World Water Day 2023 – ‘Your totem is platypus’
Abstract
The theme for World Water Day this year is “accelerating change.” Be the Change you want to see in the world” - Rapid, transformative change is needed and everyone can play their part. Every action – no matter how small – will make a difference.” I am reflecting that to be courageous change makers we need to value those who help or accompany us as we care for Sister Water. Accompanying is a beautiful way of ensuring change happens. “When we accompany others through their challenges and struggles it is more than just “being with” others, it is about deeply listening (dadirri), supporting and helping to discern how the Creator is working in our lives.” Pope Francis. It is an art to be an accompanier as Bill Huebsch describes in his booklet “The Art of Accompaniment”.
The joy from being accompanied as we make change for Sister Water.
We can all be accompanists to help make change happen.
On this 2023 World Water Day I reflect on those who have accompanied me to better care for my local waterways. Amazingly Bluey the platypus is one. I was fortunate to meet Bluey one January evening this year. My friend Karen is another who accompanies me. Karen lives near me and is a First Nations woman leading an amazing First Nations program within a local Catholic high school and who accompanies me as we seek reconciliation for the hurts colonisation has brought out First Nation communities across Australia. Locally we have initiated Hills Yarning and Karen and I are currently working to increase access to social housing for First Nation people in our community. It is a long road.
While chatting with Karen one Sunday afternoon she was sharing some wisdom on totems with a colleague and she turned to me and said, “your totem is the platypus”.
For Karen to identify my totem as the platypus is special, a blessing to embrace, and something to ponder upon. A totem is a natural object, plant or animal that is inherited by members of a clan or family as their spiritual emblem. Totems define peoples' roles and responsibilities, and their relationships with each other and creation.
I am a passionate advocate for the conservation of our platypus community in my local waterways within Cattai and Little Cattai catchments (or watersheds). We must care for creation as the apostolic preference calls on us and our local waterways are very stressed. The platypus is a shy nocturnal species hard to see and so hard to protect as knowledge of their presence in our local waterways had been forgotten. Platypus, (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), a small amphibious Australian mammal noted for its odd combination of primitive features and special daptations, especially the flat, almost comical bill that early observers thought was that of a duck sewn onto the body of a mammal.
Our local Landcare group has been undertaking eDNA testing to prove the presence of platypus in our waterways. This has been enabled by volunteer Landcarers and the amazing support of Dr Michelle Ryan at Western Sydney University. In 2023 our conservation work moved to the next step, the capture and release of platypus to understand the health and prevalence across our highly urbanised creek systems. I was part of the monitoring endeavours and in January 2023 we captured our first platypus, who we named Bluey. My connection to our local waterways has been amplified.
Bluey and the photo I took with Dr Michelle Ryan made the front page of our local paper. I now refer to myself as Mrs Platypus and share the awe and joy of being part of this caring for Country endeavour widely.
Understanding how Bluey is accompanying is to accept we are interconnected with all. Bluey gives me grace to grow as an integral ecologist, someone who can accompany those on the margins, as we listen to the cry of the indigenous and the cry of the earth.
My work growing the Being with God in Nature ministry in Australia has enabled me to undertake walking retreats along our local creeks including the one where Bluey lives. Recently our JesuitIgnatian Spirituality Australia JISA ministry took people out on Country in Ku-ring-gai National Park. Listening deeply to Sister Water is part of our nature prayer walk.
Growing in my mission to connect with Sister Water it gives me joy helping bring to life RAOEN the ecclesial network spanning the lands of Asia and Oceania. linking via the River Above the weather, ocean, land, and life. RAOEN stands for River Above Oceania & Asia Ecclesial Network and has Pedro Walpole SJ as the network catalyst.
The word “water” is cited forty-seven times in ‘Laudato Si’. This demonstrates the great value and concern Pope Francis places on water as a sacred and essential part of life. In 2020 on World Water Day our Church shared the reflection ‘Aquafons vitae’. Orientations on Water’. Recently the Statement on the Oceans from the FCBCO Suva Assembly 2023 stated “The unique face of Oceania has called us together for deeper ecological conversion and to respond from the heart. Embracing the teaching of Laudato Si’ and the challenge of integral ecology, we recognise that our economic systems need to be in balance with the pulse of life. We are hearing the cry of theland and water, we are hearing the cry of the poor, we are hearing the cry of the ocean.”
We in Oceania and Asia are moving from La Nina to El Nina which will cause much disruption in the years to come across our communities. Can I be an accompanist as we "enlarge the space of your tent" (Isaiah 54:2) and explore the synodal way of proceeding, to be the change we need to see in our Church.
It brings me great joy to accompany the 2023 Integral Ecology fellows that are the change makers of the future. This year we have one funded Jesuit position in the Mercy Integral Ecology program and my role accompanying as a mentor is, I hope, the beginning of a bigger Jesuit program of accompaniment.
Who gives you joy to accompany, as together we be the change we want to see in the world?
This World Water Day I hope we can find some time to visit our local waterways, to discern and value those who are accompanying us as we connect with Sister Water.
A suggestion for your Examen practice today from HealingEarth Jesuit Examen that focuses on water.
Take a moment to calm yourself. Become aware of your breathing as we remember that we are in the presence of God. Ask the Holy Spirit to be with you in this Examen.
Recall the ways that water nourishes you and supports your life. Where in your life do you feel grateful to God for the gift of water?Review the events of this day, starting with when you woke up this morning. When have you used water today? For drinking or eating? For washing?
When have you wasted water today or when could you have used water in better ways?
When did you take water for granted?
Ask for forgiveness from God for your shortcomings.
How could you use water better in the future? Ask for the strength and knowledge to use water in ways that praise, reverence, and glorify God above all else.
Close with the Ignatian prayer of generosity: “Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve. To give and not to count the costs. To fight and not to heed the wounds. To toil and not to seek for rest. To labour and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that I do your will.
St. Ignatius, pray for us.”
‘Creation is of the order of love. God’s love is the fundamental moving force in all created things.’
Pope Francis, Laudato Si, 2015, n.77
Disclaimer
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the article belong solely to the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinion or views of the Secretariat.
