Re-Enchanting Creativity with Haumea Ecoversity at NCAD's 'Becoming Terrestrial' Conference Next Week

7 years of a rather odd post-doctoral adventure comes home to my art college — thank you for carrying it with me

Dear Reader,
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In my last newsletter, I shared the launch of Dúchas at IMMA — a book that highlights that a new eco-cultural story is being born for Ireland. This week, I have another kind of homecoming to share.
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Next Tuesday and Wednesday, 3–4 November, I'll be back at the National College of Art and Design Ireland (NCAD) — where I completed my eco-social art practice PhD in 2018 — to present the near-seven-year story of Haumea Ecoversity at 'Becoming Terrestrial: Sites of Reworlding in Creative & Cultural Institutions', a special two-day international conference organised by NCAD's FIELD art and ecology team.
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It feels deeply meaningful to share this work at NCAD, in the very college where 'The Ecological Turn' began as one troublesome, forest-dwelling PhD. My talk is titled:

And it opens with the heart of the story:

About the conference — and why it matters

Becoming Terrestrial gathers contributors from art, design, education and environmental thought to explore how outdoor ecological learning sites — connected to museums, cultural institutions, schools, community spaces and third-level campuses — can help our institutions reworld, think otherwise and work towards liveable futures.
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The conference is inspired by NCAD FIELD, the ecological learning site at the heart of the College's inner-city campus since 2020, with invited contributions from Dar Jacir (Bethlehem), Kafkárna (Prague) and tranzit.ro (Romania).
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​I'm delighted that my friend and Haumea member Philip Ryan will be presenting, along with many others I admire fostering eco-cultural work.
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A huge Comhghairdeas — congratulations to Seoidín O'Sullivan and Gareth Kennedy of NCAD's FIELD art and ecology programmes for organising this important international event.
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While it's an academic creative practice education conference, the organisers have shared that it is open to everyone — and warmly so. If you are an artist, educator, curator, researcher, student or changemaker curious about how creativity can re-world our institutions, you will be among friends.

Honouring Dr Paul O'Brien, NCAD Associate Fellow

Presenting at NCAD also feels like an important moment to honour my teacher, Dr Paul O'Brien — an NCAD Associate Research Fellow.

Back in the early 1990s, when art and ecology endeavours on the margins of the contemporary art world were indicating an urgent need for a holistic paradigm shift in education, Paul was already writing presciently about it. He supported me through my BA, my MA, and finally my PhD, and he was my theory supervisor for my creative practice-based PhD The Ecological Turn: Living Well with Forests

To Articulate Eco-Social Art Practices

Using a Guattari Ecosophy and Action Research Framework. His insights, ecological, economic, and political in the small, committed Art & Ecology MA reading groups he led were truly foundational to everything that followed. So much of what I'll be presenting, this rather odd, independent post-doctoral adventure, traces back to his encouragement and scholarship.

And Paul's contributions reach well beyond ecology. His later book on Universal Basic Income: Pennies from Heaven (2017) has been consequential for the entire Irish creative sector, and as the political winds sharpen, I believe his last book Total State: Totalitarianism and How to Resist It (2023), with its beyond urgent call to foster political literacy alongside ecoliteracy in education, deserves to be far more widely read.
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Go raibh míle maith agat, Paul.

For those who'd like the detail — my conference abstract in full

Re-Enchanting Creativity for 'The Ecological Turn':
Regenerating Hollywood Forest to Fostering Haumea Ecoversity
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​This presentation introduces Haumea Ecoversity, a post-doctoral eco-pedagogical model co-developed by ecological artist and ecoliteracy facilitator Dr. Cathy Fitzgerald and philosopher Dr. Nikos Patedakis (California) since 2019. Haumea Ecoversity reimagines education, including creative practice, beyond environmental awareness or sustainability "add-ons." Rooted in doctoral research on ecological insights' challenges to education and inspired by first-hand durational, place-based, regenerative practice experience since the 1990s (The Ecological Turn, NCAD, 2018), the model has supported 400+ learners (artists, educators, curators, changemakers), and since 2022, Local Authority art and public-facing staff in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Kildare, Meath, Wexford and Roscommon, through a transformative learning, decolonising facilitation ethos.
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We argue that ecoliteracy (systems thinking) fosters a radical shift in how we think, value, facilitate, learn, and live holistically. It invites individuals to expand their search for meaning to include care and responsibility for themselves, the community of life, and future generations, encompassing fluency for ecological integrity, justice, democracy, non-violence, and peace at neighbourhood, bioregional, planetary and intergenerational scales.
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Drawing on cosmo-ecological thinkers (e.g., Thomas Berry, Thich Nhat Hanh, Fritjof Capra, Joanna Macy, Margaret Wheatley), Indigenous wisdom and Decolonising Facilitation ethics, with the UNESCO-endorsed Earth Charter for ESD and GCE, the presentation explores how Haumea Ecoversity operates as a creative-led "third space" in the emergent international Ecoversities Alliance (with 400 examples of ecoversities now in 40 countries over the last decade) and the inherent creativity of people, places, and life's evolution. It fosters an integrated, values-based transformative learning environment where head, heart, body, eco-cultural heritage and ethical imagination converge. Through peer-to-peer learning (modules, salons, mentoring), creative professionals and cultural leaders develop holistic language, discernment, and agency to address environmental and social challenges, contributing to the "Great Turning", the immense cosmo-ecological culture shift needed for liveable, equitable, peaceable futures.
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Holistic ecoliteracy equips people to engage with difficult ecological truths without paralysis, denial, or fragmentation. We demonstrate how values-led ecoliteracy, combined with compassion practice, creativity, and a life-affirming decolonial facilitation builds capacity for all, especially creative practitioners, educators, curators and changemakers, to harness their potential for societal change. Ecoliteracy is a foundational paradigm for strengthening collective sense-making, civic resilience, and responsibility across institutions and communities.
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The presentation reflects on Haumea Ecoversity as an emergent model for re-worlding education through compassion, ecological insight, creativity, and intergenerational responsibility, while highlighting the need for policy and strategy to build ecoliteracy capacity for a just, equitable, and peaceful world. (It ends with a suggestion for NCAD too - to adopt the Earth Charter to follow new Irish cultural policy)

