Dr. Meg Handler, on Connecting people to Nature and each other through hands-on acts of growing and making
Dr. Meg Handler, Founder and Executive Director of The Human Nature Center
This month we turn to Educator, Ecological Designer, Founder and Director of The Human Nature Center Meg Handler, Ph.D to call us into the rich and dynamic world of ecology and towards a reclamation of our healing through collaborative relationships and knowledge of our surroundings. How can we create places and spaces both externally and internally that take an earth-first approach?
With his book Last Child in the Woods, the journalist Richard Louv, documented how within a generation, children's lives have largely moved indoors, with the loss of free‐ranging exploration of the nearby natural world, even as research indicates that direct experiences of nature in childhood contribute to care for nature across the life span.
As of 2009, 93% of teens and 77% of adults were online, according to a Pew Internet Project Report. Kids ages 8 to 18 spend an average of 7.5 hours a day, 7 days a week, plugged into computers, TV, video games, music, cells phones, etc. reported a Kaiser Family Foundation Study. **
E.O. Wilson, the renowned biologist, believes that we are hard wired with an innate affinity for nature, a hypothesis he calls biophilia. But research shows that if children do not have the opportunity to explore and develop that biophilia through nature during their early years, biphobia, an aversion to nature, may take its place.
Through the creation of The Human Nature Center, Handler is helping both youth and adults redefine their relationships to nature via approachable and accessible entry points, while also encouraging the recreation of the basic language we use to refer to ourselves, the Earth, and our relationship to the Earth.
Sources:
*https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2010/02/03/social-media-and-young-adults/
**https://www.kff.org/other/poll-finding/report-generation-m2-media-in-the-lives/
Name : Dr. Meg Handler
Title: Founder and Director of The Human Nature Center
What inspired you to create the Human Nature Center?
I imagined a kind of place that I'd want my daughter to have access to in our community. I felt called to create it. The awakenings that I've experienced outdoors and through nature mentorship starting as a teenager have given me a deep belief in the miraculous healing results of humans working in harmony with the living earth.
I've been inspired and taught by a wonderful array of people, places, and ideas including the nature mentoring culture of Jon Young & the 8 Shields along with Jodi Levine-Wright's Earthroots Field School. I've been deeply influenced by the teaching and writings of Martín Prechtel, by many years of participating in ancestral skills gatherings, and by my time working with Evan Marks and team at The Ecology Center.
Define Ecology:
To me, ecology is the art and science of interrelationships of all kinds on earth. I like the fact that the prefix "Eco" comes from the Greek word "oikos," which means, "house." It can also mean "village." Ecology is about tending, honoring, and knowing our place in the good relationships of this earth- our home and our village. I also want to say that "ecology" is a Western word to describe an understanding of the interconnection of all things that I believe all indigenous human beings - including all of our ancestors in all of their homelands- know.
What does ecological designer mean exactly?
An ecological designer, ideally, is someone who has drawn wisdom from extended observation of Nature's patterns and principles. He/she/they use this knowledge to plan and arrange places where all species can live and work in health and wholeness. In that sense, anyone can be an ecological designer, even in their own backyard!
The general U.S. based school curriculum and societal ethos teaches that we (humans) are apart from the natural world. This line of thinking has been to the detriment of our very existence and has accelerated the rate of climate change. How does the Human Nature Center bridge this gap and undo this line of thinking?
To start, we all should know about the basic elements that keep us alive: our water, food, shelter, medicines. We should know more about where they come from, what they're made of, and how they're made. The more we have knowledge about these things, the more we're able to choose more life-nourishing alternatives.
In this same vein, it's very important that everyone begin to grow, harvest, and tend healthy, natural materials and to use these things to grow our own food, make our own clothes, containers, you name it. This can start humbly with an act so small as planting a seed in a window or recognizing a nettle growing in a vacant lot. These activities will help us to re-weave our spirits back into harmony with our place in the cycles of life. That's why The Human Nature is focused on teaching and encouraging people to do these kinds of activities in ways that they can relate to, no matter what their lifestyle.
Finally, I hope we can change the basic language we use to refer to ourselves, to the Earth, and to our relationship among the Earth. This has to happen in books, classrooms, advertising, political rhetoric. Cherokee elder, Stan Rushworth, talks about the difference between a Western settler mindset of "I have rights" to an indigenous mindset of "I have obligations." I don't know exactly how this will happen, but I think it can start with individuals sharing stories that reveal the interconnectedness of all things. As we do this, we can begin to remember our place within Nature. My aim with The Human Nature Center is to get better at telling those stories and to tell them in a way that draws people in and helps them know they can do better. These stories have to be told not in a shaming way, but in a way that inspires hope and action.
The Human Nature Center has an earth-first approach to "help people of all ages reconnect with the basic cycles of life." It seems that part of the issue is that we need to rethink education and yet teachers across the country seem to be educated according to the status quo. Any advice on how we can go about retraining the educators themselves? What kinds of things should parents be pushing for in their children's education/schools offerings etc.?
