Relationship with Nature; Unlearning and Learning at the Intersection of Theory and Practice with Nadine Canter Barnicle

Join us in conversation with Nadine Canter Barnicle, a professor of the practice and community engagement specialist at Middlebury College in VT as we discuss deepening our relationship with nature by approaching sustainability from the roots through unlearning and re-learning. At Middlebury College students may choose a course of study that goes beyond the traditional academic. Through community-connected learning and a study of the dominant ontologies (the study of the nature of being) rooted in our 10,000+ year history of agriculture, students who take coursework as part of the “The New Perennials Project” find themselves exploring what it is to be perennial by re-considering the practices that created civilization and culture. Through a perennial focus on education and the ideas of learning and unlearning students put ideas into practice working with practitioners in the Champlain Valley of Vermont from the Creative Arts, Healing Arts, Education, Food/Ag Systems, and Sacred Practices spheres. Through their inter-being projects and classroom contemplative practices rooted in re-connection and embodiment, New Perennials students are called upon to develop deep and personal spiritual knowings with the natural world. Nadine is part of a 3-person team teaching and establishing the New Perennials Hub of the Champlain Valley. The New Perennials Project was founded by Bill Vitek and his colleagues at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, founded by Wes Jackson.In her teleseminar, she’ll tell us about this initiative and unfold for us the story of her own journey as a sustainability practitioner.About NadineDuring her decades working in the government and non-profit sectors while also teaching in higher ed, Nadine recognized: “we can’t correct climate change or our industrial agriculture practices, or the lifestyles we are beholden to and sick from if we continue to live a material existence that comes from being trapped in our heads.” As Yuval Harari states, ‘we have imagined our planet into its current form.’ By making the invisible visible, her work focuses on the hope that humans can learn from “our kin in the forests, in the estuary, and on the plains that if we stop, listen, and open our hearts we can re-imagine our way to a life of reciprocity and mutuality and all beings can flourish.”Nadine has a 30-year career in strategic community engagement, journalism, advising, mentoring, facilitation, and teaching that began with a master's degree thesis focused on the collaborative community process to protect river segments under the Federal Wild and Scenic River Act. Much of Nadine's work focuses on strategic coalition-building in the areas of land use, transportation, air quality, conservation, and climate change. She is a student and teacher of contemplative practices including Tai Chi. Her roots are in New England including 23 years in Vermont, but she also calls the Pacific Northwest home.She describes herself as a “pattern hunter” who has sometimes felt as if living “in the shadows of Sisyphus and Cassandra” (Greek heroes given impossible tasks and the gift of prophecy no one believes) while working within systems of government and non-profits.She says these lines from Denise Levertov’s poem “Sojourns in the Parallel World” describe her life’s journey:“A world parallel to our own though overlapping. We call it ‘Nature’; only reluctantly admitting to ourselves to be “Nature” too.”To learn more about Nadine and her work please visit her website at http://www.wooddragonadvising.org/ or New Perennials at http://www.newperennials.org/Support the show