Transition
Bellingen…..hmmm. Where to begin? Oh, I’ll use the questions I have suggested
that everyone else use J
Who are we/what is our “country”….. Bellingen is a small town on the Mid North Coast of NSW,
just south and a bit inland from Coffs Harbour. A tiny bit of paradise really;
15 minutes from gorgeous white beaches, 10 minutes from crystal clear swimming
holes, 30 minutes from World Heritage listed rainforest. It is Gumbaynggirr
country, and is overlooked by “Nungaali –
Old Man Dreaming” who lies at the
edge of the Dorrigo escarpment. When white settlers came, they stayed for the
red cedar, and then subsequently for the dairy pasture. But something about
this country has more recently attracted an “alternative” population – artists,
musicians, healers, and earth activists. When I first moved here, 15 years ago,
it felt like there was still a bit of “aggro” between the “old timers” and the “hippies”.
But nowadays for the most part, things are peaceful….and the cultural climate
is definitely supportive of all sorts of groups and initiatives that will help
move our community and the planet to a more sustainable reality.
Where did we come from…Transition Bellingen really started five years ago, as the ‘Bellingen
Climate Action Group’, which formed as a response to the “Inconvenient Truth” that
was sweeping the world. When earth activist John Seed visited us with his “Climate
Roadshow”, we were really inspired to action. We held talks and films, and supported
the formation of various new groups and initiatives. But after a year it felt like our name no
longer reflected our reality – we were about so much more than climate change.
Somehow (and no one remembers exactly how) we found the Transition model – this
was a “YES” moment – the idea of Transition resonated with us with its strong
emphasis on localisation, and building resilience, and inclusiveness, and general
positiveness.….Basically, one of our main mottos became “our focus is more on what we
want to create than what we are working against”. We became “official” in June
2008 – the third official Australian Transition initiative!
We have had lots of fun since then….and have had lots
going on…..ooh, can’t get into all that or I will be writing for awhile. So I
will just answer the last question of “what
are you up to now”. Well, this year has been an interesting one. Transition
Bellingen has been managed by a “Hub” group over the past few years (which
evolved as a more relevant model after our initial “steering group”). We had a
rotating chairperson every three months, who called the meetings and “held the
space”. We have also have a volunteer Treasurer (thankfully!), and one Hub
member who does the mammoth job of dealing with our mailing list, which has
turned into a weekly email event newsletter. Meetings have always been informal
and consensual… we like to say that we “work horizontally”. There have been a
solid group of about 10-12 people in the Hub for a number of years, and we have
all enjoyed being together and working together immensely……but (you can guess
what is coming) we noticed at the beginning of this year that we were all
getting sort of burnt out. And what’s more, that in spite of all our best
intentions and efforts, we couldn’t seem to manage to attract new people to be
part of the Hub. Looking back at the Transition Handbook, we started exploring
the idea of the steering group “designing its own demise”. I won’t go into the
whole amazing, frustrating, inspiring, and difficult process right now. It’s
been going on for six months now! The end result is just about ready to share
with everyone in the next little while –we are getting to the point where we
can be excited about the next phase of the inner workings of Transition
Bellingen. And suffice it to say (for now! Because I look forward to writing
more about this in the future) that we have all agreed that this is the REAL
work of Transition…. shifting paradigms of the ways we humans can work together,
towards reinventing the status quo.
As far as outer workings – we have many projects on the
go. We are near the end of our second year of popular Reskilling Workshops
(cheese making, bee keeping, jams and preserves, the list goes on). Our
Freemarket has been running for three years now – a simple gathering once a
month where everyone brings anything they want to get rid of, and takes
anything they see they want – no money or swapping involved. We are auspicing
the Bellingen Seedsavers and the Permaculture Collective (ie sharing insurance
and general support). We facilitate EcoBello – a network of 14 local enviro
groups – which is currently working on a town wide sustainability education initiative
in conjunction with the local Council. Oh, and how could I forget our Bellingen
River Festival – which we spent oodles of effort on all last year for the first
one to happen, and then supported to happen again just two weeks ago ( and it
was SO MUCH FUN) – and to which pretty much has every person in our town turn
out!
That is probably enough about us for now…… we are looking
forward to hearing from other people and groups about where they are up to. Now
I want to say that I got a lot of messages from people who’s initiatives are in
the start-up phase, or in a sleepy phase, or have turned into something else,
or aren’t working out at all….. we would love to hear about all of it! Sharing
the good stories and the challenging stories – that is how we will all learn
and grow. So come on, write a few sentences or whatever……whenever you can. Cheers
for now. Lisa
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