They should be pushing for school gardens, outdoor spaces, and curriculum where children can take responsibility for the care of living things and become deep listeners to and observers of the cycles of life. Listening and observing are the essential survival skills out of which all others flow. I think that the pandemic has given more momentum to the outdoor classroom movement, and I hope that continues. At the same time, I think parents should also be pushing for curriculum and learning environments that teach peacemaking. Children need skills to listen to themselves, have discernment, communicate peacefully and make positive choices in a world that has an overwhelming and confusing amount of choices. We can't assume children are getting these skills at home. Finally, parents should be thinking of creative ways to be allies to teachers. Teachers have incredible demands and restrictions on them, while holding some of the most important roles in our society: raising and educating our next generation. Parents are the customers of schools. If they can take the time to ask and listen to what their kids' teachers need to do better, they can sometimes be more effective in convincing school administrators to make changes.
The Human Nature Center d.i.y. nature activity kits. Available for purchase here.
In terms of taking back our power... related to ecology specifically, what can individuals do?
Save seeds, plant them, make soil using your food scraps even if its in a tiny worm bin, think about what it took to make each thing you're about to buy on Amazon and consider whether you really need it, if there's a used version that will take no further energy to make, and use your money wisely.
Take a good look at your stuff and be a good gatekeeper of your threshhold. With every new thing you're about to bring in, ask three questions:
“Do I absolutely need this now?”
“What is this made of and how?”
“How long will this last, and where will this go when I'm finished with it?”
Use hand-me-down goods everywhere possible. At the same time, be willing to spend money at times on fewer, nicer things that are made by companies and people who are working to do good for the earth. We live in such an amazing time where you can go online and find the exact item, size, and color you want of something: pre-worn, and there are so many great designers and brands with awesome eco ethics. There's no reason to buy faceless junk anymore. It takes time and commitment to change, like any habit. But once you get going in this way, you'll start to love your home more and your life within it. You'll look around your house and start to see things you care about, that look and feel quality and beautiful. You'll be able to think straight because your home isn't filled with clutter that no one ever cared about.
You mentioned that, "people are hungry for connection." In your 20+ years of experience within the field of Ecology and getting people back to their Earth roots, what is the channel or medium you have witnessed being most effective in rekindling the human experience/connection with the Earth?
The most effective medium I've found in rekindling the human connection with the earth is growing and making useful, beautiful things with what the earth gives us and giving continual outspoken gratitude as we do so. That's what most of our ancestors have done through most of their days, and I feel that we have a need for that in our DNA. I think it's even more powerful when we can share these activities in the company of others.
Are there any differences in your approach with children versus adults?
Actually, very little. I think that the central parts of our work- making, growing, and eating things with each other, singing songs, playing games, staying positive, and trying to focus on the good we can do right here and right now- are essential ingredients to connection and healing for any age. I believe that as we age we grow more layers like trees and that every human being has some core elements of their child within them that so very deeply responds to these simple connective rhythms of nurturing.
Do you see or feel the incorporation of current social justice movements within the study of Ecology? If so, how do you feel The Human Nature Center fits into this?
If ecology is being taught or written about or practiced well, then, in my opinion, social justice is always part of it because for a healthy living system to exist, all living beings need to have access to what they need to thrive.
The concept of "ecology" as we study it in schools, originated with the ancient Greeks who studied natural history and the interrelationships between all things. It became a distinct academic field in the 1970s. As a lineage of Western science, the perspectives we study in ecology books and classes have roots in colonialism and Euro-centric worldviews just like the other institutions in our society that many of us are working to change. A number of leading practitioners in ecology and related fields are focused on social justice as a central part of human and world ecology, and there is still work to be done.
Right now, The Human Nature Center is trying to contribute experiences to people who are open, in making, growing, and doing something useful with their hands. The idea is to re-awaken that part in them that knows they have the power to shape their environment and their community in a positive way, however great or small.
What do you hope for the future of The Human Nature Center ?
Eventually, I would love to find a special land to tend and heal that will in turn tend and heal us. I hope to create an indoor-outdoor space where we can re-skill our communities with life-giving knowledge and support those who are giving their lives to keep the embers of this earth wisdom alive. I also envision this center as being a place for special community projects- itself being a place built of local earth, clay, water, stone, the love of human hearts, and the labor of hands that belong to the people who live here.
Image courtesy of The Human Nature Center
How can residents of Ventura County best support your business?
Communicate with us- tell us what you want and need to see here. Sign up for our classes or give them as gifts to people you love. Share what we're doing with a handful of friends who you think would be interested. Give a gift of any amount you can to our projects. We need your participation in order to thrive!
Any upcoming workshops/events/projects you are excited about and want to share with our community?
We just launched a blog that shares our journey over the last year transforming our home into a "Learning Yard," with activities and ideas to inspire family gardening and earthcraft at home. You can read more in the Journal section of our website. We're also excited that we're about to announce dates for our second year of Wild Craft Camp at home, a collaboration with Earthroots Field School in Orange County.
Bio:
Meg Handler is founder and executive director of The Human Nature Center in Ventura. She is an educator and designer who has dedicated the last 20 years to creating hand-on connective ecological experiences for people of all ages. Meg holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from M.I.T.
Photos from The Dream Tent Project Orange County, California. Image Courtesy of The Human Nature Center
“When we know and share the stories of the relationships humans are woven into on this earth, and when we tell those stories in a way that highlights the interconnectedness of all things, we begin to remember our place as part of Nature. ”