CHAT SESSION 84 with Josh and Narelle Melnick
Topic- The Revillaging project is an optimistic name for a hopeful future and is very much in its early stages of development as a new initiative.
Monday 2nd December 2024 1pm https://rppfm.com.au
The adage ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ rings true to many parents, but when Josh and Narelle Melnick became parents 10 years ago, they wondered “where is the village?!”
Husband and wife Josh and Narelle Melnick now have three children and are co-founders of The Revillaging Project in Boneo. The Revillaging Project is a family-centric event space that combinesWellness, Regenerative farming, Wetlands preservation, Indigenous Cultural activities, Steiner parenting groups and hosts special events with a mission to drive meaningful social and environmental change.
Hailing from Melbourne, Narelle met New York City-born Josh when she was living in Los Angeles. The couple fell in love and started their family in LA, where Josh was working in the film industry as a director.
After the birth of their first child, things hit home very quickly; the isolation of modern-day parenting bred exhaustion and depletion and left them yearning for a more connected and supported way of life that lined up with their values.
Josh and Narelle came to realise that children “become who we are” not “what we say” and so asked themselves the question, “how can we be the best versions of ourselves and how can we raise our children to be equipped for the challenges they will have to bear in the future?”
As a postpartum doula, Narelle has a special interest in traditional knowledge and wisdom surroundingbirth and the postpartum time, and a woman’s very specific, physiologic, emotional and spiritual needsthrough this period. “There is a cross-cultural blueprint for caring for women through their childbearing years which supports a mother’s thriving which, when followed, ensures family and community health. The foundation of this “prescription” is community support. Without community, there is no rest, no nourishment, no guidance, witnessing or care. Without community, mothers cannot thrive.”
In 2021, Josh’s work in the film industry in LA came to a halt due to the pandemic, and with variouspolitical upheavals in the US, Narelle convinced Josh to take the kids to Australia “for a year”. Fast-forward to 2023, when they happened upon an off-grid meditation centre in Boneo for sale.
“When we walked onto the land, we had a very clear vision of what the place could become. We could live on the land, not only protecting, but regenerating the wetlands, learn to farm food in a healthy way and create a family business that could support our vision for community thriving that aligned with everything we care about.” Josh says. “It was a huge risk, but we threw our lives behind this vision!”
The couple are bringing their dream of a connected community and a hopeful future to life and have called it The Revillaging Project.
In case you were wondering, this “village” is not about housing! While Josh and Narelle live privately in the centre with their young family, their project is about creating a hub for people to visit, to host workshops and events, and to be in proximity to one another consistently enough to relearn and practice essential skills and lost arts for the care of the human and planetary organism.
Josh says “The core of what we’re doing here is looking at the overlapping systems of sustainability. Often our thinking about things in the wellness sector can be too segmented. You go to the gym, but whatgood does it do if your body is healthy but the soil from which you eat is not? If your relationships are not? And so on… Here we’re creating a small enough scale model where people can visit and understand with their hands, hearts, and minds what true regeneration looks like for people and planet, and how it’s really all interconnected. And whether they attend an event or a workshop, they can leave with some practical skills to take home and apply in their own lives. We’re doing it to inspire our community and to become the mirrors for our children and grandchildren.”
When the couple started the project, they had no idea the skills they would need to learn. The vision wassimply to align their values with their life. Josh is now a biodynamic farmer and wetlands conservationist, in addition to running the day to day of the social enterprise, despite knowing nothing about either a few years ago. Narelle does all the in house Ayurvedic Catering and runs Steiner Inspired playgroups and yoga classes. They still have no employees, only collaborators and co-creators.
The Revillaging Project has developed strong and lasting partnerships with values aligned with local organisations such as Living Culture, MP Landcare, Regenerating Farms, Save the Bees, and the Westernport Biosphere Foundation, and have collaborated with the Shire on multiple Climate Action Grants.
This summer, they break ground on a major wetlands’ restoration project in collaboration with The Western-port Biosphere, Melbourne Water, and Southeast water, called “Healing Water Country” which will restore and protect as a Trust for Nature over 50% of their property using regenerative principles and without the use of chemicals and in partnership with Traditional Custodians.
The Revillaging project is an optimistic name for a hopeful future and is very much in its early stages ofdevelopment as a new initiative. They run seasonal festivals, playgroups and early childhood sessions, aswell as countless yoga, wellness, farming and cultural workshops. They also hire out their beautiful space for weekly classes and weekend special events and retreats, including corporate team building events.
Want to get involved?
Josh and Narelle host weekly Friday volunteer days on the farm and are working hard to develop an on farm educational not profit through their Go-Fund me which you can check out here.
Stay tuned in to their growth and upcoming events by joining
their mailing list and following them on Instagram.
And please reach out to hire their space for your next special event.
My hope is that when you’re looking at yourself in the
‘The Daily Mirror’
YOU SMILE
EMBRACE BEING YOU
AND FIND 10 MINUTES IN YOUR DAY TO NOURISH YOUR SOUL!
To get in touch with Cathy email smileinthedailymirror@gmail.com
'The Daily Mirror' acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and acknowledges and pays respect to their Elders,
past and present.
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