5.4 Forum English

Written by Sharanya DG 

Place-conscious Practices: Understanding Ecological Consciousness through Lakota Wakan

Cathie English | Missouri State University

Publication: Volume 5 Issue 4

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Excerpt | For thirty years, I have studied place and what it means to live in a specific locale. I have learned that to sustain a locale economically, culturally, and spiritually, I also needed to work toward understanding an ecological sustainability. I have to understand an ecosystem; I have to become ecologically conscious. Human beings cannot live consciously or conscientiously in a place without understanding the impact our lives have upon other species in a delicate ecosystem. Without fully understanding why, I began by first investigating a spiritual connection to the land, something poet and writer, Kathleen Norris described as a “spiritual geography.” Conceptualizing a spiritual geography led me to Lakota mythology.

Key words | Ecological Consciousness, Lakota Mythology, Spiritual Geography, Wakan, Grammar of Animacy, Colonization, Soul Work, Pedagogy, Emmanuel Levinas, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Henry David Thoreau

Cathie English (cathieenglish@missouristate.edu) is Professor of English at Missouri State University, USA. She teaches undergraduate and graduate English education courses after a twenty-two year career in secondary English education. Her research focuses upon place conscious education with an emphasis on ecology, indigenous myth and spirituality, community literacy, teacher leadership, and composition theory and practice.

MLA Citation for this Article:

English, Cathie. “Place-conscious Practices: Understanding Ecological Consciousness through Lakota Wakan.” Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies, vol. 5, no. 4, 11 Oct. 2023, pp. 1.19–1.26, http://ellids.com/archives/2023/10/5.4-Forum-English.pdf