“PT Bamboo Creative Bali,” a legal Indonesian business entity focused on sharing skills and facilitating experiences related to natural community living, artisan crafts, and bamboo knowledge alongside local village communities.

Bamboo Creative Bali has three aims:

• To make bamboo an attractive and affordable building material for everyday people in developing countries to use, and to retain the culture and skills of bamboo (and traditional craftsmanship) which still remains – of not only in Indonesia but around the world – seeing bamboo as a “friend” to people and able to be collectively used to better society and the environment;
• To educate and inspire people to repurpose plastics and prevent plastic waste from entering our environment; Nurture innovative thinking and value-adding to natural community resources and to contribute to the creation of circular economies; and,
• To be a vehicle for which we as humans may relearn what being IN Community feels like, and to reconnect us with our natural creative nature while including people with different abilities and disabilities in activities, enabling them and their carers to engage in meaningful roles enabling participation in and contribution to community life.

We offer individualised bamboo building, recycled-design and natural/earth building programs where participants are enabled to be part of the design experience and process of each project. As well, we offer design mentorship for locally-produced bamboo products through partnerships with local families directly; where there are mutual fair benefits. We aim to enable more local families to build their own “bamboo homestay” through collaborative programs – using renewable/recycled materials and traditional bamboo knowledge.

The Vision I have for Bamboo Creative Bali is to create a model for living in Community and including people with disabilities in daily life, and to enable us to share our gifts as people/humans, inclusively, in a community environment. I am working for this to be applied to a community model that will give my daughter better quality of life experience and social connection, than what is presently available. And as part of this Vision, I would like to enable other families and individuals to experience and live alongside local cultures – while creating socially, economically and environmentally-enriching experiences and enterprises which enable varied levels of contribution towards a wholistic model of Community Life .

Bamboo Creative Bali goes beyond construction by focusing on developing sustainable systems tailored for tropical environments that reduce waste and minimize power consumption through simplified, localized lifestyles. The initiative promotes eco-friendly resource use and economic models that eliminate reliance on energy-intensive solutions like air conditioning. Key strategies include implementing greywater gardening, harnessing energy from human waste, and reducing single-use plastics, all aimed at fostering a zero-waste economy and building resilient, environmentally conscious communities.

I am passionate about natural building and design, experimentation, raising awareness and sharing skills that can make building bamboo homes sustainable, affordable and accessible – especially for People LIVING IN “developing countries” who make up around 70% of the global population of our planet.

In the world of bamboo and earth-friendly life skills – and plastic management/reuse, I believe that incorporating bamboo-building and skill-sharing with a kind of local tourism will help local families to be empowered to use bamboo as a building material in their own houses and help to broaden the reach and sharing of skills and knowledge around Environmental Awareness and also be a Proactive measure in creating solutions that everyone can be part of – in a fun and recreational way – while creating and broadening our concept of community and what it is to be part of a/the Global Village.

Since 2017 when the bamboo house project started, I have been developing a model for a social inclusion project to help my daughter Freyr and myself to have social connection and community involvement and support. Life in Australia for my daughter and I was very isolating and after leaving Australia I have been blessed to meet many people – local craftsmen, artists and travelers with various expertise from parkour, yoga and rock-climbing to architecture, social work, theatre and marketing. And my daughter has been enabled to experience an enriched social life and meaningful connections while having her care needs met by local care “staff” who are like family to us.

My aim is to build an inclusive disability community village project for my (now) 22 year old daughter and other “kids” with special needs in Bali. I want to enable young people and adults with disabilities to be and feel included in community life and activities; and to ease the care ‘burden’ for parents of special needs children through enabling them to access inclusive activities by building spaces of learning and sharing music, dance, physical therapies, farming activities, time, food and humor, sustainability skills and healing pass-times such as crafting with bamboo, weaving and other right-brain activities.

Prior to living here in Bali my daughter and I lived in the Philippines (Palawan) where we stayed with several families for nearly a year who helped me to take care of Freyr and gave me the support I needed when I had reached my own breaking point in being able to look after her. I overcame the sense of isolation I had experienced living in Australia as she got older and Freyr was able to be part of a FAMILY. I was able to restore my nervous system which had become so overwhelmed that i experienced frequent shaking, inability to sleep and emotional instability. Having support with Freyr’s care meant I could free my focus and attention and made some small projects to contribute to the livelihoods of the families we stayed with which is where I started seeing and learning about bamboo through helping make/repair a mangrove aquaculture pond, build a small office/spare room and build a bamboo “kubu” in the jungle near Napsan.

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Bamboo Housing for the Future?

