Robina McCurdy
Director of Earthcare Education Aotearoa

Robina was born (1949), raised and educated in Christchurch, New Zealand (NZ). After completing secondary school in 1966, she trained as a school teacher at Christchurch Teachers College, and after qualifying, taught in the Auckland region for three years, at all levels of the primary school, in all subjects. Keen to acquire a broader education through experiences outside of her own culture, she then traveled through Asia. During this time she taught at the International School in Laos, and wrote feature articles for 'The Press' newspaper in NZ.

The immersion in twelve different cultures over these two years had a profound impact on her life perspective and vocational direction. Through being exposed to entirely new models of social organisation, she returned to NZ committed to work in the arena of community development. In 1976, her first of many project management roles was as an education officer for CORSO, a NZ developmental aid agency supporting community self reliance through education and the funding of specific self-help projects. Although she was heartened by the positive feedback from the communities CORSO directly assisted, her eyes were also opened to the greater dynamics of international power play which contributed to the rich/poor gap, unbalanced trading patterns, environmental degradation etc.

Her response was to begin the process of pioneering a community village, intended to be a living, guiding example of social justice, earth care and healthy family culture; six years later it emerged as Tui Community Village. She decided that her specific contribution to such a village would be to establish a 'school of living' for children, and embarked on a training in Rudolf Steiner's artistic and practical educational pedagogy in Melbourne, Australia, and in 1983 at Taruna Teachers College in NZ .

During all of this time, the thread of Performing Arts was weaving through her life. She grasped the opportunity to perform with 'Energy Theatre' in schools throughout the South Island of NZ, which opened up immediately on return from her Asian travels. The formation of CORSO's 'Living Village Theatre Troupe' as a means of development education, followed. In 1979, Robina founded and participated in 'Harmony Roadshow', a professional group of musicians, dancers and actors, who performed, taught and networked, rekindling local talent and creative community spirit in rural towns throughout NZ over a period of fifteen months. The personal enrichment she experienced through the performing arts, was a catalyst for her to design and teach workshops which offered opportunities for creative exploration and expression.

She also expressed her commitment to Community Development by organizing a diversity of events: conferences & seminars, workshops, festivals/gatherings, tours and promotions. These vehicles for informal education, networking, and cultural enrichment have touched thousands of people, and play their part in the building of a sustainable culture.

It was at one of these events, a holistic living gathering named 'Whetu Marama' in the summer of 1982/83, that Tui Community Village was the born. Her attention for the next two years was dedicated to bringing together the appropriate people in Nelson Province, and together forming community living guidelines, business strategies, financial policies, legal structures and then purchasing a property. Tui has been in operation for fifteen years now, and is a relatively healthy community with a strong social fabric, ecologically sound buildings, large organic garden & orchard, ethical businesses and internationally appealing educational programmes. Although she was involved in running a kindergarten & home school during the first three years, Tui's location proved too remote to support an ongoing school.

In preparation for moving onto the new land, she attended a Permaculture course and discovered that this approach to integrated land use design brought together her passion for nature and agriculture, intrigue with human settlement patterns and research into sustainable systems. She began working with Permaculture informally, yet soon was teaching others how to design their own properties and settlements. In 1990 she established the 'Children's Permaculture Foundation', and brought Permaculture into the arena of environmental education. She began working with schools on the Otago Peninsula, transforming their school grounds into outdoor classrooms together with the children, working within the curriculum framework. This practical application was backed up by original publications of educational resource materials for teachers, commissioned by the Ministry of Forestry and NGOs.

This focus heralded the beginning of a major work, which took her to South Africa in 1995 & 96 to work as a Permaculture trainer for community and schools, with Tlholego Development Project and in 1998 to work in Capetown's squatter settlements with the Novalis Institute & Abalimi Bezekhaya, to initiate and direct SEED ('Schools Environmental Education & Development'), a cross-curricula educational programme, involving the whole school community in the creation of a productive learning environment. Additionally, during these past four years, under her professional entity of Earthcare Education Aotearoa, she has facilitated workshops in Australia on aspects of community and school development and taught Permaculture courses in NZ.

As ecovillages became more popular in the 'developed world', she recognised in 1997 that her experience had prepared her to work in the area of ecovillage design facilitation. After training with 'Earthcare Education' and 'Sustainable Futures' in Australia, she has facilitated ecovillage design courses/workshops for emerging ecovillages in NZ, indigenous African communities and an Irish ecovillage. Her training in PRA (Participatory Rural/Rapid Appraisal) plus the 'Pattern System of Design' she co-developed for African conditions, have proved excellent tools in working with these groups. She has also given addresses and presentations on ecovillage themes in different parts of the world.

In 1999 she joined Robert Gilman in developing a series of workshops, presentations and tools for transformation.