Your NameDoris Langer
Email Addressdolias@posteo.net
Cohort AssignmentAustralia 2023
1. What do you see as your primary work at this stage of your life?

I'm working with organisations (not-for-profits/charities) in the dual space of regeneration & communities.

2. What role do you see as yours to play?

Regenerative practices and operations, regenerative pathways, regenerative/resilient/systems thinking, regenerative/resilient development.

3. What goals or aims do you have in regard to the above?

Being of the highest service I can which involves gaining knowledge and implementing into my own practice and life, into my work and into the wider community. It also means inner healing and regeneration on a personal level.

4. Where do you feel your next arenas for personal growth are?

Connecting with others, inner healing, writing and reaching out, developing strategies, implementing changes in my own life towards the goal (regeneration and resilience).

5. And for professional growth?

Connecting and networking with others, gaining knowledge (tools, strategies), implementing into practice.

6. What have you invested in to get you where you are?

I've been on a path of learning which started way back in my childhood; three years ago I made the decision to dedicate my life and work to regeneration and I've since been on a journey to align my career and my personal life accordingly a journey of learning, studying, discovering, listening, reflecting and unraveling.

7. What fields of learning and which thinkers have been important in your life?

Regeneration: Daniel Christian Wahl, Paul Hawken, Damon Gameau, Laura Storm, Joe Brewer
Systems Thinking: Fritjof Capra
Aboriginal wisdom and Elders: Prof Anne Poelina, Prof Mary Graham, Tyson Yunkaporta, Michael-Shawn Fletcher, Uncle Dave Wandin, Uncle Larry Walsh, Aunty Kumalie Riley, Uncle Dennis Fisher, Aunty Munya Andrews
Indigenous wisdom: Lyla June
Deep Transformation: Jeremy Lent
Local Futures: Helena Norberg-Hodge
Permaculture: David Holmgren, Bill Mollison, Rosemary Morrow, Looby Macnamara, Starhawk
Transition towns: Rob Hopkins
Resilience: Johan Rockstroem (Stockholm Resilience Centre), Bob Doppelt (Transformational Resilience), Brian Walker & David Salt
In the fields of Mindfulness/Zen buddhism/engaged buddhism/Spirituality: Thich Nhat Hanh, Satish Kumar
Activism: Greta Thunberg

8. Can you frame your philosophy or cosmology of life? What role(s) do humans play in it?

I have developed a model/mind map of a "landscape of life-affirming movements, concepts and cultures" called the starfish model which incorporates my current personal philosophy and thinking and what I base my work on.
(1) It's based around the importance of community as the foundation (connection, diversity, equity, reliance, sufficiency, resilience...).
(2) It's further based on the importance of indigenous culture(s), knowledge and wisdom (in particular in a country like Australia with ten thousands of years of Aboriginal culture; Care for Country, Care for Kin).
And, finally the four movements that I have identified for myself are building on these foundations:
(3) Regeneration (biodiversity, ecosystems, restoration, leadership, soils, waste is food, mycelium, cycles of life, biomimicry etc.)
(4) Local futures (local economies, social well-being, economics of happiness etc.)
(5) Permaculture (holistic framework, learning from ecosystems, methods, everything is interconnected, networks, patterns, relationships, People&Planet)
(6) Transition (towns) movement (practical, local community & grassroots; inner transition, head/heart/hands, active hope)
All six movements, concepts and cultures form an interrelated network/mycelium with many more parts eg the concepts of Circularity, Degrowth, Systems Thinking, Bioregions, Resilience, Deep Transformation, Doughnut economics model, Deep Ecology etc.
For me, looking at any of those parts is looking at the same thing just from different angles. They all have a life-affirming approach in common. Which therefore means that entering this landscape through any of those parts is entering a gateway to living regeneratively together. (I'm happy to share the Starfish model with you as a jpg. if you're interested)
Lyla June, an indigenous Dine-Woman from the US phrased it beautifully in a powerful TED talk where she spoke about indigenous land management and "humans as keystone species".
I believe listening and learning from Aboriginal people and Elders is one of the most important things for me to do as Australian living on unceded lands (and for society as a whole). I'm taking on any opportunity to hear Aboriginal Elders' storytelling which I see as a gift that leaves me full of gratitude. I'm trying to learn and connect the learnings in my own life and work.

Date CreatedJuly 13, 2023