
To: 'Matthew Mitchell' <matthewwinstonmitchell@yahoo.com.au>
Sent: Monday, 24 February 2014 5:18 PM
Subject: RE: Massy Paper and Indigenous Recognition
 
Hi Matt,
Sorry, I am still finding my way around. I was just putting the Comments page up as an example. So, I deleted the Comments page because It published it as a Blog against my name. So if you want to go down that road the layout has been done (LOL!) already as follows:
 
<p>A place for comments on C Massy: COLLECTIVE THINKING AND &lsquo;COUNTRY&rsquo; Dec 2013</p>
 
<p>[...] <strong>Australia is at the forefront of a new, broad-acre, ecologically-oriented agriculture that is both regenerating degraded landscapes and delivering high levels of healthy food and fibre production sustainably</strong>. Recent research into a diverse group of Australian regenerative agricultural innovators revealed personal transformation underpinned the shift to a regenerative or &lsquo;Neo-Organic&rsquo; world-view, and away from the dominant &lsquo;Mechanical mind&rsquo; (Massy 2013). Such a transformative shift in turn was due to collective thinking in both individuals and their disparate &lsquo;communities of practice&rsquo;.</p>
 
 
<p>[...]</p>
 
<h2><strong>Massy&#39;s Conclusion</strong></h2>
 
<p>History teaches many lessons. One constant that should engender humility is that the marginalised, the &lsquo;innocent&rsquo;, and those possessing or subscribing to non-mainstream knowledge in modern industrial capitalist society may instead have valid experience, answers and solutions that paradigmatic &lsquo;mechanical&rsquo; thinking has discounted (Freire 1970; Saul 1992; Illich 1971; Gammage 2011; Rose 1996; Flood 2006; Clarke 2003).</p>
 
<p>It would appear that if humanity is to address the mess of the Anthropocene era then a new collective type of thinking is required which generates a Neo-Organic world-view. This thinking puts first a moral, ethical and perpetuity approach to the regeneration of landscapes, <em>Countries</em>, people, their suburbs and cities, their societies. A pathway to this thinking is being provided by those not recognised in the traditional social structure and therefore the mainstream avenues of power: by dispossessed indigenous people, by regenerative farmers, by those redesigning liveable cities and food systems, and by those who think in a Neo-Organic, collective way. Perhaps it is time we listened to them and our suffering yet forgiving, abiding Earth and its marvellous self-organizing systems.</p>
 
<p>C. Massy Dec 2013</p>
 
Kind regards
Steve
From: Matthew Mitchell [mailto:matthewwinstonmitchell@yahoo.com.au]
Sent: Monday, 24 February 2014 6:51 PM
To: Steve Irons
Subject: Re: Massy Paper and Indigenous Recognition

Ok, thanks. I think the article is going to be published soon. Perhaps we had better mention that. I will send you Nick's original email on it.

Matt

From: Matthew Mitchell [mailto:matthewwinstonmitchell@yahoo.com.au]
Sent: Monday, 24 February 2014 6:52 PM
To: Steve Irons
Subject: Fw: A magnificent piece of writing from Charles Massy
 
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "nick.rose@australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org" <nick.rose@australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org>
To: Afsacommittee <afsacommittee@australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org>
Cc: Matthew Mitchell <matthewwinstonmitchell@yahoo.com.au>; Tammi Jonas <tammois@gmail.com>; russ grayson <russgrayson@gmail.com>; Marie Kelly <thoughtleadershipinc@gmail.com>; Fiona Campbell <fiona@pacific-edge.info>
Sent: Sunday, 23 February 2014 12:14 PM
Subject: A magnificent piece of writing from Charles Massy
Hi all

The attached was sent to me earlier in the week and I have only just got round to reading it properly. It draws on what is clearly a very impressive piece of PhD research by one of Australia's regen-ag farmers and is an exceptional article, in my view.

Charlie has given me his permission to send it to you and for you to share it if you wish, with the proviso that you reference him as the author and that it will be published as a chapter in book coming out of the Oceania Eco-Health conference held last December:

http://www.onemda.unimelb.edu.au/oceania-eco-health-symposium-and-worksh... .

Myself and Tammi will have the pleasure of meeting Charlie later in the coming week. Does anyone else know him? I think it would be a good idea Michael for you to get in touch with him and the new research / practitioner collaboration ARLASH (Alliance for Regenerating Landscapes and Soil Health, ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society).

I am thinking in particular of the AFSA-Farmer concept - this sort of very grounded and deeply embedded philosophical approach would I think be a powerful point of departure.

cheers

Nick