If anyone asks me “Will you be successful with you plans for Earthships in New Zealand?”
I will look them in the eye and say “Yes” and point them at the new ESNZ posters we recently had made.
Is that because the posters are particularly professional looking and espouse the great properties of Earthships?
Well of course they do, but that’s not the reason.
Its how they came about.
Having had an idea and put the word out that we needed to make some ESNZ posters that we could display at the NZ Permaculture Hui over Easter weekend, the call was answered. Tim in Dunedin from SHAC.org.nz, whom I’ve never met, contacted me and said he knew some people who could help. He put me in touch with Sara, a graphic design student also in Dunedin who could put the poster together. Someone else I’ve never met. Then came along Aaron, a writer who provided oversight on the copy for the poster and positive feedback on what we wrote – yet another person whom I will enjoy meeting one day. The posters were finished in the nick of time and we then had to work out how we got them to Motueka for Saturday morning. I called my Earthship co-conspirator in Wellington, Andrew, someone I never knew a month ago and told him we needed the posters printed ASAP. I then called my lovely friend Gayle, a traveller from the UK whom I met as a volunteer on a Red Cross water point in the Eastern Suburbs of Christchurch in early March and had been enlightened by the conversation we had about Earthships. She was travelling from Rotorua to the hui in Motueka and would be catching a ferry from Wellington first thing Friday morning. Andrew duly printed the posters and dropped them off for Gayle, whom picked them up and took them to the hui.
Wow.
It just happened from nothing and despite not knowing how the next part would work out, it never faulted.
Why did these people do this? For someone whom they hardly know?
I have organised some big things in my time, but this poster completely floored me. This was powerful. Its like a magnet, with every particle pointing in the same direction. This taught me that we can do this and we will make it happen. So take a look at the poster and see what it tells you.
I’ll sign off with the last line of the poster.
“Earthship NZ is on a journey defined by people, not buildings, we’d like you to join us for the ride.”
Rob – just one part of the growing ESNZ crew
Great poster and great story.
John