They came to hear an author and left talking about community, landscape literacy, apple orchards, and socials written on the loo. Author, podcaster, regenerative farmer and educator Jade Miles drew a full house at Moruya Library on Monday, sharing stories about connection – with people, with places, and with the natural world.
Jade is reshaping of the traditional author talk format, pioneering a more participatory style. While her books – Futuresteading and Huddle – got people in the room, it was the stories she shared that led to lingering conversations after.
"The idea was my dad would homeschool us – or unschool us – but the landscape took that place," says Jade, speaking of months in the central and western Australian deserts. That seemingly simple sentence captures both the childhood experiences that would shape the storyteller, and also the feel in the room for the event itself.
Paying attention. It's an idea Jade threaded through the afternoon, speaking candidly about the challenges of building and rebuilding community in an increasingly disconnected world, while questioning societal norms.
Why are hours spent scrolling screens unremarkable, while sitting quietly under a tree unusual? Jade argues that much of what we now consider 'out there' was, until recently, ordinary social life.
"Sitting on the earth, listening to birds, listening to other women, taking some kind of sacred message from the fire, feeling held. You think that's weirder than living in the city with a mild eating disorder, filled to the gills with Botox and fake boobs and fake tans, and 25,000 steps a day, and nannies? You think that's normal and I'm weird?"
Jade's book Futuresteading explores practical ways to build strong local connections. It grew out of her belief that practical action – food sharing, working bees, community gardens and skill swapping – would build the connective tissue of community.
It turns out more was needed. So she wrote Huddle, a reflective, practical guide to the deeper layers needed for enduring connections. "It's the inner work that makes the outer work, work," says Jade.
Reflection was balanced with humour. One of the afternoon's biggest laughs came when Jade revealed that she does all her socials while sitting on the loo – a family rule to stop online life consuming the day. Then back to reflection, attending to all things and all people.
"We are not just beautiful big brains. We also have the huge hearts with big feelings," she says. Even so, "It's hard to be around people who are not like you. They're argumentative!" That's central to Jade's message – listening across differences and resisting the retreat to groups that already agree with us.
Jade closed with the story of an elderly neighbour whose apples had been rejected by a major supermarket chain – the wrong colour, too golden! Jade put out the call and the community answered. Families arrived with baskets, boxes, and shared determination that good food – and a season's work – would not go to waste. Looking back on the day, the farmer told Jade what mattered wasn't the apples, it wasn't even the money.
"People asked me my name," he said. "That's where we start."
Find more upcoming author talks and events on the Libraries' What's On webpage.