About me... if you are new to this newsletter

Dr. Cathy Fitzgerald is an Irish-based New Zealand ecological artist-educator who collaborates with philosopher Dr. Nikos Patedakis (Dangerous Wisdom.org, California). Following their doctoral research, and combining their expertise in eco-creative rewilding (e.g., The Hollywood Forest Story, 2008; Carlow's Creative Drummin Bog Programme, 2017), holistic values education with Earth Charter International, and Patedakis' synthesis of philosophical, scientific, and global cultural wisdom, and permaculture design, they developed a holistic ecoliteracy facilitation model that transforms learners' hearts and minds through wiser, compassionate creative engagement. In 2019, they founded Haumea Ecoversity, a pioneering online learning community for creatives, educators, and cultural leaders that has since guided 400+ learners and is part of the global Ecoversities Alliance — 400+ ecoversities across 40 countries reimagining education for holistic environmental and social transformation. Since 2022, Cathy and collaborators have also worked with Irish Local Authorities to integrate ecoliteracy and Earth Charter values across departments and upskill creative practitioners in county regions.

• Dr Cathy Fitzgerald​
  Founder | Facilitator, Haumea Ecoversity since 2019
  Ecological Artist | Researcher
  Art & Ecology Research Fellow, Burren College of Art
  Accredited Earth Charter | ESD Educator, Focal Point Communicator for Ireland
  ​Explore our work:
  • Haumea Ecoversity — HaumeaEcoversity.com​
  • The Hollywood Forest Story — HollywoodForest.com​
  • Creative Drummin Bog — CreativeDrumminBog​
  • Nikos Patedakis, Philosopher — DangerousWisdom.org​

Thank you, you have carried this work

Before I close, I want to pause and thank you.

Haumea Ecoversity has been a rather odd post-doctoral adventure of many parts: one ecoartist, inspiration from the smallest Close-to-Nature forest in Ireland - Hollywood Forest, "the little wood that could", one mad eco-creative practice PhD, the generous contributions from a horse-wise philosopher across the ocean, and a growing circle of creatives, educators, curators, cultural researchers and changemakers who believe education and creativity must be wiser, holistic, warmer, and more alive.

You, dear Reader, have been part of that. Whether you've taken a module, joined a salon, mentored or been mentored, worked with us in your Local Authority, supported us with a monthly or one-off donation, sponsored other learners at Haumea Ecoversity, forwarded this newsletter to a friend, or quietly cheered from afar, this work exists because of you.

Presenting it now at NCAD, among national and international colleagues re-imagining what creative and cultural institutions can become, I feel how far we've come together, and how much further, joyfully, there is to go. We carry each other's work forward.​
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Three ways you can support this emergent eco-cultural turn

1. Come along: if you're near Dublin on 3–4 November, book your ticket on Eventbrite (€18/day, includes lunch). It would be lovely to see you.
2. Share this: forward this email to an artist, educator, curator, researcher or cultural leader who wonders what an ecological turn could look like in their institution/local authority.
3. Reply: read every message, and I'd love to hear what's alive for you.

Cathy, Nikos and Martin at 🌀Haumea Ecoversity
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PPS: Do hit 'reply' if any of this speaks to you. I read every message.

PPPS: Past and current Haumea Ecoversity learners: do keep a lookout for future newsletters, as there will be more occasions to celebrate Haumea Ecoversity's 7th anniversary in 2027.

Thank you!
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​Remember, Haumea Ecoversity is an independent endeavour. We'd love it if you might support a learner, become a monthly backer, or give a one-off donation.

Click here, and thank you!