In 2022 I was invited to attend the week long residential at the Pari Centre, Italy, as a guest facilitator. The sessions and invited speakers explored ideas related to The Enchanted Universe.
David Peat, founder of the Pari Centre, ‘compared Pari to an alchemical vessel - a place where transformation can come about - as well as an opportunity to pause for a moment and re-assess one’s life.
My session, ‘The Body, Nature and Dialogue’, introduced participants to aspects of my PhD research.
This work explores the language and narratives of ecological identity – what an ecological identity is; how an ecological identity is formed; and how expanding one’s sense of self to include the ecological could be of benefit, or bring about change to the individual, organisations or society. The work seeks to reveal emergent positive discourse on ecological identity; a language that can counter the dominant language and narrative of technology and the machine in relation to our human identity and ecological sense of self. Words such as reciprocity, gratitude and gift: from the very nature of the things they are describing, require an embodied, creative experience to truly understand their meaning. Experiencing language in an embodied sense supports the transformation towards something; a language that is both nurturing and activating; that can reconnect us to the web of life, and our interdependent relationship with nature and each other.
In addition to this workshop I also ran a constructed poem workshop for participants to spend some time in peaceful, creative practice.
