Post Carbon Institute’s Associate Director Ken White recently visited Atamai Village, an evolving resilient community outside of Motueka, near the top of NZ’s South Island. Atamai, situated on 110 hectares (272 acres) of farm land and rolling hills, has plans to become a community of 2-300 people (15 families currently reside there), living amidst a small vineyard, orchard, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, ponds, organic famland, a small forest, and other common spaces. A local Waldorf school appears likely to move to the Village center soon. The Atamai development process operates as a not for profit trust. Ken chatted with two of the early settlers, Jack and Joanna Santa Barbara.
KW: Jack and Jo, I understand you folks moved from a very comfortable and connected life in Canada to join this project almost from the start. Given that you were very active in your community, and have grandchildren back in Ontario where you’ve lived for many decades, I’m guessing this was not a quick or simple decision. Could you tell us how you came to this life-changing decision? What led you to make a leap of faith halfway across the globe?

- We live on a finite planet with finite resources
- Climate change is an example of breaching a global sink limit
- Energy descent is an example of breaching a global resource limit
- Our economic system drives greater consumption and breaching of biophysical limits
- Other vital limits are also being surpassed –such as biodiversity loss and loss of soil fertility
- Cheap energy is essential for continued economic growth
- Take economic growth out of the equation and the debt-based money system can no longer function as designed
- Technology is not the solution – it is part of the problem.
- Meeting basic human needs will be increasingly challenging, because current mainstream systems for doing that are unsustainable and brittle
- Governments and technology are part of the Business As Usual paradigm, and are unlikely to generate or support useful responses to Business Unusual
- Old paradigms don’t change—they fade away, and are replaced by new paradigms
- Moving away from economic globalization requires a new paradigm: relocalization
- Relocalization means learning to be a producer of what you need and wish to consume
- An essential element of a relocalized new paradigm is a new kind of human settlement – a resilient community.
- “What is most important to preserve, despite whatever changes come along?”
- “What kinds of resilience are most important?”
- “How can we ensure that we can meet our basic needs?”
- Our food system consumes more energy than it produces.
- Many municipalities spend up to a third of their energy budget on moving water, and degrading it in the process.
- Many of our homes are too big and require too much energy to keep us comfortable.
- Most corporations draw down and degrade resources faster than they can be replenished
- Most people are not connected with their neighbours in a joint project for the common good.

- A biocapacity excess, since we expected to rely more directly on Nature, and we wanted the Nature we relied on to be in good shape.
- A climate that did not require a lot of energy to stay comfortable, because why make things more difficult than they need to be?
- A government with at least some semblance of parliamentary democracy, because as Churchill noted, it’s the worst form of government…except when compared to all the others! [laughter]

- Some shared common land that was jointly owned and managed.
- Largely living off the energy flows of the land (i.e. soil, sun, water, wind).
- A village economy where people exchange basic goods and services with each other and the surrounding areas.
- Some shared values and traditions.

- All building sites are situated for passive solar designs and personal gardens.
- Dwellings use non-toxic local materials, are modest in size, well insulated, generate their own power and water, and use household wastes as a resource (for example, via composting or other low-impact toilets).
- There’s adequate space for orchards and/or small livestock.
- Water is collected in ponds and tanks for domestic use and irrigation.
- Cycle paths connect the various parts of the village for moving goods and people without motorized vehicles.
- The initial Commons of 10 hectares (26 acres) has a community orchard and garden area, and ponds and cycle paths, as well as natural areas (most of the roughly 110 hectares are destined to be part of the Commons).
- A sustainable forestry operation.
- A traditional integrated farm operation, organically managed, that provides a variety of food needs.
- Several villagers currently make at least part of their livelihood within the Village.
- Land that provides a variety of soil types and microclimates
- A food forest on Commons land that we plan to integrate with food forests on private land.
- A Commons is managed by volunteer working groups, and governed through a modified consensus process.
- A shared ethic of care for the Earth and for each other (but otherwise we’re non-denominational).
- A drive to be carbon neutral via a variety of features – like our current ride share and planned car share programs.
