Santa Barbara Permaculture Network celebrates its fifth Annual Eco Hero Award, this time honoring Natural Building pioneers Bill & Athena Steen of the Canelo Project, & Roxanne Swentzell of the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute, joining us in person on Sunday, March 23, 2025. All three hail from the American Southwest, they are authors, natural builders, & acclaimed artists, each one devoted to the beauty of the land, with a commitment to building with care of the earth as a priority.
Bill & Athena Steen founded the Canelo Project in Elgin, Arizona, defining their priorities as “sustainability and cross cultural relations”. After building a straw bale home for their family in the late 1980’s, they began conducting workshops in southern Arizona, Mexico, and later around the world, sharing their skill and knowledge on how to build sustainably and affordably, using only earth, clay, sand & straw, materials all found easily in nature.
Their work in large part has been inspired by Athena’s heritage, growing up surrounded by clay artists & builders on the Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico. Also growing up in the southwest, Bill as a professional photographer was keen to capture the beauty of their surroundings, and the numerous projects they were creating. Together they coauthored many natural building books including The Straw Bale House; Beautiful Straw Bale; The Small Straw Bale House, and The Canelo Project. A family affair, their sons Kalin & Benito document the Canelo projects with a video series called the Nito Project.
Roxanne Swentzell is a world renowned sculptor, ceramic artist, indigenous food activist, and the founder of the Flowering Tree Permaculture Institute. In 1986 Roxanne returned with her two small children to live on the Santa Clara Pueblo in the high desert of New Mexico, building a straw bale house where the family created a lush food forest in its enclosed earthen walls. New to permaculture in those early days, she adopted some of its best design techniques that were culturally appropriate. Later with community members she embarked on an experimental journey of eating only foods available to their ancestors before the Spanish arrived in 1540. This experiment led to a marked decrease in diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure with those participating. To complement the experiment Roxanne coauthored The Pueblo Food Experience Cookbook: Whole Food of Our Ancestors. Today the Flowering Tree Institute has eight sites, including seed banks and intern residences and farms where workshops are held. Roxanne’s artwork is displayed in museums and galleries worldwide, also at her own gallery, The Roxanne Swentzell Tower Gallery, located at the Pojoaque Pueblo Poeh Cultural Center north of Santa Fe.
How we continue to build will affect the chances of survival for our grandchildren. Modern buildings are often toxic to both the builders & the inhabitants, with many becoming chemically sensitive to products used. Natural building, with materials like clay, straw, wood & stone are not only non-toxic, they are life enhancing, and if designed correctly, conserve heat & energy. Natural building has joined the modern age with beautiful and functional structures, that are also less likely to burn in wildfires.
Please join us for a very special evening with Bill, Athena & Roxanne in person, with time for conversation and questions about Natural Building. What is it? Why did it become their passion & lifework? How is it different from Green Building? What do they see as the future of natural building, especially for young people looking for a meaningful lifepath & career.
The Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Eco Hero Award honors those individuals who have committed themselves to work in service of the planet and its inhabitants for more than thirty years, with actual solutions and concrete ways forward that benefit many, often on a global scale.
Past recipients of the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network Eco Hero Award include John D. Liu; Paul Stamets & Louie Schwartzberg; John & Nancy Jack Todd, & Albert Bates. We are honored to have Bill & Athena Steen, and Roxanne Swentzell as the recipients for the 2025 Eco Hero Award. A reception follows in the Lobero courtyard for all ticket holders.
Cosponsors:
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, Blue Sky Biochar, Bamboo DNA, Buena Onda, Teeccino, AH Juice, Community Environmental Council, SBCC Environmental Horticulture, Explore Ecology, Regenerative Landscape Alliance, Island Seed & Feed, Orella Ranch-Gaviota Givings, Santa Barbara Aquaponics, Sustainable World Radio, Santa Barbara Agriculture & Farm Foundation, Paradise Found, Quail Springs Permaculture, HourBooks, Mesa Harmony Garden, Rincon-Vitova Insectaries, Building Health Matters, Central Coast Building Council, Voice Magazine & the Santa Barbara Independent.
