Glossary: ecological belonging

Glossary term: ecological belonging

Belonging is a practice that defies Othering. As living beings, we have an innate desire to belong. A felt sense of belonging awakens certain hormones that generate feelings of joy, togetherness, camaraderie, interconnectedness, power-with, and more. Ecological belonging reweaves what the spiritual teacher Thich Nhat Hanh called our interbeing with all of life. It emphasises our relationships with and reliance on all the known elements of the universe. We rely on space to support our bodies, on air to breath, on fire or the sun to warm us and photosynthesise plants and food sources, on water for survival, and on the earth as home and the ground that provides gravity and yields food sources. Indigenous wisdom never separates us from ecologies and ecosystems with which our lives are intertwined. Through the silencing and suppression of these knowledge and wisdom traditions, and the imposition of systems that separated the mind from the body, many of us lost our infusion with the elements and our understandings of the mycelial network. Ecological belonging changes dominant views of humans as the most powerful, intelligent species at the centre of the universe, and restores respect for the tremendous regenerative power of the cosmos. In many traditions, we are part of nature, each living creature following the same cycle of life with dignity, respect and gratitude for every aspect of nature that gives us life.

Ecological belonging maps our back to the deep-seated connections we share as part of nature.