Bodies and contexts are catalysts

I add to my previous “catalyst” reflection (see here), musings around a shared awareness: We think with our bodies.

What and how we think, are shaped by the conditions and experiences of our bodies. Of course, we have different bodies; we live in and with different conditions; we do not have access to the same opportunities. We also live in different contexts, among diverse bodies. Our contexts and our companions shape who we are, how we think, and what we do.

Our companions are not naïve, nor empty. They are mindful, and colorful. Our contexts too are not empty, as if they are waiting to be filled and populated.

We have seen the view that “context is empty” among the colonizers, who assumed that the cluster of islands now known as Australia were empty land – terra nullius. For the colonizer’s, the “big white lie” of terra nullius was justification for their claiming sovereignty over the land.

Terra nullius thinking was shared by some of the missionaries who saw the natives as uncivilized, unwise, and unworthy. There were exceptions, of course, but four missionary positions have been demeaning of native folx:

1. that native bodies were defiled and thus needed to be scrubbed and bleached;
2. that native heads were empty and thus needed to be filled with Christian teachings;
3. that native bodies and minds were wild and thus needed to be tamed and disciplined;
4. that natives were exotic, leading to the esteeming of “noble savages.”

The symptoms of terra nullius are alive today in society, and even in churches. At the head of those symptoms are supremacist views that debase and acts that discriminate. Hence, the critical questions for us are clear: How do we see the terra nullius symptoms around, and in, us? How do we see the elephant in the room? How do we realize when we are the elephants?

We can begin by changing the way we think about native / indigenous bodies and minds. They are catalysts that can help us think and act justly. Though conditioned by the abuse of their bodies and the pilfering of their contexts, so they have scars and limits, they also have wisdoms that could aid non-indigenous / non-native folx.

At the 2024 Pacific Islands Forum held in Tonga (in August), UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged “Pacific Island States to make your voices heard and heard loudly because the world needs your leadership.” The same invitation applies to First Nations in Australia, and the challenge for us in the UCA is to make this possible and normal.

We can go further and change the way we think of the land and of our contexts. They are not empty spaces to be filled or stolen but catalysts that, like our bodies, shape how we think and act.

The problem, though, is that climate change has made our contexts sick. While I do not know if and how we can heal our contexts, we can at least see and treat our contexts as catalysts.

We cannot live without our bodies, and we cannot live without our contexts – no matter how sick they are. But we can learn to embrace our bodies and our contexts as catalysts, for they can heal how we think and what we do. It is a matter of changing our perspectives.

As I begin in my role as “Mission catalyst: Stewardship of the Earth,” I will call out sickening cultures, and call for change. But change is not enough. We also need transformation.

Watch this space!

Our companions are not naïve, nor empty. They are mindful, and colorful. Our contexts too are not empty, as if they are waiting to be filled and populated.

For More Information

For more information from the Climate Action mission team.

CLIMATE ACTION MISSION TEAM