Well, it's been a while since I did any updates here, and there's so much to say about the bike tour but I might just leave that epic story and sum it up with an extended (equally epic) version of a slightly cheesy, but no less genuine article I wrote for Wai (an independent paper being written by a friend in Melbourne)...
Otesha: Cycling for Sustainability
My thoughts for this article began with the question of whether or not the bike tour I’d just returned from was successful. Picture 14 people, 1,300 kilometres by bike on a circle route of rural Victoria, with a presentation about sustainability to perform to school kids – not a bad premise really, and an amazing way to travel, engage with communities and remind yourself what you’re riding in 40 degree heat for...
It’s hard to describe the Oteshan experience to anyone who hasn’t done a tour before, but it’s much like building a large, like-minded family around yourself, only one that’s from all over Australia (and a few token siblings from the US and Canada), then far too soon revealing to them those grumpy, manic, manky and delirious sides of yourself that were usually only reserved for your Mum during year 12 exams. Then you put yourself into strenuous, often very beautiful surroundings, during which you spend many hours making up songs to get you past the 60 kilometre mark and your mood does 360-degree turns until the next meal, while you debate when and why it became appropriate to call 8am a sleep in. Then you go all roaming Von Trapp family style and start performing to kids, only we didn’t dig the hills so much, and the lycra was way spunkier than those dresses. Then you wake up and do it all again. Needless to say it was amazing, but success can be measured in many ways...
At the beginning of the tour I had rather humble aims, and success was weighing in my mind as a measure of whether I’d even make the 1300 kilometres. As a softcore commuter whose skills to offer the group were in consensus rather than bike maintenance or anything practical, my greatest anxiety on leaving Melbourne wasn’t about community living, running workshops with people I didn’t know, or even performing in front of school kids (with a grand total of two semesters’ drama tuition in year eight, the largest part of which was spent learning to juggle). I was more concerned about my ability to survive even the first ride, riding for the first time with panniers and of a distance greater than uni/work/city/parties. So, on that scale, I “succeeded” – including several 40 degree plus days, a 110 kilometre ride, freeway riding, and riding with a trailer with a bent axle.
But won’t somebody think of the kids? Well, the point of the tour was to deliver an “educational program” to schools, aimed at students in years 7-10. To measure the “success” of the presentations could be difficult, but I was looking to feel like at the very least one of the hundreds of kids we presented to would leave thinking harder about the impacts of their choices and be inspired enough to make changes in their own lives. The performance, called ‘Morning of Choices’ is focused on solutions that young people can use to “be the change you want to see in the world” (Otesha’s key philosophy – à la Ghandi). It goes through the lives of two average teenagers and the simple things they’d do every day; showering, packing lunch, buying clothes, watching TV and getting to school, and addresses the impacts of these habitual actions. We then look to them for solutions for how these impacts can be reduced, and suggest some of our own solutions while exploring the positive impacts we can have. In some schools we also fleshed these issues out with four follow up workshops on food, consumerism, climate change and biodiversity.
From the very first performances I could see that kids were listening and in particular being moved by the opening slideshow, which is essentially a series of photographs exposing the reality of the military-industrial complex and the impacts of the over-consumptive, hyper-sensationalist society in which [we] participate everyday...but we didn’t put it in as much words to the kids. In revealing the reality of the destruction we’re wreaking on the planet, the other 15 million species we share it with and each other, the presentation performs a simple but rare function. A lot of people just need that connection between their own unsustainable practices and others’ suffering to be made to actually start paying attention and schools are a good way of delivering that message to a receptive audience.
So how do you make sustainability appealing to that age group, and how do you ultimately put yourself out there on something you’re passionate about and serve yourself up on a platter to be eaten alive by school kids still way too cool to be anything but apathetic (or so my increasingly hesitant scepticism told me)? Well, Otesha’s all about walking the talk, so we ate as sustainably as we could, we “mellow yellowed” our way across the countryside, and we created compost bins in each town (even when we had to perform 6am guerrilla composting in other peoples’ compost bins). And of course, we rode into each town, and then out to the schools we performed at. Kids, and everyone for that matter, get sick of rhetoric, and sick of the “blah blah blah” of climate change solutions. So I think most of them were responding to the commitment tour members had made in riding it as much as anything else.
I think it was also really important that we talked to students as people. I first got involved in activism while I was still at school so part of my motivation for going on the tour was to catalyse younger people into action and give them the tools to get involved. Because of this I was anxious to not be patronising to the students and empower and inform them rather than “teach at” them. Radical concept I know, but just how refreshing some alternative schools felt and how open and responsive they were to us is an indication of how stifling traditional education can be. I think they also responded well as the solutions we offered were tangible, accessible and achievable. By riding our bikes the 1,300 kilometre distance instead of driving we saved the equivalent of 2.4 average Australian homes’ annual carbon output. Similarly the kids could relate this to the possible positive impacts of their everyday choices such as riding to school every day instead of getting a lift in a 4WD.
