Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit, suggests our goal should not be to create a future world we want to live in, but be participatory in the world we now live in. She speaks of “the shift from institutional power, to the power of consciousness and enactments of daily life…that hope is no longer fixed on the future: it becomes the electrifying force in the present.”
This approach aligns with the journey we have been on as a School community, sensing into and enacting the Learning and living Together with Climate Change narrative that was collaboratively devised as a guiding vision for 2024.
The importance of providing a guiding narrative for addressing climate change as a community is reflected in the statement, “so that we can meet the global climate crisis with confidence, gratitude, humility and empowerment”.
So how have we aligned with and grown into this guiding narrative over the year? Here are some of our School community actions linked to the 4 elements highlighted in the vision statement.
1. “We work practically and creatively for achievable actions”
2. “We hope to inspire positive change within our School and the wider community, reducing waste, sharing resources and strengthening connection”
In term 2 we focussed on threading connection and celebration through our sustainability actions, leaning into beauty and friendship that carry us through challenging circumstances. Actions included:
3. “We are stronger together when we move toward change with the reflection and participation of many voices”.
In term 3 our focus was “stronger together”.
4. “Goals and decisions are made in the presence of our children’s futures and all life, while honouring the place where we live.”
Learning and Living Together with Climate Change is embedded in everyday learning at Kindlehill.
At our start of term 4 meeting, I asked College teachers to share what they were doing in their classes this term that was reflective of this lofty goal. It was delightful to hear how swiftly and diligently each could contextualise it in their specific class.
This conversation began with the sparkle in Kindy Kirsty’s eyes when she shared that the new lake walkway is open, that she would be taking the kindy children to the lake to make friends with ducks and dragonflies.
S’haila in her signature enthusiasm for adventure, shared how Class 1 – 2 children would each create and share, an activity/adventure that is connected to a local element of our environment.
Lesley’s class conducted bird observations on our site and made nesting boxes.
John’s class headed to Wangat Camp amidst beautiful forests and creeks in the Barrington’s. Later in the term, they camped at to Crowdy Bay for beach environment connection.
In High School, developing this love for nature, a relationship that leads to caring for our environment, evolves into a more conscious understanding that we live in and with place. As we did the science around swamps and the water cycle, we came to understand how we can be part of addressing the impacts of climate change by the choices we make and the actions we take in our local place.
To finish the year, there was a burst of School community initiatives to help the Senior Students’ campaign to reach its fundraising goal of $80,000, in support of Katoomba cafes converting to a milk system that reduce plastic by 80%. We also invited families to participate in Connect to Protect. This was a community event at Govett’s Leap, where the senior school team collaborated with Dharug elders and Consoc, in celebrating our connection with Blue Mountains waterways and in taking some practical actions to end the contamination of headwaters to the Grose River, by the abandoned Canyon Colliery.
Restoring Balance
Across the School is the lived sense that beauty in-spires, beauty en-courages. When we breathe in beauty, we feel ourselves within the cycles and flourish of nature. In taking just a moment each day to listen to the voices of blue gum and currawong, cicada and scribbly gum, we are grounded in place and lifting within us the courage to face again and again the difficulties that are seemingly ever present.
May we all become “the ones nature has been waiting for”, courageous voices for protection and restoration, lives lived in ways that are good for the planet and the human family. May we in-spire and en-courage others along the way.
“When you are taking action for climate, it’s not for climate change it’s for you. It’s for your family, it’s for everything you love, everyone you love, every place that you love – that why you’re doing it. What is climate change, at its core, other than a failure to love?”
Katherine Hayhoe, climate scientist.
For a peaceful planet, on behalf of the Climate Action Visioning Group
Vision Day 2023 where the Climate Change narrative was initially devised
