On 14 Sept, FEN took up the challenge presented by Prof. Lesley Hughes and her colleagues in their report on
ecosystem collapse in Australia by holding an online event on one of our most loved ecosystems,
The Great Barrier Reef. This is a crucial issue to be faced.
Two First Nations people from different parts of the Reef, Myree Sam, a Sui-Baydham woman from the Torres Strait, and Gudju Gudju Fourmile, a Gimuy Walibara Yidinji elder from the Cairns area shared deep knowledge of sustainable practices/protocols and connectedness to The Reef related to Land, Sea and Sky. We non-Indigenous people have so much to learn from them if we but open our minds, engage and listen.
We also heard from Dr Jon C. Day from the ARC Centre for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University. For many years he was involved in many aspects of planning and managing the Great Barrier Reef and spoke about the many challenges. In the breakout sessions which followed, this pertinent question was raised:
“Is there a sense that our loss of spiritual connection to the land, sea and sky has created what is affecting the Barrier Reef and the whole Earth? How can we help people regain that connection?” It was a key question which led to the next FEN event.
“Biodiversity is the story of the land (sea and sky) and it tells the story through time,” Jayden Walsh.
On Nov 10
th FEN conducted another online event which presented some of the positive restoration and conservation actions in which people are engaged. FEN member and Bundjalung woman,
Lisa Buxton helped us begin by acknowledging Country wherever we were.
It was significant that the President of the United Nations Association of Australia NSW Division,
Patricia Jenkings, opened the event because 2021 began the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, and the first part of the UN COP15 on Biodiversity had recently been concluded on Oct 15
th. (As an aside, while the UN COP26 on Climate Change justifiably received a lot of attention, the COP 15 and resultant
Kunming Statement hardly recieved any).
The input part of the program featured four people from the Northern Beaches of Sydney, a peri-urban area which has been particularly rich in biodiversity adjacent to national parks but impacted by expanding development, and another group from the Blue Mountains, a World Heritage area. They were:
Marita Macrae, long time active in bush regeneration;
Jayden Walsh, young self-taught naturalist;
Jessica Yuille, founder of the Brahma Kumaris twenty year Bushcare and more recent meditative garden projects;
Bill Thomas, volunteer in the Bahai’i Bushcare project, and
Anne Lanyon, a coordinator of the St Anthonys Terrey Hills Sacred Forest Landcare project. The videos may be viewed at
www.faithecology.net.au/ten_ways_event1 .
Participants then broke into 9 workshops to explore the following practical ways of restoring and protecting biodiversity:
Sharing Home with Pollinators and Pets with Sr Valda Dickensen, Catholic;
Native Bees with David Low, Jewish;
Reducing Meat Consumption with Vijai Singhal, Hindu;
Guardians of the Platypus Project with Sue Martin, Catholic;
Parish Bush Regeneration with Ann Ellis, Anglican;
Community Composting with Peta Cox, Quaker;
Forest Monasteries as Habitat for Rare and Endangered Plants and Animals with Ayya Yeshi, Buddhist;
Cleaning up a Creek with Nina Ajaj, Muslim; and
Learning from First Nations Peoples with Alison Overeem, Palawa woman from the Uniting Church.
Participants were impressed by the diversity of actions that many people are involved in. Marita and Jayden from no particular faith background were surprised to learn of these actions, surprised to learn about FEN, and encouraged by this in their own work.
Our goals for next year and into the future are to grow these actions in faith communities and to grow the dialogue and learning between the faith and the science communities. We encourage you all to be part of achieving these goals.