The most memorable moment I had with a student was when a kid called Lighty, a year six (from one of the primary schools we were able to visit), told us that the issue he is most passionate about is racism. When we asked him what he wanted to do about it he said he was going to get some friends together and put up “NO RACISM” posters around town. Other students were less outright inspiring than this twelve-year-old kid, but in every workshop there were at least a few kids with genuine concerns and an eagerness to talk about what their families were already doing or what they personally wanted to do.
Combating climate change – the big scale, the little scale, and the stuff in between
I’m not someone who advocates for changing the world by changing your light bulb, but this experience has also reminded me how important it is to work on campaigns on a number of levels. Consumer responsibility alone is not going to stop large scale corporate recklessness, but we also need to remember that locking on to coal fired power stations is not going to stop your average person from using the Australian average of 400 litres of water per day. For me the tour was a reminder of not getting caught up in either bureaucracy or rhetoric and although you can’t be involved in everything, some of the most radical concepts are in the smallest of actions – from our intimate relationships to introducing new educational concepts to people, and it is through a combination of methods that we are building a movement.
Why “youth” education isn’t the be all and end all...
I do still consider there to be limitations in the attitude towards climate change that focuses heavily on “youth education” and very little on the current state of affairs. The empowerment of the next generation to combat climate change “when they grow up” is a cop out which excuses the sort of pathetic emissions reductions targets Rudd announced in 2008 and allows the continuation of status quo coal industry development...while kids are taught to switch the light off and learn climate change is happening so they will be empowered to deal with it “when the time comes.” But climate change and unsustainable practices aren’t an issue for the next generation, and while it will only really be our children’s children who really start to suffer from it in countries like Australia, it is the responsibility of people right here and now to start responding. So while educating students is incredibly important, it is neglectful to focus on this area alone and expect climate change to be dealt with, as the longer we look to the next generation for solutions, the less of a future we’re giving them.
Fun activism, now that’s a radical concept...
I probably wouldn’t describe the Oteshan tour as a life changing experience, but not for not being amazing. It was probably more accurately an affirmation of some core values that have been shaped by past experiences. I’ve always had the staunch belief that activism shouldn’t be a chore. Part of the empowerment associated with grass roots organising is that it takes real lived experiences and accessibly translates this into action, establishing actually relevant responses to the screwed up world we live in. If activism is a chore to you, you’re doing it wrong. Odds are selling a newspaper or even attending a rally alone won’t quite cut it, but having been involved with groups in which meetings were over good food, co-conspirers were a real support network, and actions were, essentially, fun I have only ever been reminded that we must work in ways which embody the world we want to live in – starting with community, equality and empowerment. And of course activism isn’t all sharing food and beautiful sunsets, but it is only as fun as we make it, which is why humour and theatre are such awesome ways of communicating with “the unconverted” – never underestimate the power of laughter...
Although the tour was at times quite challenging, I never strayed far from an awareness of my own privilege in being both physically and financially able to be on tour, and through it have exposure to amazing sustainability projects going on and the amazing people behind them. From renewable energy coops to small sustainability groups producing incredible feats of community, to thriving permaculture education centres, to Social Justice and Democracy student groups working on fair trade, to fair trade cafes in the smallest country towns. Not to mention school initiatives such as bulk buying solar panels, bush regeneration projects, bike camps, and my favourites – one in Woodend with a compost bin in each classroom and no-package lunches prepared at school, and Ararat, where the science teacher had started up a guerrilla garden in the court yard with the year nine class! Each of these projects are the sort of thing that goes completely under the radar, yet points to a growing awareness about the mess we’re in and the stubborn resilience of grassroots solutions to offer real effective change in new and exciting ways.
So at the end of the day and end of the tour, Otesha was most decisively a success to me because each of us were ourselves empowered and inspired by the experience, and will take our strengthened convictions and terrible jokes back to our homes towns to keep spreading the word...
o discovered the peppermint bush for awesome teeeaaa. Ah yes, and that's the day some of their extended family came round. Turns out affection for organics, composting toilets and not eating dead animals doesn't always run in families. Go figure. Grace had fun justifying veganism though...! Highlight of day was descovering the walnuts!! Yum, ate them from the tree :-D
o discovered the peppermint bush for awesome teeeaaa. Ah yes, and that's the day some of their extended family came round. Turns out affection for organics, composting toilets and not eating dead animals doesn't always run in families. Go figure. Grace had fun justifying veganism though...! Highlight of day was descovering the walnuts!! Yum, ate them from the tree :-D
So since then we've kept doing some handy things around the place and kept discovering little bits of the property (wombat holes!!! - but no wombats yet. But clearly that's a pretty good impersonation). Generally just enjoying the amazing view and mudbrick house goodness. Pruned rasberry bushes today and dug up their potato crop yesterday, heh was way too much fun :p We ate some of them in chips for dinner last night.
efore I go, today we found a toadstool that was RED and WHITE! In the real world. Not in mario. Or in my drawings from primary school. One of the best things I've ever seen...that and the wombat hole.
efore I go, today we found a toadstool that was RED and WHITE! In the real world. Not in mario. Or in my drawings from primary school. One of the best things I've ever seen...that and the wombat hole.
