Shimmer: "A Process of Encounter and Transformation, Not Absorption, in Which Different Ways of Being and Doing Find Interesting Things to Do Together"

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: A Critical Cartography of Theory in Environmental Education: Lines, Knots, and Knotting

Abstract

Shimmer: “a process of encounter and transformation, not absorption, in which different ways of being and doing find interesting things to do together” (Rose, 2017, p. G51). This presentation shimmers. Shimmering stimulates the sensorial emotions. Shimmering with light dancing on water, shimmering with stars encountering the deepening cosmos. Shimmering as the flux of energy flowing through systems, vibrations, cells and molecules pulsating through cycles in ancestorial stories. Knotting in with the ideas of Deborah Bird Rose, having just learned of her recent passing, we embrace the Yolngu concept of bir’yan (shimmering) to highlight and encourage an awareness of the fragile state of our Earth within the Anthropocene, particularly the ever-increasing cascade of the extinction of species. The presentation embraces the multidisciplinary nature of shimmer. In enacting a mapping of theory, we walked and shimmered with Deborah Bird Rose, a dazzling allure that embraces us. This Shimmering transcended “evoke[d] or capture[d] feelings and responses” (Rose, 2017).

Authors

• Karen Malone, Swinburne University of Technology

• Marianne Ruth Logan, Southern Cross University

• Lisa Siegel, Southern Cross University

• Julie Regalado, University of Western, Sydney

• Bronwen Jane Wade-Leeuwen, The University of Sydney