Awakening the Dreamer Symposium
By Irene Millar
If you are looking for a travel experience that makes a difference, then check out this exciting event taking place in Hong Kong, Manila, Shanghai and Singapore in June.
Not previously available in most Asian countries, the Pachamama Alliance will be co-presenting their unique and powerful programme in four major Asian cities — Shanghai, Manila, Singapore and Hong Kong – to launch their first Asia wide initiative, Awakening The Dreamer Symposium.
The Pachamama Alliance is non-profit organisation based in San Francisco whose mission is to preserve the Earth’s tropical rainforests by empowering the indigenous peoples who are their natural custodians, and to contribute to the creation of a new global vision of equity and sustainability for all. www.pachamama.org
Asia is home to the oldest, consistent rainforests on Earth. The Southeast Asian rainforests date back to the Pleistocene Epoch 70 million years ago. We have on our doorstep a biological richness and diversity unequaled by that of the Amazon or African rainforests. Yet Southeast Asia is losing its rainforests faster than any equatorial region, and has the fewest remaining primary rainforests. It is projected that most of the primary rainforests of Southeast Asia will be destroyed in the next 10 years.
The destruction of the world’s rainforests is driven by a complex web of social and economic forces, many of these a logical result of modern society’s worldview — a view that, although rich in technological insight, is often ignorant of the value of nature’s apparently free and limitless services. It is a view guided by maximum short-term financial gain while disregarding the long-term costs of ecological degradation. It is a worldview in which tropical forests can show up as a cash crop to be harvested rather than as an irreplaceable ecosystem to be protected. This is not, however, the only worldview. After centuries of living in harmony with their environment, indigenous cultures see things very differently. They are informed and guided by the knowledge and spirit embedded in nature. Rather than viewing the natural world as a collection of separate elements of which humans are a part, they recognize all of creation as an interconnected web, and each of us as an integral element in this miraculous and fragile weave of life.
The Pachamama Alliance believes that our ability to meet the challenges that face humanity depends on our ability to successfully combine the best elements of these two worldviews into a single global vision, an alloy that blends the intellectual and scientific prowess of the modern world, with the deep and ancient wisdom of traditional cultures.
The Awakening The Dreamer Symposium is a leading edge interactive programme that explores new ways of seeing the big sustainability, personal development and social justice challenges and opportunities that are presenting themselves right now. More than 40,000 people in over 28 countries have experienced the Symposium around the world so far and it is continuously being offered at schools, organizations and many communities worldwide.
Via a series of powerful short films, participants hear from far-sighted scientists, community and thoughts leaders of our time – Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Julia Butterfly Hill, Van Jones, Paul Hawken, Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry and many more; on everything from the planet’s dwindling biodiversity to growing socio-economic gaps. The event also includes lively breakout groups and practical tools that make a huge difference to how you can implement sustainable change in your own life.
The vision of the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium is to generate widespread awakening at the grassroots level across the region to take part in a global movement that is beginning to transform our worldview, such that humanity becomes committed to restoring and contributing towards a fair, sustainable and peaceful existence.
Designed with the collaboration of some of the finest scientific, indigenous and activist minds in the world, the Symposium explores the current state of our planet from a new perspective, and connects participants with a powerful global movement to reclaim our future.
It is an exploration of four questions:
Where Are We? – an examination of the state of environmental, social and personal well-being
How did We Get Here? – tracing the root causes that lead to our current imbalance
What’s Possible for the Future? – discovering new ways of relating with each other, with the Earth and looking at the emerging Movement for change
Where Do We Go from Here? – considering the stand we want to be in the world and our personal and collective impact
If you are ready to be disturbed, inspired and moved to action, and to be introduced to a thriving community of committed cohorts, then join the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium in exploring the most critical concerns of our times, and discover new opportunities to make a real difference in accelerating the emergence of an environmentally sustainable, and socially just human presence on this planet!
The Pachamama Alliance Asia Tour is being partnered by: The Global Shift Alliance, a Hong Kong based non-profit whose mission is to educate and to foster collaboration between people, organizations and institutions across South East Asia to take part in a global movement to carry forward sustainable actions in their communities and environment that bring forth a fair, peaceful and sustainable existence. www.The-Global-Shift.org Contact jo.fok@awakeningeducation.org for more details on any of the events.
Irene Millar is the Co-Founder of Eco Leadership, working with organisations and NGOs to create a sustainable future. Please visit www.EcoLeadershipTraining.com or contact Irene@EcoLeadershipTraining.com to discuss how your organisation can become more sustainable.
