Exiting the eye of a storm, navigating from Northern star within, in â˛FiresideⲠseries 5, Jo Pollitt, Nancy Mauro-Flude and Leanda Mason share a glimpse into the Contemporary Ecofeminist Education (CEE) research project.
By wading through the legacies of ecofeminism, in conversation with ecofeminist philosopher Patsy Hallen, in South Yunderup, Western Australia, who led âEnvironmental Philosophy and Earth Educationâ communally designed bush schools at the end of last century. The prolific set of experiential research pedaogies delivered by Patsy Hallen in the context of Australiaâs first âEnvironmental Ethicsâ (1981) and âEcofeminismâ (1991) courses at Murdoch University included a number of exquisitely curated hefty course readers. In a bid to âsituate these interdisciplinary knowledges within the direct experiencing of a more-than-human worldâ (Hallen, 2000, p. 153) to accompany the extensive field.[1]
Currently in phase 2, CEE investigates, analyses and responds to these legacies, we seek to expand the syllabus to reflect contemporary concerns, including the explicit recognition of Southern Oceanic Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), as fundamental to the transdisciplinary research acts we perform in improvised webs of relation.
On these desolate shores where the shipwreck of the planetary catastrophe has cast us, we pick up the pieces of the wreckage and recover tote bags filled with pickles, plumbs, rummage through baskets of wands lovingly handcrafted from driftwood.
âBeing-there will allow subtle happenings that claim usâ Patsy Hallen (2000). Series 5 - 3.9.24 @17hrs 5pm AEST | 15hrs 3pm AWST | 08.00 CEST | 09.00hrs GMT+1 | or Your timezone here. To attend Register on a low-traffic announcement list. A video link is shared shortly before the â˛firesideⲠtalk commences via email.
The CEE Project is a contemporary syllabus for ecophilosophies of practice, addressing complex issues cooperatively, for intergenerational communities to learn, expand and build on. Besides cocreating a collaborative repository of open source content, nanocreds, and digital anchors (A/V, stills, scores, field notes) collected on a codesigned web-to-print archive). Together, we ask: What frameworks, theories and methodologies activate, support, hinder, reveal and/or erase?
Curiously, it is often the uncharismatic yet compelling elements of visceral philosophies that provide pathways to perceiving the multitude of wisdoms, intermediaries and clandestine actors that the researchers of CEE learn through, with and from.
Patsy Hallen states âAs a result of some work I did in ecofeminismâŚI received a grant from â a fairy godmother â who wished to remain anonymousâ. Guided by the communally designed bush school The Kurrabup Manifesto [1] implementing the âwish to encourage certain recognitions and remembrances: to own up to conflict, suffering and death, to recognize their role in the web of life, to challenge them when appropriate and to wisely negotiate them when not; and to remember the often erased histories of past generations (both human and non-human), to honour the lives that were often sacrificed to give us the present and to ensure that. these precious gifts are passed onâ(Hallen, 2000, p. 156).
[1^]The Kurrabup Manifesto (The Bush School, South Coast of Western Australia, May 1997)
We recognise that:
Patsy Hallen (2000) Ecofeminism Goes Bush, Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 5, Spring.