Page updated:
Friday, 7 September 2007

PEOPLE making a difference - Lachlan McKenzie...

Killing fields give way to good work

I started our discussion by asking Lachlan about his work...

Lachlan: I work predominately with a local NGO called Permaculture Timor Lorosa'e, which is Timorese language for 'East Timorese Permaculture'. I've been working there for three and a half years.

Russ: What motivated you to get into Permaculture?

Lachlan: My motivation for Permaculture started 13 or 14 years ago when I became dissatisified with society and with what was happening around me. I had become disattisfied with what I thought was a fundamentally unequal, unjust and environmentally unsustainable way of living.

I started making gardens in the backyard of my dad's house and then I got turned on to Permaculture by a friend. I went and did a Permaculture design course in Burra, South Australia, with Ian Lilllington and Colin Endean in 1994.

Later, I did almost a year's worth of study with Robin Francis in northern NSW and with Robyn Clayfield [ed: Queensland Permaculture educator and creative facilitator] at Crystal Waters. I did an internship to study towards working overseas.

Russ: There are lot of countries in the world and a number of them with Permaculture projects underway. Why did you choose East Timor as a focus for your work?

Lachlan: After starting out with the idea that I wanted to work overseas with Permaculture, I met Steve Cran. He went to East Timor in 1999 to start working with Permaculture.

I worked with him in Australia and when he was over there in East Timor I knew that the first place I wanted to start working and volunteering was there, because of what had happened to them in 1999 with the destruction of their country. East Timor is close - they're our neighbour and, to a small extent, I wanted to work there because, as Australians, I think we have a shameful history with that country.

Russ: What is the situation that makes people in East Timor need the advice of Australian NGOs?

Lachlan: From 1999, when East Timor voted to become an independent nation, the East Timorese militia, aided and abetted by the Indonesian military, looted and burned the whole country - trees, bamboos, crops, animals, houses... all were destroyed. So it's about rebuilding infrastructure, rebuilding everything.

Education in some areas has not been strong. There's a huge knowledge about agriculture but there's gaps as well, especially in regard to an integrated approach and organics. Traditional agriculture was predominately slash and burn but practiced on one area of land every one or two years.

We're trying to turn from slash and burn to permanent techniques. Mostly, the farmers are fairly organically minded but unless they are given proven techniques which are organic the farmers will use whatever they can to get the best crop they can.

Russ: If I went to the areas in East Timor where you were working, what would I see? What sort of activities?

Lachlan: At the moment we see a lot of home gardens.

We've done a lot of work in making liquid composts and mulching, because soil quality is recognised by different groups, including government agriculture, as one of the most important issues to address.

We do a lot of erosion control work with terracing and with swales [ed: shallow ditches cut along the contour of the land so that they retain rather than drain runoff away] with raised garden beds using rock borders, building nurseries, revegetation and tree crops.

We do some work with animals, building chicken and fish systems and concentrating on small rather than large animals. We look at simple health and waste issues... composting toilets, composting showers, dealing with waste water, reducing mosquito breeding areas...

Russ: There are a lot of different approaches used in international development. Does Permaculture offer anything special to people engaging in the sort of community development work that you do?

Lachlan: Permaculture looks at a community-based approach. It looks at empowering people with information. It's very practical and deals with immediate situations such as working with communities to set up demonstration plots. It brings together a lot of different ideas that different NGOs have which work better together rather than if they're separate. For example... ideas about stoves which use small amounts of wood or different types of materials.

Then there's the connection with the environment, with planting trees and looking at forest systems and how to integrate them with animal systems and how to protect the natural system, the springs and so on.

Russ: A lot of people think that they would like to work in overseas aid but are unsure that they have the right skills. What sort of skills do people need to acquire before they should think of going to work in aid or development overseas?

Lachlan: That depends what field they want to work in. With agriculture, it's good to have some theoretical knowledge. I actually don't have a degree but I have almost eight years of practical Permaculture experience and about a year of theoretical.

I think having that grounding is important because you're in a situation working in developing countries where what you're doing isn't a hobby. If people's crops fail then they don't have a back-up. The experience gives you the confidence.

Russ: We know that technical skills are only part of what a person needs to work in a different culture. What about psychological attributes like attitude? What do people need to acquire and to drop?

Lachlan: Saving the world - they need to drop that notion because it just gets in the way. I'm not saying that the world can't be saved, but we all just do our bit and focus on what's achievable at the time. That's all we can influence.

One of my favourites is the KISS principle - Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Russ: You've gained your earlier experience with Permaculture in Australia. You've gone from there to work with Pemaculture ideas in East Timor. You have produced the draft of a Permaculture manual for that country, quite an impressive, thick book with lots of drawings and illustrations. So, what of the future? Where do you want to be in five years? What do you want to be doing?

Lachlan: I want to continue to be living and working a Permaculture lifestyle.

That might be continuing to work overseas. It might be coming back to Australia and doing Permaculture and community work here. But I want to stay working within Permaculture.