Listening with Nature: Relationships of Reciprocity
During Nature Play Week, Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange joins with the spirit of the work of Kids in Nature Network in recognising the importance of our reciprocal relationship with the natural world.
Nature invites more than time outdoors. It calls us into relationship. When children and adults spend time with earth, water, plants, wind and living creatures, we encounter a living world that invites curiosity, responsibility and attentiveness.
First Nations knowledges and ways of being remind us that we are not separate from nature, but part of it. Country is understood through relationships of reciprocity, where humans live within webs of interconnection and interdependence with all living things. There is much to learn from these perspectives, which invite us to listen more deeply to place and to the relationships that sustain life.
Loris Malaguzzi spoke of this complexity when he reflected that our earthly journey unfolds in connection with the world around us, describing life as part of “the great web of our lives,” where our knowing, culture, emotions and morality are intertwined with nature and the cosmos (Malaguzzi, 2021, p. 17).
We may reflect on:
- What does nature offer when time and space are given for lingering, noticing and wonder?
- What might nature be teaching us about reciprocity, curiosity and attentiveness to place as a site of learning?
- How are we listening to the ways children come to know the world through their relationships with place?
REAIE invites you to join us as we listen with curiosity to children’s deep connection to the planet and each other in our collective search for meaning.
Reference:
Malaguzzi, L. (2021). Design/progettazione in infant-toddler centres and preschools: Research open to wonder, between the possible, probable, and unpredictable (P. Cagliari, C. Giudici, N. Rinaldi, & V. Vecchi, Eds.; J. McCall, Trans.). Reggio Children.
Images provided by New Horizons Preschool.
