Abstract
The Catholic Church is slowly reckoning with its painful history of atrocities toward indigenous peoples, which Pope Francis named “cultural genocide.” Yet for students at the Catholic college in Minnesota where I teach, Native American wisdom blends with Catholic social thought to foster something important and healing: environmental learning and on-campus sustainability. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer writes of “…the responsibility that flows between humans and the earth….We are bound in a covenant of reciprocity, a pact of mutual responsibility to sustain those who sustain us.” Diane Wilson, in The Seed Keeper, composes a sister-text to Kimmerer’s: “We all depend on each other to survive. The plants we gather give their lives; the deer gives its life….You have to be respectful, knowing that a plant’s or animal’s life is a gift that allows us to live.” Similar ideas are refracted through a Christian lens in Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ where he argues that the language of Genesis “implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature….everything is interconnected, and…genuine care for our own lives and our relationship with nature is inseparable from fraternity, justice and faithfulness to others.” This paper analyzes the way these shared ideas are taught in our sustainability minor and enacted in real-world student-led projects that decrease the university’s environmental footprint and increase sustainable practices at all levels, including building projects, water use, recycling efforts, and pollinator plantings. It also explores how the approach from the school’s religious positioning protects these initiatives.
Presenters
Catherine Craft FairchildProfessor, English, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Education, Assessment and Policy
KEYWORDS
Indigenous Wisdom, Catholic Social Thought, Environmental Education, Sustainability Practices
