Image above: Me on the good yacht Mary Frances on the way to count seabirds, coconut crabs and photograph the stunningly beautiful, unpeopled Suwarrow Atoll – Cook Islands, South Pacific in 2000.
“Grace happens when we act with others on behalf of our world.”
Joanna Macy, ecophilosopher
I’ve long been interested in how creative practices can help us reconnect to the wider nonhuman world that Western modern culture has become so alienated from.
In 2000, immediately after completing my undergraduate degree in Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, and informed with my work for the environmental NGO Crann – that promotes native tree planting in Ireland, and my earlier career in research science in Aotearoa New Zealand, I was invited to count and photograph seabirds who breed on unpeopled atolls in the South Pacific, in the Cook Islands. These special atolls, are sadly threatened by rising seas and increasing ocean acidification due to modern societies’ unsustainable way of living.
Reflecting on that journey much later, and the interconnectedness of life on this planet, gave me insight that my creative-practical efforts to learn about ecological forestry in Ireland, could be one small action, to counter rising, seas elsewhere.
I’ve since wanted to share how creative practices work have social power to translate environmental knowledge relevant to our communities and diverse places. Sharing Haumea ecoliteracy is my contribution for the cultural shift that welcomes a necessary life-sustaining ecological era.
Thanks for joining me!
