Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 332

PROGRAM DESCRI
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
ecohumanities, working critically and sympathetically with religious and spiritual traditions, to build cultures capable of enabling our effective openness and responsiveness to our animal, arboreal, oceanic, desert, river, soil and human neighbours. Drawing on ecophilosophical sources, Freya Mathews will consider educating desire as a foundation for ecological community. Norman Habel will address the challenge of ecological hermeneutics. Kate Rigby will speak about ecocritical studies in literature and religion, demonstrating this approach with her work on Augustan and Romantic poetry. Deborah Rose will present on the ecohumanities, animals and religion. Anne Elvey will chair.
Anne Elvey is a researcher and poet. Her current work in ecocriticism and biblical studies is supported by Melbourne College of Divinity and the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, Monash University. Author of 'An Ecological Feminist Reading of the Gospel of Luke: A Gestational Paradigm (Mellen 2005), Anne is now working on a book entitled 'The Matter of the Text. She is convenor of a cross-institutional, interdisciplinary ecotheology and ecospirituality research group based at Melbourne College of Divinity.
Freya Mathews has published widely in the field of ecological philosophy. Her books include 'The Ecological Self (Routledge, 1991). For Love of Matter: towards a Contemporary Panpsychism' (SUNY, 2003) and Reinhabiting Reality: towards a Recovery of Culture' (SUNY, 2005). Active in disseminating ecophilosophical ideas in the wider community. Freya's work focuses on ecological metaphysics, epistemology and ethics, philosophy of place and reinhabitation, and Indigenous thought, especially in the Indigenous traditions of Australia and China.
Norman Habel is currently professorial fellow at Flinders University. He initiated and edited the five-volume Earth Bible series and the more recent work "Exploring Ecological Hermeneutics'. He has been active in a range of social justice and eco-justice areas, including a school for Dalits and Tribals in Tamil Nadu. Initiator and promoter of The Season of Creation, a new season of the church, his writing includes children's books, songs, poetry and academic works. His most recent work is 'An Inconvenient Text: Is a Green Reading of the Bible Possible?".
Kate Rigby is Associate Professor in Comparative Literature at Monash University. She is a co-editor of PAN (Place Activism Nature) and has published widely in the areas of ecocriticism, ecophilosophy, and ecology and religion. Kate was the founding President of the Australia-New Zealand Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. Her most recent book is 'Topographies of the Sacred: The Poetics of Place in European Romanticism (University of Virginia Press, 2004).
Deborah Bird Rose is Professor of Social Inclusion at Macquarie University. Her work focuses on entwined social and ecological justice in this time of anthropogenic climate change and is based on her long-term research with Aboriginal people in Australia. Her books include 'Dingo Makes Us Human' ICambridge UP. 1992, 2000) and 'Reports from a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation (UNSW Press, 2004). Her recent work concerns extinctions and the moral imagination: Wild Dog Dreaming: Love and Extinction'.
Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding: The Case of Myanmar
U Nayaka
U Pu Nar Nanda
U Win Nyunt
Room 109
Panel Discussion
Often considered the longest ongoing war in recent history, Burma/Myanmar is continually in deep conflict between various ethnic groups and the government. Monks have become active participants in protests as well
328 PWR Parliament of the World's Religions
2:30-4:00pm ENGAGEMENT SESSION
as conflict resolution; in 2007, more than 10,000 monks marched through Mandalay against policies that are causing economic hardship. Phuang Daw Oo School was founded to offer education to poor children as a model of grassroots development by specifically targeting children from the poor (either rural or urban families) and orphans, as well as abused, neglected and abandoned children.
The Venerable Nayaka is the founder and principal of Phuang Daw Oo School, established in 1993. His educational background is in Buddhist literature and Chemistry, in which he holds a Bachelor of Science degree. U Pu Nar Nanda is a patron of Phuang Daw Do School and does management work for the school. He has studied Buddhist literature.
U Win Nyunt is the archivist and project coordinator at Phuang Daw Oo School. He holds degrees in husbandry and geology. He has taught at various schools as well as worked in seismology and gold extraction.
The Responsibility of the Mainstream for Reconciliation (Part 2)
Speakers to be announced
Room 110
While the words of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of 'Sorry Day' on June 11, 2007 moved Australia a step further on its journey of meaningful co-existence, the troubled legacy of the past it addressed still holds a powerful grip on Australian society. 'Reconciliation is often the term used to point to efforts to come to terms with the shared history of Aboriginal peoples with the once-immigrant and now majority populations which now make up mainstream Australian society. It is also the term used to describe the efforts to redress the debilitating conditions hindering Aboriginal communities. What is the ethical responsibility and potentially unique role of mainstream religious communities in Australia in furthering a process of reconciliation? How can it support the struggle of Aboriginal peoples for self-determination in non-paternalistic ways? How can it present new frameworks of mutual respect and collaboration? Hear from representatives of organisations and communities committed to reconciliation about what is happening, and more importantly, what is possible, as Australia strives to make the vision of 'Sorry Day' an everyday reality.
Environmental Issues Affecting
the Health of Indigenous Peoples Asayo Horibe, USA: Buddhist, Moderator Omie Baldwin, USA: Dine'
Lucy Mulenkei, Kenya: Maasai
Marcos Terena, Brazil: Terena Room 111
Panel Discussion
This program will address the environmental issues affecting the health of Indigenous peoples today. Factors of betrayal, big business and greed have contaminated and destroyed the water, foliage and soil integrity of lands