A Permaculture Elder with over 30 years of research, writing, implementing, designing and living with Permaculture principles at Silk Farm, family food forest.
Her work has been published in international articles and books. She is a skilled presenter and facilitator with practical skills to show people how to make wicking pots without plastic, wicking vessels in the ground to assist young plants in poor soil, worm farming, chicken breeding, geese, growing sprouts, solar cooking, rocket stoves, mending, making creative solutions and designing for efficiency.
April has led a large local trading exchange group and spoken at International Convergences about Design for catastrophe, Climate Adaptation and the Art of Permaculture.
April is a creative being with a background in the performing and visual arts and a passion for sustainable living. She has created music, writing, dance and film as well as Permaculture designs, texts, artworks and videos. She is currently lead author on the upcoming Field Guide to Permaculture Design.
Before and After
“On the left, I stand in an orange hat with a good friend Sister Mary Darcy in 2004. At first we covered an area of compacted subsoil with a layer of cardboard. And we created a border of reused bricks and covered the cardboard with grass clippings and fallen leaves. We made little pockets of soil to hold pioneering plants such as parsley, garlic chives, flax, bromeliads native raspberries and strawberries. After a couple of years, the cardboard broke down. We added new elements such as a tyre pond which is now covered in plants and protects frogs. We also added quick growing shrubs such as native raspberries, Tamarillo, Jaboticaba, passionfruit vines, chilli bushes and a few trees such as jelly palm and lemon tree.
Sr. Mary is gone now but her legacy lives on. Decades later I stand on the right in a red hat with our son’s dog who visits to keep eagles away from the chickens who are hidden by the bushes. Most notably, the edges have moved back to allow more room for people to use the space. Yet the growing area is more productive because the initial flat area has become a complex vertical space with many layers.”
April Sampson-Kelly
After her masters in Music performance and analysis, she studied Biomedical science because she wanted to understand how the brain works to acquire and refine skills. So, how did her training in music and arts lead her to develop an interest in Permaculture Design?
and has been popular around the world.
HER MIND FULL OF STEAM:
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics
April is a big picture thinker. She had politically active parents. And she was often sickly as a child and knows the joy of staying well and active. And she always had a strong love of nature and conservation.
For April, Permaculture is not separate from her creative life, it is a lifestyle.
The Permaculture principles fit her core values.
Her enthusiasm for research lead her to write the first international online permaculture course in 1993. It was designed especially for participants in remote areas. Some were in prison, another was on a boat in the Timor sea. But most were working parents who enjoyed the mentorship.
Through her Permaculture teaching, she has mentored people in more than 62 countries. And over the years she still develops music, graphics and artworks as well tending the family’s food forest.
The Short Permaculture History of a Little Woman
Today, April treasures her mentor Emeritus Professor Stuart B Hill. She teaches online and at the Permaculture Sydney Institute and facilitates Advanced Permaculture Field Days to develop permaculture design processes. April has also produced more than a hundred interviews with Elders of the Permaculture Community and offers free tutorials here https://www.youtube.com/@PermacultureVisions.
April did her Permaculture Design Course in 1994 with Jude and Michel Fanton of Seedsavers. In addition, Rosemary Morrow was a guest teacher on the course. Afterwards, she wrote the first comprehensive plain English text to run a course online.
Back in 2000, Her course notes were approved by Bill Mollison. April became the 2nd certified teacher in from Bill Mollison’s accreditation system. Since then, she was certified by Ross Mars for a Certificate 3 in Permaculture through recognition of prior learning. April has taught units of the Permaculture certificate 3 at the local TAFE.
She is currently lead author of a comprehensive and holistic guide to Permaculture Design. The text is near completion and due for release in October 2025. Co-contributors to the Text include: Paul Kelly, Stuart B. Hill, Lizzy Smith, Adrian Hodgson, Sociologist Terry Leahy, Nick Radford. Excerpts include advice from Author and Patron of PermaFund Rowe Morrow, Penny Pyett, Linda Woodrow, Claudia Waters, Political Science Associate Professor Geoffrey Hawker, Transition Designer Cameron Tonkinwise, Physician Kim Loo and fellow designer Cecilia MacCauley.
April has created numerous permaculture designs, as large as 6000 acres and as small as a wicking bird cage seed raising garden shown above. And as part of her teaching online has created artworks and infographics to develop the art and science of Permaculture design.
Leading from Behind
She has spent decades quietly helping Permaculture communities. She works on the communication team for Permaculture Australia. In 2015 at APC in Tasmania she was awarded recognition as a Permaculture Elder.
April at IPC11 in Cuba assisting the Indian bid to host International Conference
The gregarious Emeritus Professor Stuart B. Hill has been a wonderful mentor for April.
Furthermore, you can see her numerous interviews of Permaculture leaders on our PermacultureVisions Youtube channel.