Join Susie O'Keeffe for an exploration of the four fundamental practices of the reciprocal relationship with the natural world. This is a hybrid event. Join us in person in the Mayer Room or online via Zoom. No registration required in person; register for Zoom here. This program is co-sponsored by the Hanover Conservation Commission and the Howe Library.

“We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live.”  Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweet Grass

 “Our job is not to clear up the mystery, it is to make the mystery clear..”  Robert Aitken

The Art of Reciprocity is based on the understanding that our sense of separation from what we call the natural world results from an artificial construct. It builds on the knowledge that the paradigm of separation handed down to us through Western European culture profoundly limits the development and expansion of human awareness, especially our ability to sense and respond to the energy and intelligence permeating all forms and forces of life, and is at the heart of humanity’s relentless destruction of the natural world.

Since 2009 Susie has been exploring how the practice of reciprocity offers a new foundation for how humans perceive and experience the larger life community, the role that wilderness, or “self-willed land” plays in this transformation, and the ways in which the reciprocal approach can replace practices of  management and control. 

Through image, poetry and prose Susie will introduce us to  the four fundamental practices of the reciprocal relationship—contact, consciousness, contemplation and creativity.  The presentation will briefly explore how indigenous scholars and cultures, environmental advocates, artists, philosophers and others articulate, advocate for and practice reciprocity, and will be followed by a lengthy discussion with the audience.
 

Susie O’Keeffe lives at the headwaters of the Sheepscot River in Maine and is a Research Associate at the College of the Atlantic. She holds a Master of Science degree with distinction in environmental management from Oxford University, England. She is fluent in French, and her professional experience ranges from comprehensive environmental policy planning to program creation and direction in the fields of local, organic agriculture and wildlife conservation. Susie is a member of the Leadership Council of Rewilding Earth, and she serves on the Board of Northeast Wilderness Trust. Her writing has appeared in Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture, the Maine Review, Naropa University’s Phylogeny, the Spoon River Poetry Review among others.