Episode 3: In which we meet a true visionary

Peter Rutherford is a man on a mission. He manages the Kimbriki Eco House and Garden, a demonstration and education site at the Kimbriki tip: a building and garden made almost* entirely from materials recycled from the tip site and which is a little oasis of peace and positive energy surrounded by the constant industrial activity of the rest of the operations.

Peter's philosophy for the Eco House and Garden

From a farming background, Peter moved away from chemical agriculture having seen first-hand its effects on human health. He then trained as a teacher and taught agriculture in secondary schools for a while before ultimately moving into an area where he can combine his agricultural and teaching skills with his driving passion for healthy soil and low-impact living.

I had the great privilege of tagging along behind Peter this morning as he introduced a group of primary school-aged kids from neighbouring Ku-ring-gai Council Vacation Care program to the importance of earth stewardship.

It’s important to note at this point that in our discussion before the session with the kids, I commented, and Peter concurred, that we have seen a huge increase in the level of ecological knowledge of kids over the past decade or so. Clearly, the generational change has begun. The Eco House and Garden, however, is something new – an opportunity for a lot of these kids to see compost and worms and recycling close-up for the first time.

Peter uses two drums to focus kids’ attention. The solid, rhythmic African djembe drum calls them to the Eco House and prepares them for the learning curve they’re about to climb. During the more reflective parts he uses a melodic Swiss hang drum. I’d never seen one of these before – looks like a steel clamshell but the effect is very like Balinese gamelan music, soft, resonant, atmospheric.

In the space of about 40 minutes Peter teaches groups of kids the meaning of the word ecology: ecos and logos, translated loosely from the Greek as ‘I will take care of everywhere I be’.

“We’re human beings, right?”, he says, “We know what it is to be. We’re not human doings or human havings.”

[Actually, I suspect a lot of people do think of themselves as human havings and that might be the root of a lot of our problems, but I digress …]

They learn that everything we eat comes from soil. Everything? Even lollies? Even chicken? Even icecream? The kids listen wide-eyed as he explains how every component of every meal can be traced back to soil. Where does soil come from? Worms make soil. He shows a small plate of the most beautiful, dark, wormrich soil I have ever seen. You could eat this stuff.

“Ecos logos”, he says to the group, asking them to repeat it and then give its meaning.

“Ecos logos”, they respond, “I will look after everywhere I be.”

It was a bit like the ‘yes, we can!’ response that Barack Obama evoked from his supporters at his every pause the night he was declared President-elect of the USA. A lot like a priest intoning the parts of the liturgy that require the congregation to respond. The religious imagery here is quite deliberate. Peter is very much like a priest of ecology. He would, I am sure, shrink from such a description, but the drumming, the simple, repetitive message of care and respect and the inherent rightness of that message is, perhaps, what religion should be. Perhaps what it was before churches and religious politics got in the way.

The 'prow' of the Eco Garden. Where are we heading?

With the hang drum he takes the kids on an imaginary journey to the future where they can see for themselves what life will be like if everyone is looking after the earth.

‘No cars’, volunteers one small girl, ‘we’ll walk everywhere’.

‘More wildlife,’ says another child.

‘Nothing will be dumped, no tips’, pipes up another.

And so it goes.

A small section of Kimbriki's Eco Garden

We move into the eco garden. This is a work of art. The centerpiece is a huge, spreading white mulberry heavy with fruit already. A stand of bananas nearby bears a large bunch. I joked that he could get $14.99 a kilo for them in Canberra. There is a coffee tree with bright green berries. He doesn’t bother roasting the beans, just eats them as fruit when they’re red. Herbs, vegetables, berries proliferate in a controlled chaos of landscaping, with his demonstration composting sites and educational posters set into outdoor ‘rooms’ made from recycled materials.

The star attractions are introduced: every child is given a worm to hold while Peter explains that these are living beings and must be respected. The kids learn that worms have five hearts and no eyes. Predictably, one girl** decides that she doesn’t like worms in quite such close proximity. Eeeeewwwwww.  A couple of others join in; the worms are gathered and gratefully (I'm sure they were grateful) returned to the soil.

At this point it started to rain, so we headed back into the Eco House for some more drumming and then the kids learned how to separate a borage flower from its calyx to eat, and were invited to recall something they’d learned in the past hour in return for being able to have a go on the djembe.

Peter’s mission is to turn around our wasteful society. He does it one busload of kids at a time.

* The sole exception is the roof of the Eco House, for which they used new corrugated iron

**Yes, gender stereotype. I was deeply disappointed, but there you go. Girls are more likely to eeewwww about worms than boys***.

*** Although I think they eeeewww about boys too at that age.