Renaissance Community Trust
Moving forward
The Renaissance Community Trust has spent the last few years reflecting on the transformation of the Trust and the Community at Graham Downs. We have drawn on personal experience, research, consultation, and discussion to identify what the future will look like.
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We are committed to upholding the land-based farming community that was the original intention for the land and people.
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We are clear that access to co operative land and the opportunity to live in community needs to protected from the impacts of the speculative property market in regard to accessing housing on the land.
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We have through deeply about the organisational structures needed for regeneration, accountability and protection of the Land, Trust and Community.
Land-based livelihoods
To achieve a land-based livelihood means to acquire the essentials of life in connection with the people, land, animals, and ecological systems that you care for and live with.
Land-based livelihoods express an intention by the Trust to prioritise and support the process, actions, structures and ideas that contribute towards this way of living.
Aspiring to live in this way is a core principle for occupying the land as a community. Farming the land is an important part of the land management on this whenua.
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We are committed to continuing the path of the founders and members towards a productively abundant farm providing for community food, fuel, and well-being. This abundance supports a culture of generosity and sharing that provides security and deepens connections with the wider community.
cooperation
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The Trust describes cooperation as a participatory culture where the individual understands their needs and wants within the context of the group.
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We focus on and uphold cooperation because it expresses the generous, reciprocal, interconnected worldview that will regenerate our planet, and its more fun!
Cooperation relies upon clear guidelines and processes; we believe this includes community membership structures and secure tenure arrangements for members.
The trust requires the community to have clear organisational structures covering social, economic, and ecological themes. Other important aspects of community building will emerge in parallel with the first 3.
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We uphold the cooperative model because cooperation multiplies the potential productivity, knowledge, creativity, wisdom, joy, hope, and impact of individuals.
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Farming in a cooperative way
To farm cooperatively suggests a commitment to sharing the produce equitably through an agreed system, supporting and making space for others to learn and contribute to farm activities and willingly working towards shared projects and goals. It does not exclude individual land-based activity. It requires a commitment to balancing the two.
Regenerative management
​“Regenerative land management seeks to improve the health of the land, waterways, the animals that live on it, and people that benefit from it. Taking a whole-system approach, encourages people to pay close attention to what individual pastures, fields, gardens, and plots of land need in order to function like natural ecosystems, while simultaneously seeking to improve human well-being and animal welfare.
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Regenerative Land Management is achieved through the practices and processes of a number of related land management approaches including organic farming, holistic land management, permaculture, biodynamic farming, carbon farming, silvopasture, agroecology, and conservation agriculture.” Alina Siegfried
Communal space and individual security
The Trust is focused on the productive cooperative use of communal spaces. We also value and recognise people's need for security and connection to their dwelling spaces.
We will work hard to balance these two important factors in community formation decisions and land use agreements.
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