In our very first podcast episode Meg and Patrick of Artist as Family join us for a conversation on community resilience and the opportunities for change that the pandemic presents.

You might remember Meg and Patrick from our film Creatures of Place that we made back in 2018. Today they’re joining us from their home, Tree Elbow, on Djaara people’s land in Victoria, Australia.

We love the way these guys choose to live and interact with their community – they’re inspiring role models for us and they were the obvious choice for first guests on our new podcast.

One of the critical things we talked about was the difference between self-sufficiency and community sufficiency.

Meg: “How do we practice community sufficiency, what does that look like when it’s just us here, how do we look after each other in a non digital way in a very, very real practical sense? We’re so privileged here to live like this. How do we share that? In a time where everybody is physically distanced, what does generosity look like?”

Patrick: “Resilience is community sufficiency it’s not self sufficiency, so while we have twelve years of preparing for collapse on this particular lot in Central Victoria and within the community gardens and the community forests that we’re involved in and there’s food everywhere … feral foods and the huge amount of learning over the last twelve years we’ve put into edible flora and fauna and fungi – it’s so good to have that, that’s our main bank apart from our seed bank, our cellar and our garden and our community, but to be shut off so radically from community at the moment is definitely a… I feel a sense of vulnerability with that.”

It was really great to talk about that vulnerability with two people who are, despite feeling the vulnerability, deeply resilient in so many ways. We can’t all be prepared for every situation the future might bring, but we can choose to live in a way that is positive and loving and supportive of our selves and all the beings around us.