In the incomparable words of Potawatomi author, Robin Wall Kimmerer, “To love a place is not enough. We must find ways to heal it.” But to heal it, we must first know it. We must recognize all of its intricacies and nuances. The Nature = series aims to do just that through inspiring dialogue and moving the community toward action, so we can collectively heal ourselves and the planet.
Nature lies at the nexus of the change we hope to see in the world. As funders and advocates focused on nature, we often delineate outcomes related to time spent outdoors, environmental education, and environmental literacy. Yet, these are all intertwined – and each is essential to achieving outcomes related to food, equity and justice, physical and mental health, housing, money, sustainable communities, thriving people, and more. Nature is the connective tissue by which we can impact a range of critical issues.
We’ll showcase inspiring examples of these intersections by lifting up the voices of movement leaders, youth, researchers, and funders, and centering the voices of marginalized peoples and communities of color. We’ll highlight the many ways nature is intersectional with race, background, privilege, geography, and the systems in which society operates to the benefit of some and to the harm of most.
Finally, we’ll take this collective knowledge and move our community toward action. Nature = participants will be better resourced to guide trustees and potential collaborators funding in allied spaces to understand how investing in nature is a vital and holistic means for achieving their equity, health, and education goals. Attendees will unpack historic inequities in access and “ownership” of the outdoors, understand a fuller range of how communities choose to “be in nature,” and go forth to activate vital connections between nature and key aspects of their own communities.
Again, we can’t say it any better than Robin Wall Kimmerer: “Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond.”
Why Nature?
Before Blue Sky launched the Rethink Outside™ shared narrative, research was done to determine what words folks did or not find alignment with. The word “nature” painted a picture of a faraway place only accessible to able-bodied, white, privileged people who could travel to pristine wilderness areas to backpack, camp, fish, and other commonly shown ways of exploring outside. While those are some ways of being in nature, it doesn’t show the full picture.
Nature is also backyard barbeques, the local swimming pool, playing cards in a public park, documentaries and art, looking at the sky through your window, your morning walk to work, and more. “Nature” includes the outside places right outside our doors – those most likely to improve the lives of low-income, differently abled, and other communities with fewer resources.
In fact, nature includes us. Humans are an inextricable part of nature, and that fallacy that we are not is the root of so much degradation and suffering. For us, it is vital to reclaim this word. Belonging to nature is the legacy of our ancestors who found solace and sovereignty there.
We hope you’ll join us on this journey to reclaim the word nature so we can collectively heal people and the planet. Subscribe to our mailing list to register for upcoming Nature = webinars and see our events page for recordings of past conversations.