“Shared sorrow is half sorrow. Shared joy is double joy.” – Nigerian proverb
Ionia is a small peer support eco-village located in the forests of the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. The unique culture here was forged by four founding families in the late 1980s. These four families came from different geographic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds, from California working class to East Coast blue blood, as well as different kinds of internal pressures. Most of the founding adults had behavioral illness diagnoses stemming from deep troubles with their circumstances, growing up.
In their chosen semi-isolation in the woods of Kasilof, through a trial and error community process, the original founding families came to believe that each individual serves an essential role in a community, just as lungs and kidneys perform vital functions in a body. They also found that all life subjects are interconnected: that in order to sustainably change one part, they had to begin to change many assumptions, inherited beliefs, and habits. To let go of the old and listen to the new, they had to find courage and curiosity, which only came from serious soul searching and the deep need for a positive direction.
To nurture their gathering, they found that they had to be able to stop struggling with, and pursuing, financial gain, which seemed out of reach… So they took steps towards voluntary simplicity and pooling resources… And to be able to closely share resources, and raise their many kids together, they had to forge out a flexible, shared vision and common language… which took sitting down to meet together daily. They each had different topics which were most important to them, so they all began to dance with each other, with all their different strengths. And so, they found themselves on a spiral of building a new culture, together.
This spirit of the founders has lived on into the current generations and populations of Ionia. The little eco-village remains dedicated to a plant-based diet, to living simply in harmony with nature within and without. Ionia is not a solution to all problems, yet the simple gathered life sets a precedent for walking into daunting modern challenges. Many have found that that precedent, no matter how obscure or remote, can tip the scale toward positive change. The lush gardens and log beams, simple activity, grounded ideas, and bright starlit Alaskan nights have a deeply rejuvenating and inspiring effect. Ionia has found endurance as a community and has become a force for positive change in Alaska’s behavioral health systems, local farming efforts, peer support movement, and more natural building practices.
Ionia’s year-round population now hovers around 60 people, of all ages and abilities, from newborns to elders. In the warmer months, the village numbers swell with new and old friends, dozens of volunteers, as well as frequent day tours. Ionia has become well known for delicious macrobiotic cooking, pioneering spirit, peer support skills, and explorations into various natural building and growing methods. They are spoken of as “the Shire” or “our little commune”- usually with affection. Ionia often partners with Alaskan social service organizations, local food advocates, Alaskan Native tribes, and state government to organize trainings, events, and workshops that further their mission.
Ionia residents are all about food. The second and third generations have begun to ferment foods in earnest: making mouth-watering miso, shoyu (soy sauce), cider and sake, amasake (sweet rice ferment), tempeh (soybean cheese), and natto (sticky, stinky, fermented soybeans), sourdoughs, sauerkrauts, kimchees and pickles of all sorts. The community regularly makes fresh tofu, seitan (wheat-meat), mochi (sticky sweet rice pancakes), baby food, and desserts from scratch. The residents pick wild sea vegetables, mushrooms, berries, greens, and herbs, and dry some for winter eating. The large organic gardens grow thousands of pounds of bright, cool weather vegetables; and are home for experiments with winter squashes, corn, beans, seeds, and grains in the many greenhouses.
This bustling environment was born out of the dynamic combination of pressure and vision. No one is sure if the founders were brave pioneers, idealists, and visionaries, or if they were failures, mentally ill, and unable to cope. Either way, they wouldn’t or couldn’t fit into the busy structures of modern society. Some of the common sense views are known as macrobiotics – or “large life” – and the accepting Alaskan culture gave them a practical pathway to channel their energies and dreams, pool resources and strengths, to create a post-post modern-day village…. which has become a model. It’s given the second and third generations a huge reserve of social capital. Ionia has become an authentic, natural way of life; an out-of-the-ordinary environment to gather within, so that common sense can come alive. The hope is that this way of life will continue to grow and deepen for many generations to follow, and inspire many other similar cooperative projects.
For more information about Ionia, see www.ionia.org
