Page 24 RAIN May/June 1984 Culture, Land, and Education at Chinook ■ ^ T, .n, . r .v; \ ‘ • . . . /- by Mimi Maduro The first days of February 1984 surprised Pacific Northwest inhabitants with spring weather that rekindled our foggy winter spirits. That's when 1 visited the Chinook Learning Community on Washington's Whidbey Island. On the ferry ride from Mukilteo (30 miles north of Seattle), I pondered issues that had been stirring within me for a long time. What about this iwtion of community? What is it, and how do we sustain our culture? The south end of Whidbey Island is an outpost that poses new strategies for learning. The Chinook Learning Community, a center of cultural innovation, gently reminds us that resourcefulness and resilience are necessary to reweave our cultural patterns of education, learning, community, and home. This community, though, is not an intentional one in a sense that people live there. No one lives at Chinook. The people drawn to this rural community steward the land, and for the past 11 years, they have devoted themselves to creating a learning center that explores both spiritual and environmental issues. As I talked with people connected to the community, several threads surfaced again and again: We can influence our future by living interdependently and cooperatively, and we are all here to work. As one Chinook member puts it, "Work is the reason." The members see diversity as the community's strength, and so each individual expresses what cooperation and interdependence are and decides what work is about. The 25 members of Chinook orchestrate its vision, develop and sponsor educational and wilderness programs, and tend to the land and the community's resources. Members meet every August to examine their commitment, reflect on the past year, and plan for the future. This gathering, called the covenant, is the basis of Chinook's organization, and each member is required to attend. In addition, nearly 300 people support Chi- . nook as associate members. Some of these folks think Chinook is a good idea and give donations; others have transplanted themselves to south Whidbey to make their home, cultivate their livelihood, and contribute to the community's work. Living arrangements include cooperative land purchasing, shared housing, rent exchanges, owner-built homes, and cooperative housing ownership. What is forming around the Chinook nucleus is a village where people work at their local businesses and live down the footpath from neighbors and friends who share a kindred sense that they are living in a way that lays the groundwork for a sustainable culture. Lifestyle and workstyle options abound here, but the "living lightly" philosophy is at the core. Chinook purchased the general store in Clinton several years ago, and it now operates Warm Wind Books and Records and houses offices and a resource center there. Six members work full-time on the Chinook education department, land, buildings, and business. Salaries are around $400 a month. Some people commute to part- time professional jobs in Seattle, and others run businesses in Clinton and surrounding towns or work out of their homes. What is forming around the Chinook nucleus is a village where people work at their local businesses and live down the footpath from neighbors and friends who share a kindred sense that they are living in a way that lays the groundwork for a sustainable culture. The resource center, a well-lighted room filled with ideas and images, is usually the place where visitors to the community come to ask questions. This room'is filled with periodicals, books, maps, displays, and two computers. Resource center organizer Tim Clark also shares information over the phone. The community uses the cooperatively owned computers for databases, mailing lists, word processing, and bookkeeping, and many Chinook members and associates are learning to use computers. Chinook offers workshops, conferences, wilderness experiences, summer intensives, and a continuing- education program known as Core Studies. Educational programs over the past two years have included a Zen meditation retreat, a guided imagery and music workshop, a permaculture design course, kayaking in the San Juan Islands, a planetary village conference, hiking
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