Common Principles and Boundaries

Defining the principles and boundaries of the tribe community can help align us and attract people who can fit the project. These are best created in balance, avoiding being dogmatic or too restrictive and maintaining an awareness that a healthy tribe community is made up of a diversity of people.

 

It is important that all members of the tribe community can have a voice and involvement in defining such principles. However, it can also be destabilising if the principles are reviewed and changed too often. The founding members will work together to create the first set of principles, which will set the frame for the next round of members to join into, with some chance to evolve the principles together as the group grows. 

The following is a set of principles and boundaries written by the project initiator, Hari, used for the Ecovillage project launch gathering in September 2022. 

They are a starting point for the founders to work from. 

 

Principles

Some of these are adapted from the principles of Burning Nest gathering in the UK, which are inspired by Burning Man.

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1. Communal Effort
   TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER
   We value co-operation and collaboration. We are a collection of self-reliant individuals and we work together to create the co-living experience together. If we see a challenge, we face it together. If we have a need, we fulfil it together.
    

2. Immediacy
   BE HERE NOW
   The present is all there is. We step into now and allow ourselves to let go and be in truth. Now is where the magic happens.
    

3. Radical Self-Expression
   THE FREEDOM TO BE YOURSELF
   This is a place for you to bring you, in all your colours, in all your vibrancy, all of you is welcome, and we support each other to be free to be themselves
    

4. Participation
   THE MORE YOU PUT IN, THE MORE YOU GET OUT
   Jump in, break boundaries and contribute to the tapestry of this rich and supportive environment.
    

5. Gifting
   UNCONDITIONAL GIFT GIVING
   We support a gift economy of giving from the heart, without obliging anything in return. Whether it is an act of kindness or a material object, we give it for the love of it. We trust that everything we need will come our way.
    

6. Education
   BE MASTER AND STUDENT
   We celebrate that we are always able to learn more, and we all have valuable teachings for another. We recognise the value of our collective knowledge, skills and experience and seek opportunities to share these.
    

7. Civic Responsibility
   PART OF SOMETHING LARGER
   We recognise that we are part of a wider populace and a collective consciousness. What we do in this space ripples out across the world. We seek to engage with, benefit from and contribute to the mechanisms of civil society.
    

8. Respect Nature
   EVERYTHING WE DO IMPACTS OUR ENVIRONMENT
   We are aware of the embodied energy in the resources we use and their likely onward journey. We consider the natural environment and aim to minimise harm, instead finding harmonious solutions.
    

9. Leave a Positive Trace
   CONTRIBUTE FROM CREATIVE ENERGY
   We are part of the project to develop and regenerate the land that we are gathering on. We strive to create and make improvements in harmony with the healed vision of future generations living from the land, while avoiding harm from our actions.
    

10. Live Simply
    CONNECT TO THE DEEPER SELVES
    We come together to enjoy a retreat from the mind-dominant lifestyle of doing, and the comforts and technology which trigger this. We remind ourselves how to live from being, connecting to the heart, our inner beings and oneness.
     

11. Vulnerability is Strength
    SHOWING YOUR TRUE STATE IS HONORABLE
    We aim to create a space where we feel safe to share what is going on for us. We can trust that it is welcome and that others will equally share their true reactions. We recognise an alive flow with less masks.
     

12. Consent
    IF THERE IS NO ‘YES’, ASK
    We recognise and respect individual boundaries. We don’t assume, or we check-in about assumptions. We listen to the signs that something is not welcome. We respect ‘no’ and have gratitude for the self-care of someone expressing a boundary.
     

13. Intimacy
    SHARE CLOSENESS FROM THE HEART
    We celebrate intimacy, sensuality and sexuality, appreciating that they don’t necessarily involve touch. We explore them with respect, letting go of the goal-oriented mind and allowing ourselves to connect to each other and the underlying shared consciousness.

Boundaries

The set of boundaries at the start of the project, which can evolve as the tribe group grows. 

• No alcohol or drugs (unless agreed as part of a ceremony, facilitated to serve the group)
  Not at all in common areas, and also not being on site under the noticeable influence. ‘Minimal use’ of alcohol and certain drugs in private spaces.
  Ceremonies or events with alcohol or drugs only if proposed to and accepted by the group.
   

• No smoking
  Not anywhere on site except dedicated smoking areas which have fire safety design and equipment (an area cleared of bushes, with a safe place for cigarette butts, and some fire fighting equipment)
   

• Healthy vegan kitchen
  No animal product foods, caffeine or processed sugar in the shared kitchen, common areas or at shared meal times. You are free to eat what you want in private space.
   

