Fireweed

We’ve realized that, through all the details that follow, a core tenet of this new community will be paradigm shifts. The current mainstream paradigms of individualism, competition, scarcity, white supremacy, patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, land ownership (and others!) all need to shift in order to lead towards the equitable, sustainable, and resilient future we all need. From extractive capitalism to life-sustaining, care-based economy generated by community businesses. From the oppressive, white supremacist, colonialist patriarchy to liberation. From private ownership to public accountability.
Here are some details of what we envision these shifts looking like and how the community will operate:

• Income Sharing (making a living together as a tribe; anti-individualist economy; we all take care of each other; this is one way to be anti-capitalist)

• Multiracial (This is important to us on a personal level because one of us is multiracial [white and afro-latino], is white presenting, and comes from a multiracial nuclear family, and the other is white and comes from a multi-racial nuclear family, and grew up with majority PGM [People of the Global Majority/BIPOC] friends)

• Anti-oppression (anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, etc.; everyone makes a commitment to learning about the ways they are privileged, such as whiteness, straightness, cis-ness, etc., and how to understand that privilege. In the specific example of anti-white-supremacy culture and de-centering whiteness: learning from books/support group, and not expecting their PGM friends and community members to teach them, while also being committed to receiving feedback if others want to give it)

• Cooperative Culture (relearning how to relate to each other; equitable decision making, e.g., consensus; shared power; open communication; resolving conflicts in public rather than in private; freedom from shame; accountability rather than blame)

• Polyamorous Culture (anti-patriarchy; developing a culture of open communication without shame; free expression of love as a means of strengthening community bonds; create systems where community can create intentionality around this paradigm shift, while still being a place where people of all relationship orientation types, including monogamy, still feel a true sense of belonging; not sure yet how to create this cultural dynamic; the TED Talk by Christopher Ryan, co-author of “Sex at Dawn” helps explain our thinking)

• Land Trust/Community owned land (paradigm shift away from land as a possession to giving the land back to itself and being in relationship with the land; land as a co-founder, aka listening to the land and what it needs and wants; work towards authentic relationship with the indigenous people of the land we occupy)

Here are some other specifics:

• 100+ people

• Rural, Western Washington (Potentially King/Pierce County)

• Large shared homes with lots of bedrooms, and some smaller homes of varying sizes for different needs/times of life

• Community Businesses as most (if not all) income source

• Flexible on types of community businesses (One of us has interest in animal husbandry, whether only for tribe’s needs or also as potential income source)

• Most (if not all) meals shared

• Raising kids together, teaching kids together (homeschooling, or private school as community business? Not sure yet how to create intentionality around this, and the logistical realities of raising kids together in a community that shares housing, meals, businesses, and income, while also creating a healthy level of autonomy for parents. Will look to similar size communities like Twin Oaks and Tamera to learn about how they’ve worked this dynamic)

• Environmental Sustainability—striving towards true sustainability; flexible on degree of self-sufficiency; including both permaculture (while acknowledging and learning more about the indigenous wisdom behind permaculture) and sustainable practices whenever possible, and also incorporating into a (more and more) sustainable and resilient regional economy

• Mission driven—specifically doing work on Systems Change (flexible on how this looks; one of us is interested in working in/creating a think tank looking at strategy of what things will drive change most effectively) (Community has a commitment that part of the work of the tribe is in investing in systems change work towards things outside of itself; some possible ways this might work could be political organizing or direct actions, strengthening and transforming the regional economy, and doing this work with other groups in the region)
• Umbrella Group Participant—participating in and supporting the Radical Communal Groups (RCG) umbrella group in order to create strong and lasting relationships with other radically equitable and high resource sharing residential intentional communities in Western Washington (this both supports our community, supports our sustainability and mission driven goals, and creates a stronger connection to our region)