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I have been incredibly inspired since first coming to Asia at how inclusive the culture is towards people with special needs, and by the presence of Foundations/Yayasans here in Bali whose charter it is to help children with disabilities. I have actually felt human and connected in a way I had never experienced in Australia. We naturally slotted in to a more co-operative mindset and sense of shared responsibility… I feel so blessed to be able to experience life in a more “meaningful” way and to be able to contribute in some way and help others. This is what led me to have a vision to create a wholistic village where “sustainable” activities are just part of daily life and form part of a living program where our “kids” get to join in and participate together with paid staff/carers and the broader local community as well as travellers and visitors who wish to participate in being of service to the Greater Good and are interested in sharing their time and skills with us…

What spurred me to create this project was my own need to feel part of an inclusive community where I can live in a collaborative family environment and Thrive; have a sense of purpose, and contribute to a community which is committed to seeing a better world for our children.

I endeavor to become part of the network of social enterprises which are developing globally and help form connections in ways where we may return to our familiar/tribal roots as humankind and plant the seeds of Caring Custodianship; pulling the weeds of Capitalism out of our lives as we go… To rethink How we think... about ourselves and everything around us. Through experiencing BEING in Com-munity and engaging in activities which bring us into Communion/ Communication with ourselves and each other… To be able to Feel and just be Present for our Kids with special needs – and enjoy them!… To unravel our minds… to open our Hearts to what has been there all along. I want to enable other families to also enjoy a more co-operative way of life – that respects, restores and enhances local culture.

This project has been entirely self-funded so far. It has been a means for me to develop my own skills and knowledge and fulfill my human potential outside of my caring role while finding avenues to help my daughter be part of an awesome inclusive community and contribute to quality care and facilities for special needs “Kids” here in Bali. In the long term I aim to connect this project more widely enabling mutual benefits to communities empowered to participate in connecting our global family together through being present and inspired as part of a natural community environment and setting for our kids and living our purpose in giving to the Greater Good and forming a caring network of people and “human-enabling’ / “humaning” experiences.

I’m now working as part of a collaborative group of passionate individuals to bring about a bamboo skill-sharing training program in Kenya called Bamboo 4 Africa which you can read more about HERE. Within this program is also the intention to expand and connect our visions for village-care networks and support for families with special needs family members… And the Hands Hearts & Habitat initiative which offers families the opportunity to come and participate in bamboo building hands-on in an immersive natural learning environment.

Help me to continue this project…

Make a time to chat with me :

Paying it Forward – For Other Families

I would like to make Freyr’s bamboo Sky Kubu available for other families now that she is residing in Australia – I am working to establish a place where I can spend time with my daughter sustainably. Our Bamboo Home, though it is a beautiful space – became unlivable for us as Freyr had no access to disability or medical support from Australia and we lost financial support from her father after she turned 18 in 2020 – so she had been just sitting at home with Nana, her assistant in Bali, most days while I was working. I’m relieved that she now has access to her funding and has activities to keep her socially engaged and medical attention to address her ongoing/chronic needs, and that I am able to develop my own independent livelihood.

Bamboo houses are not really noise-proof and occupants can pretty much feel every step and movement reverberates through the building – which is great when you want to keep tabs on what’s going on… not so much if you want to “switch off” for a bit. Since COVID I’ve been spending nearly all my time working with bamboo craftsmen in Belega (near Ubud) and coordinating/developing bamboo programs. I find working with bamboo very therapeutic. It’s also a great way to have social interaction with lessened anxiety as having the focus of crafting diffuses my usual social awkwardness – and I even have time to socialise – Woohoo! (being a Carer can be very isolating – even when you’re not Caring directly, you’re always On Alert and/or too exhausted to string a sentence together).

So, though there are still a few repairs and improvements which could happen in our bamboo house such as :

• Major roof repair/overhaul
• Installation of Elevator for CP friends to visit
• Accessible Bathroom
• Ground Treatment and Maintenance of Bamboo
• New fence and Caretaker residence
• Oven door and rocket-stove hot water system and bath installation
• Carer and Teacher Training

I can offer this space to families who would like to have a more “local” experience of Bali in our Bamboo Jungle Home…

With one big bedroom upstairs containing one double bed and 4 bunks, and a day-bed and bunk on the middle level for snorers (i guess), simple kitchen… we can actually sleep 9 people at a push… I can help coordinate support and care if necessary so families can stay and Carers can have their own time and take a break to go do something for themselves… like a yoga class, walking on the beach, a relaxing massage, exploring, leisurely shopping (shock-horror!), bike-riding, or even a retreat… A “Western” Supermarket (Soputan Fresh) is walking distance from the house where most “familiar” consumption items are available for purchase (even Vegemite).

I’m still working out a booking system and I want people to be able to pay what they can afford – but for now you can book via Airbnb Homestay