• Dogs, other pets.
  Please ask about bringing pets. Limitations to how many dogs are welcome.
   

• Fire safety
  March to October can be dry and at risk of wild fire.
  Also being in canvas structures brings a fire risk.
  Therefore:
  No open fires (except dedicated places and depending on time of year)
  No camp stoves in tents
  Candles or incense only in closed, safe holders
  No driving cars/vans across dry grass

 

Shared practices

Shared wellbeing practices that everyone in the tribe community participates in. This can help bond the group and connect us at a level different to that of talking and working together. 

There could be multiple shared practices, and these could change with the seasons. For example, we might organise a course to learn a new practice, led by an external teacher or one of the resident members. 

 

Examples: 

• Heart sharing circles

• Meditation

• Yoga

• Massage 

• Contact improvisation dance

• Ecstatic dance

• Love temples/conscious touch

 

Authentic communication

Authentic communication and non violent communication are sets of tools that can be adopted by a tribe community in the every-day interactions and also during sharing circles and meetings.
The group could have training in this. 

 

Conflict resolution

Conflict is likely, if not inevitable in a tribe community. There are tools and methods that the tribe can be trained in, ready for use when needed. 
 

Sustainable Livelihoods

Relearning what it is to live from the land and provide for our livelihoods, without the modern associations of "livelihood = being employed for money and buying what we need from the military-industrial global market."
The more basic definition of livelihood is “a means of securing the necessities of life”.  So we can start from the basic question ‘what do I feel is a necessity in my life’ and ‘what do I want in my life’, then see how we can establish such a life in an ecovillage context. 

 

Many of these things we can create in an ecologically friendly way ourselves from the land and off grid technology and within the tribe community. For example: food, water, clear air, nature, shelter, comfort, security, freedom, friendship, support, hugs and touch, creative expression. 

 

It takes work to create this livelihood and requires some skills which we may not have at the start and have to learn as we go. We will still rely on buying things from global industry, but we can minimise this by buying from local sources and using natural, renewable materials as much as possible.
We can achieve a level of sustainability in terms of the ecological impact, but also in terms of balance with our wellbeing. For example, we can feel more free by being our own boss and working at a pace that fits with our rhythms. We can feel supported to be part of a tribe group with a diversity of skills between us. We can feel more empowerment when we have the knowledge and skills to build and maintain our houses, infrastructure and facilities ourselves. We can feel secure that we will be able to source materials even if the economy or society crashes. 

 

Coparenting

Raising children in an ecovillage can be very different to the modern mainstream way of having children go to nursery and school and summer camps while the parents work full time. 

We might prefer to involve the children more in our daily livelihoods and relate with children as part of the tribe or village, as it has been for the vast majority of human society. 

We can consider this 'coparenting', as all the adults in the tribe community can have a relation with all the children and be open to share and teach our perspectives, skills and interests. In this way, the children will have a diverse, rich upbringing. 

We might host or go to courses for parenting, childcare, pedagogy etc. We can have support circles and routines for how we live and work which include the needs and desires of the children in the group. 

 

Children education

We might choose to create a structure for working with the children. We can choose how much this is a form of education in the modern sense, choosing from models of forest school, life school, democratic education, home schooling, Montessori education, Waldorf education etc. 

We might choose to open this to children from outside of the tribe and maybe run summer and weekend camps which are also open for children who are in local mainstream schools.

 

Natural crafts, Arts, Expression

As part of our livelihood, we might invest in workspaces and equipment for craft and arts. For example: wood work, pottery, metalwork, leatherwork, growing and processing fibres, weaving cloth, wood carving, natural medicine. 

 

Ceremonies, Rituals, Celebration

A rhythm of celebrating our work and marking important moments in the tribe community. Engaging with the seasons through ceremonies, for example the pagan calendar marking the equinoxes, solstices and the points of the year in between (Imbolc, Beltane, Harvest, Samhain)

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Living with cycles 

Living with awareness of cycle at different levels, for example:

• The seasons - More events in the summer, taking more time to go inwards in the winter.

• Menstrual cycle and moon cycle - taking some days to be more inwards and do less physical work during menstruation and new moon. Living the peak energy at ovulation and full moon.

• Living and working in sync with the food growing cycle - more work in planting time, harvest and processing. Integrating this into events. 

• Cycles of trying things out and reviewing them before trying the next cycle. 

• Honouring and marking life moments eg: Birth, coming of age, birthdays, death.

 

Connecting to Ancestors

Learning from the past ways of life and wisdom of ancestors. Integrating past tribal cultures and methods with those of modern society. 

Working with our ancestral and collective traumas

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