Origin Story

The idea of the Mycelium emerged from Tarni Tarnanthi, Rising Tide’s Tarndanya/Adelaide Hub. In their proposal they said:

‘Our goal is to contribute to the health and resilience of the entire movement ecosystem in SA, as well as building the capacity of South Australian Tiders. We propose to do this by collaborating with others to build the movement infrastructure through which skills, experience, knowledge and relationships (as well as physical resources) can be exchanged throughout the wider movement ecosystem.’

The metaphor we used to conceptualise what this would look like in practice was that of a Mycelium. So, from this spore (to use mycelium analogy), we grew some hyphae and developed fairy rings of mushrooms (our teams) and reached out to surrounding trees and greenery (our movement ecosystem) to provide them with nutrients (action support, skills and knowledge) so that they may grow the movement even further. And that is how we became Mycelium: Action Infrastructure.

In building our capacity and that of activists around us, we also drew on the work of other organisations. Of these, Peaceful Purpose Training (PPT) Inc provided us with access to their website and invited us to take on the project of providing legal information to activists and organisers. PPT is owned by Extinction Rebellion SA and operates to provide insurance for room hire in Tarndanya/Adelaide, a service which it extends to other activist organisations.

We are indebted to both Tarni Tarnanthi and PPT for both the work they continue to do in building movement capacity and their ongoing support.