CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME
By Alice Cawardine, Care for our Common Home Project Officer.
To celebrate the beginning of the Season of Creation, Jesuit schools from across the country gathered to engage in activities and dialogue about how to best care for our common home.
The two-day event held both online and in-person involved students engaging in a bioregional bingo activity, the ‘Climate Fresk’, sharing across schools the work that their environmental groups do and planning for the future.
The conference was attended by students from years 7-11 from St Ignatius Riverview, St Ignatius Geelong, St Ignatius Athelstone, Xavier College Kew, St Aloysius Milsons Point and Xavier Catholic College Hervey Bay.
A student from St Ignatius Geelong reported that they were “fortunate enough to hear from schools who have participated in this conference in the past. [The schools] were able to share the initiatives they have run in their own school, which we have now taken away to look through. As a next step, we are currently planning our 2027 environmental development projects to implement here at the college. We look forward to working with other leadership groups through the college to provide the best outcomes for our bioregion and around the college community.”
Photo courtesy of Alice Cawardine.
Alice Carwardine, who is the Care for our Common Home project officer, will be heading to Hervey Bay in a few weeks to facilitate the ‘Climate Fresk’ experience with students.
“The Fresk learning experience is a great way for students to conceptualise integral ecology and the ‘poly-crises’ that our global society is facing. The process also helps to build student agency, so the work of school environmental or sustainability groups can continue to flourish and achieve their goals.”
Past participants who spoke during the conference about their school’s activities were proud of their efforts in starting containers for change cash deposit schemes at their schools. Many reported that friendly competition between houses was effective in getting the whole school involved.
The theme of the Season of Creation this year is ‘Living Water’ and so the conference included prayer and reflection on the sacredness of water.
The Care for our Common Home committee is excited to continue the tradition of this conference in future years.
Banner photo by Anvesh on Unsplash.
Photo courtesy of Alice Cawardine.