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Dancing, dreaming Declan

Hildur and Ross Jackson talk about the dream they shared with Kennedys, and how they walked their talk together in the Ecovillages Movement

1986: The first time we visited Margrit and Declan in Lebensgarten, the four of us had a great time together. There was a very special kind of dynamics with Ross and Margrit so much into money and finance and Declan and Hildur both agreeing that their dream was to create an alternative university. He was then professor at the Technische Universität Berlin. We had so much fun together—and a common dream...

1991: Together with Robert and Diane Gilman, we - Hildur and Ross - arranged a private meeting in Denmark with ecovillage leaders from around the world to see how Gaia Trust could best help the cause of sustainability. Guests included both folks from ecovillages and a few global thinkers like Marilyn Mehlman of Global Action Plan, David Korten of People Centered Development and Karl-Henrik Robert from the Natural Step movement. Declan and Margrit were naturally invited. Early in the meeting opinions were polarized: those who wanted a broad sustainability movement and those who wanted a network among communities, people who were already living a different culture — what later became known as ecovillages. At one point, after a hefty debate, half of the group, led by Declan, left the meeting in a huff and settled on the top of a mound from the Stone Age overlooking Limfjord with windmills visible in all directions. Declan and Margrit sat there with Hildur and a few others of the same view, lying on the grass, feeling the wind and enjoying the fantastic view. We wanted the movement to be fun and not only walk but live their talk. And so it happened. That was the beginning of the ecovillage movement — very much thanks to Declan, who knew his priorities.

1994: We met at Torri Superiori in northern Italy with people from projects all over Europe to create a European network of ecovillages. Declan had been travelling and organizing and deciding who would come. We met outside under olive and fruit trees while the river was cascading to one side and the many built up terraces made an enormous wall to the other side. Declan stood with his dancer legs solidly planted on the ground demonstrating on a paper how to proceed. In the breaks we danced in a circle.
Declan was elected the first chair of the European network along with five lovely, strong women (Christine from Belgium, Agni from Poland who later moved to Lebensgarten, Demet from Turkey, Lucilla from Torri and Silke from Sieben Linden.)

1995: At the Ecovillages and Sustainable Communities conference at Findhorn, GEN, The Global Ecovillage Network was founded. It was decided to make 3 regional offices in 3 parts of the world: the Americas, Australia/
Oceania and Europe/Africa with an inter-national office in Denmark with Hamish Stewart as secretary. Declan would be the European secretary, Max Lindegger would represent Oceania and Albert Bates the Americas. Four men were now at the front of a movement wanting to give more space for the feminine! For Hildur, this was a strange contradiction, but these were very special men and the women present were not ready to travel. We often called them the Four Musketeers and they did seem to share both chemistry and vision. They had a great time together and did a great job meeting and teaching and spreading the ecovillage idea in all parts of the world.

1996: GEN decided to inaugurate itself formally in Istanbul at the Habitat II conference. GEN had an amazing presence. Kaj Hansen, Hamish and Heidi drove down from Denmark with lots of materials. A winding straw bale wall was built across a big hall and plastered, photos from ecovillages all over the world hanged on the wall, a water staircase put up, a solar windmill etc. Behind the buildings a traditional Turkish Harran stone house was built by local artisans. A group of 20 ecovillagers from all parts of the world participated and offered 43 workshops. We stayed in the Atatyrk hotel Pera Palace - almost a museum - within walking distance of the conference, and had two fabulous weeks together. Wangari Matthai came every day to our corner as this was where "she felt most at home". Every afternoon Declan at 3 o'clock Declan led all comers-and they were many-in a circle dance.
For celebrating the actual inauguration of GEN, we created a great happening with many guests, including two Danish ministers. Street children form the Philippines performed and Declan lead the show from a chair. We celebrated afterwards in a local restaurant and had hired a local belly dancer. She immediately identified Declan as the dancer in the group and got him off his chair. Soon everybody got into the act.

1998: Hildur invited 50 ecovillage educators to Fjordvang, Denmark to celebrate Ross' 60th and Max's 50th birthdays. Time had come to also create a global cross-regional organization around education. Everybody wanted to be part of creating a "Gaia University". Declan was the toastmaster at a gala dinner and a great party.

2004: Hildur invited 30 ecovillage educators to Findhorn to get the new education organized after years of testing, especially at Crystal Waters and at Findhorn. Declan and Margrit could not make it. After the meeting four groups each took on their part of a common curriculum called Ecovillage Design Education, which Chris Mare then weaved together in poetic language. However, Liora Adler and Andy Langford were impatient and decided to split from the EDE project and create their own educational initiative under the name Gaia University, building on Andy's ideas on action learning from the perma-culture movement. The EDE was tested at Galgafarm, Hungary and then launched at Findhorn in Oct 2005 under the name Gaia Education for a three year test period. Declan chose to join Liora's and Andy's group as chairman, but came to Findhorn 2005 to discuss collaboration with Gaia Education. We had a very intense round where people expressed their frustrations over the split, but we all felt grateful for his courage to be there and meet.

2008: Gaia Education had by this time carried out 35 EDE's in five continents under leadership of program director May East (www.gaiaeducation.org)
A new on-line version of the EDE education was developed this year: GEDS, Gaia Education Design for Sustainability, an 8 month virtual education program together with OUC, Open University of Catalonia in Spanish and English, hopefully to be accredited next year. Gaia Education Limited was incorporated as a UK non-profit as income began to flow. Gaia University will undoubtedly be explained in other pages of this story. The two projects are developing in parallel with some exchange and may eventually merge. In the meantime, we now have two very live exciting and important educational projects to offer to the world. Declan is the person who together with Kosha from Sieben Linden ties the two together. Two dreams have come true.

With love and gratitude

Hildur and Ross

hildurjackson@gaia.org