MUDGIRLS BUILDING MORE THAN HOUSES
Just-published manifesto outlines history of fun-loving collective
Since forming 10 years ago the Mudgirl Natural Building Collective has on occasion had to deal with people jumping to the wrong conclusion about the all-female group.
“We joked about it for a long time. People think we all live together in some big hippie commune, and maybe we are even a cult,” said founding member Claire Kenny. The group joked that they should help that misconception along by getting matching tattoos.
That joke became reality and now there is a group of women with simple bucket tattoos roaming the south coast as they build cob houses and structures. And they offer free child care to those who will help them.
“It’s our favourite tool,” said Kenny, adding the prosaic pail is the collective’s most used and versatile item. “An empty bucket. It’s full of potential.”
After a decade of natural building, the collective, which at one point had more than 20 members, has moved into publishing with the new book Mudgirls Manifesto: Handbuilt Homes, Handcrafted Lives.
The book is a balance of old world, get your hands dirty, construction advice and an outline of how to build a hierarchy-free community complete with child care.
“I think what we want people to take away from this the most is that you don’t have to completely alter your life,” said Molly Murphy, an original Mudgirl and mother to three young kids.
“To really value each other and to create a community around you however that looks.
“It doesn’t have to be a natural building collective. It can be a hairdressing collective. Who knows what all the different possibilities are that are out there? Look at your skill set and figure out what it is you think you can share and how can you create a community that feels safe and can support you and that you can support.”
Community is the key for the Mudgirls. They champion it and they promote it every chance they get. The book is an extension of that idea and an idea the women feel is very timely and important in today’s increasingly self-involved world.
“(I think it will speak to) people looking to make more resilient communities — to mothers and feminists, activists and people interested in natural building. As well, because there is so much going down in the world, a group is a really resilient thing. It is more resilient than an individual,” said Kenny. “A lot of what the book does is talk about how to be a group, how to get along, how to be together. How to make decisions together.”
Published by New Society Publishers, the book follows the collective’s guiding principles including creating work environments that are nurturing, keeping capitalism out of it, no bosses and the work remaining child- and parentfriendly.
The subject headings were split up among the collective with an editor pulling it all together.
“We all speak in different voices and we thought that would be a kind of a strength. That’s what makes our collective what it is, our different viewpoints,” said Kenny. “We don’t always agree about everything all the time.”
For actual builds, the Mudgirls do what they call workshops. Approximately 18 to 25 women and their kids camp and learn natural building skills. The workshop participants pay for the cook and the food. The full-time child care is covered in the cost to the person who has contracted the Mudgirls to build the structure.
It’s “camp estrogen” and it works. Despite having only a 10week window to complete each build, the group has managed to erect 12 homes to date.
The Mudgirls story began 10 years ago on Lasqueti Island with original Mudgirl Jen Gobby needing a house. She contacted friends and they came and helped to build Gobby’s cob house. Chuffed with their success, the women decided to form a group and pursue the art of natural building. Like any organization there was early growing pains — most notably making decisions when your plan was to have no one in charge.
“That was pretty crazy for some consensus decision making. Those were some pretty hairy meetings,” said Kenny looking back. “There was a real innocence about it when we didn’t know anything.”
Kenny said the group’s saviour came in the form of the classic meeting guidelines, Robert’s Rules of Order.
On the actual job sites there were other issues to iron out. Most notably, what to do with the kids? At first, mothers were working with babies strapped to them. The bonding was great, but it was also back-breaking. Fatigued moms said they couldn’t keep up the pace, so a child-care system was started.
“The babies were just far enough that you couldn’t hear them crying,” Kenny said with a laugh. “I think the moms are pretty glad that we moved past tying babies to our backs, although I love those photos.”
With a book already under their work belts, is there talk about other media projects? Murphy confirms that reality TV types have pitched a Mudgirls show, but these women have no desire to be the real women of the woods or whatever some clever producer may have come up with.
“That’s just crazy,” said Murphy, who lives on Saltspring Island in a cob/mixed house.
“That’s just a downhill spiral right there. Why would you want to create drama that doesn’t even exist?”
I think the moms are pretty glad that we moved past tying babies to our backs, although I love those photos.