Part 6: Kym Chi
Kym Chi shows with creativity and humour, that permaculture is a form of art, as well as a tool for increasing personal empowerment and community resiliency. Her sense of enjoyment and infectious positivity leaves everyone who meets her feeling happier and more inspired; and it shows – her efforts in both the local and global community have made an incredibly positive impact.
Kym’s involvement as the permaculture designer, garden curator, and farmers market coordinator at The AREA (Arts, Recreation, Education, Environment, Agriculture) have been one stunning example of this. In one year’s time Kym has led the charge in facilitating thousands of volunteer hours on the transformation of the old brown field site at The Area into a thriving permaculture garden and community space that is now a major hub for the Calgary community. She has been the driving force behind creating the local-focused Inglewood and Ramsay Farmers Market hosted at The Area which has created a platform for many new local producers to start their businesses.
Through her creative permaculture education and design practice Giggling Chi Tree, Kym has taught many permaculture workshops, including teaching at several music festivals across Canada, and now in various public schools across Alberta. She is also a contributor to the global initiative www.Gaiacraft.com, and has helped design many of their open source teaching tools.
Her passion as an educator is matched by her commitment to increasing her own education, which she is currently doing through taking her Advanced Permaculture Diploma through the USA Permaculture Research Institute, as well as a Visionary Permaculture course over six weekends at COSM, just outside of New York.
Verge’s Grad Interview Series tells the stories of 10 past students of our Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course, documenting what they’ve done with the knowledge, skills and inspiration they acquired from the course. Two film makers set out to find these graduates and catch them in action, capturing their successes, struggles, and transformations as they embark on new endeavours – starting gardens, homesteads, community projects, businesses, building sustainable homes and structures, hosting conferences and much more. Click here for a list of all videos in this series.
