“Invest in the Millennium:” Reimagining Partnerships with Nature in the Long Now
Keywords:
ecopedagogy, holistic education, poetic inquiry, life writing, CommunityAbstract
In this chapter, we consider how we might enter into Partnership with Nature in “The Long Now”[1] — as an ethical, relational and careful (Donald, 2016), response to the often fight/flight/freeze/finance-inducing narratives of our current times of ecological crisis (Macy, 2014; Latremouille, 2020) and profound change. With this in mind, we consider what it might mean to “think like an ecosystem” (Bringhurst, 2018, p. 31) in partnership with nature, in layered, recursive, complex, dialogical, spiralling, emergent and nourishing interdependent relationships.
We incorporate autobiographical life writing (Hasebe-Ludt, Chambers & Leggo, 2009) and dialogue woven with poetic interludes and interpretive asides, as we contemplate how “each generation bears responsibility for upholding principles of justice, fairness, openness and hope in its own time, not for the past, nor for the future but for today” (Smith, 2016, p. xviii). As two teachers living in Western Canada who recognize that this “responsibility may fall in unique ways on the shoulders of educators” (p. xviii), we seek to nurture holistic communities of hope around possibilities for partnering with the natural world, oriented around and towards a “sustainable, just, and peaceful society in harmony with the Earth and its life” (Gang, 1990, p. 1). Through various creative and holistic educational projects— such as a youth beekeeping club, seed saving for a changing climate, guerrilla gardening, planting 1000 Bristlecone Pine trees that may live 1000 years, and a community-driven Master Gardener Course— we describe and reflect on some ways in which humans may partner with nature to “invest in the millennium” (Berry, 1991, p. 1). The design and vision for these initiatives incorporate pedagogical principles and processes that invite others to re-imagine holistic teaching as a partnership with Nature for “The Long Now.”
[1] “The Long Now,” defined as the last 10,000 years, and the next 10,000 years, is inspired by The Long Now Foundation (2019).
