Many of the people I have corresponded with on the Permiculture Forums here in the United States really think of Permaculture as a collection of "techniques" they hope to be able to try out and use on their places.  This is unfortunate.  Permaculture is more than sound bite techniques.  This is why I feel very deeply the importance of the PDC, and it is why I feel that we can design and plan a PermaVillage Model that will be of any use to the Nemenhah Band, as well as our neighbors locally.  Without the PDC training, I would never have been able to think of the honest Earth Healing that lies at the heart and soul of Permaculture. 

Seeing Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share as elements of landscape - peoplescape design is one of the ways in which the Nemenhah Model PermaVillage hopes to benefit our planet.  Because we look at this as design instead of technique, and because we are now able to stack functions not only in space but also in time, we can anticipate how each of our projects, large or small, really can fit into a sustainable community.  Squarefoot Gardening or Companion Gardenting are great ideas in and of themselves, surely, but how they contribute to a sustainable village life does not come into view until, as elements of the overall design, they are integrated and entangled with all the other elements that make up sustainability.

Seen from this perspective, the various elements of our Model can be understood in the context of a livelihood for one or more of the participants in the overall sustainable plan, or all of them.  If an element of the design requires the attention of a human being, it understands stewardship.  The elements provide for sustainable life ways, therefore, the participants gain a sustainable lifelihood from their participation.  We observe these elements in our plan already providing livelihood:

Vegetable Production

Fruit Production

Medicine Production

Seedling and Seed Production and Distribution

Fish Production

Sustainable Buildings

Education

Pollard Willows and Bamboo Crafts

Pottery Craft

Website Presence and Management

Sustainable Energy Operations

Sustainable Building Materials Development and Manufacture

Communications and Public Relations

Legal Operations

Each of these elements already in place, or in process, will provide a meaningful occupation for one or more persons when they are applied to the PermaVillage Model.  For each of these "occupations" two or more support occupations will eventually need to be created.  It does not take long to begin to envision a working system involving many people as a unified whole.  As a set of techniques, it is difficult to see how such synergy can be effectively established.