Our Vision is for an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable world.
Our Mission is to create a sustainable ecovillage as a demonstration of this vision.
Our Aim is to nurture a resilient and inclusive intergenerational community that inspires collaboration, innovation and fun; to live with kindness, aware of our interdependence with others and the natural world; and to learn and demonstrate ways to thrive within the earth’s ecological capacity, drawing on Indigenous wisdom and fostering regenerative environmental, social and economic practices.
(Updated Aim, November 2021)
Background notes
- Nurture: some people did not like the word “develop” because it sounds like a mainstream housing development. “Create and Build” were in the last aim and are not suitable because we will have built it before the end of 10 years. “Grow” sounds a bit odd! So we landed on ‘nurture’, a word requested several times during the Picture Forming sessions.
- Resilient: robust, durable, flexible, overcoming challenges.
- Inclusive: one of the Sociocratic pillars, every voice important and given a space to be heard. We support and embrace the diversity amongst us and view this as a strength.
- Intergenerational: members wanting a village of all ages.
- Collaboration: emphasises working together and tapping into the ‘wisdom of the crowd.’
- Innovation: debated well and accepted as a broader term to “creativity” which was felt to evoke more emphasis on the subset artistic development.
- Fun: If things are not fun, they are not sustainable!
- Kindness: bringing in compassion, caring and joy to others, valuing connection and leaning into conflict.
- Interdependence: The reality that we are systemically inter-dependent and everything we do affects ourselves, others and the natural world and they in turn affect us.
- Learn: we will be open to continual learning.
- Demonstrate: we will share our learnings to inspire others.
- Thrive: to flourish and feel good about life and ourselves.
- Ecological capacity: we started with ‘“limits”, but received some pushback, so have settled on “capacity”. “Tolerance” was also suggested but we felt that it does not sound good as it makes it seem like the Earth has to put up with humans, which is against the point we are trying to make!
- Indigenous wisdom: recognises Australia’s First Peoples’ deep connection to the land and interrelationship with all beings, and the learning that flows from this
- Regenerative E/S/E practices: striving for better, bolder, beyond sustainable practices in these areas.
At Narara Ecovillage, we give attention and energy to triple bottom line aspirations: social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Social Sustainability:
We aim to build a thriving diverse community of 300+ people of all ages. The layout will encourage neighbourly interaction while respecting people’s privacy – we will have a strong sense of belonging. We have adopted a form of governance called Sociocracy, which underpins the way we run the village and make decisions.
Economic Sustainability:
At the macro level, many developments stall because financial institutions have numerous and often insurmountable, hurdles for them to jump. Narara Ecovillage is funded by community loans and progress payments as member’s make their purchase.
At the micro level, we aspire to having on site vibrant and entrepreneurial business activities that both individuals and the community run. For example, in areas like education, accommodation and food.
Environmental Sustainability:
We aspire to live in harmony with nature, preserving natural habitats on village land and building homes with minimal environmental impact.