The Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place & Culture at Franklin Pierce College The MONADNOCK INSTITUTE NEWS An annual record of thoughts, activities, and events for “place-makers” in the region Spring, 2004 Fall Conference 2004: A Taste of Place n Saturday, October 16, 2004, the Monadnock Institute will host its Oninth annual conference on a place-related theme at Franklin Pierce College. This year’s event, entitled A Taste of Place: The Lure of Local Foods, will focus on the types and sources of foods produced in the Monadnock Region. The keynote speaker will be Annie Cheatham, Executive Director of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) in Deerfield, MA. The symposium will also include an opportunity to sample some of the foods that are grown and made locally. Registration materials will be available on the Monadnock Institute Web site beginning in July. Institute News Updates Our Regional Stories Anthology Project was featured in the month of March on the Orion Society’s “Stories from the Grassroots” Web page. Each month Orion features the work of an affiliate organization; the Institute feature is archived at http://www.oriononline.org/pages/ogn/members/miprofile.html. The Monadnock Institute is presenting on both the Anthology Project and place-based education at the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE) symposium in Crawford Notch, NH from June 4-6. Spotted Turtle on Tussock Sedge, by David M. Carroll Read more about the artist on Page 8 The Monadnock Institute, in collaboration with the New England Center for Civic Life and the Community Scholarship Consortium at FPC, is piloting two Learning Communities at the college. Ten faculty and staff attended a national conference on Learning Communities in Seattle, WA from May 20- WHAT’S INSIDE 22. To deepen and expand the experience, a two-day workshop open to all faculty will be held at FPC on June 7-8 as well. The Wild Side of Place Remarks from the 2003 annual On Saturday, February 7, 2004 the Monadnock Institute, in collaboration 2 conference held on October 4th. with the Meeting School in Rindge, welcomed environmentalist and writer Derrick Jensen to Franklin Pierce College. The author of A Language Older Anthology Project Update Than Words and Walking on Water, Jensen engaged the large audience in a Progress report on publication plans for 4 the written anthology, as well as enhance- wide-ranging and passionate conversation focused on parenting, educational ments to the Monadnock Stories Web site. reforms, and the collapse of corporate culture. Education Initiatives Descriptions of the place course at FPC, Ed McMahon to Speak at KSC 6 NEH Teacher Workshops, GIS mapping seminar, and the Heritage Fair. Ed McMahon, Vice President and Director of Land Use Programs for The A Record of Participation Conservation Fund and author of Balancing Nature and Commerce in A list of 2003 conference registrants, insti- Gateway Communities, is giving a free public lecture co-sponsored by the 8 tute donors, Executive Committee amd Monadnock Instititue in Keene State College’s Mabel Brown Room at 7pm Advisory Board members, plus A Portrait on Tuesday, June 15. His presentation, “The Dollars and Sense of Preserving of the Artist. Community Character,” will address smart growth, sustainable development and the benefits of historic preservation and land conservation. CONFERENCE 2003 SUMMARY THE WILD SIDE OF PLACE ultures all over the world have But humans transgressed “C honored animals as teachers and their gifts. Man-eating ti- protectors, as bringers of wonder, of great gers today kill 300 people a gifts, bearers of extraordinary percep- year there. But tigers else- tions, bringers of rain and drought as well where do not. “You never as providers of meat and clothing.” So see them,” she said of the began author and Hancock resident Sy big cats, “because they Montgomery, as she kicked off the eighth don’t like you to see them. annual Monadnock Institute of Nature, They want to attack you Place, and Culture symposium at Franklin from the back and eat you. Pierce College on October 4th. You never get to see your study subject, who is trying In Amazon River country, Montgomery to kill you!” Paul Rezendes, Sy Montgomery, and David Carroll sought the river-dwelling whales known respond to questions from participants. as pink dolphins. In mythology, she About 90 percent of people killed by the pointed out, dolphins have guided hu- tigers each year have left the fishing this earth, and when we forget loyalty to mans for millennia and were given el- zones they themselves established, she animals we forget who we are and where evated places by the ancient Greeks. “I said, “and gone into the tiger reserve, we belong, and we no longer treat our had to trust that I would be able to which is older than the Indian govern- home as home.” follow them in another way,” she said, ment, dating back to the time of the meaning “follow” as more than mere origination of the story” of the forest Sy Montgomery concluded, “what we’re pursuit, “more in a way as a disciple goddess. These tigers may be killing trying to do, all of us here today, and might follow a teacher. And in this way I humans, Montgomery said, “because what the Monadnock Institute of Na- was able to follow them into realms I the tigers are hyper-territorial. But locals ture, Place and Culture is seeking, is to would never have dreamed of.” say that any tiger might be a god stand- mend the brokenness of the world, trying ing in front of you.” This is a very old to put things back together, mending the Animals have long been teachers, guides concept, that animal totems enter your promises that have been broken between and sources of inspiration, respected and body to become part of your strength, us and the rest of the natural world.” imitated. When American Indians go on she said. “This is what happens when a vision quest, she pointed out, they you follow an animal to its place, and Excerpted from the article “Montgomery Illustrates Lessons From Wilderness” by Steve often seek an animal to be their totem, that place, too, enters you forever.” their personal patron. The bear, for Sherman, which appeared in The Monadnock example, is the traditional medicine Many tribal peoples claim to have de- Home Companion in October, 2003. woman, Montgomery said, “who taught scended from animals, she said, and us humans to use medicinal herbs. As it “again and again we’re told of people Paul Rezendes turns out, bears, like chimps, are among who turned into animals. In many Writer, photographer, and tracker Paul the very few animals that we know who cultures, it is not only desirable to par- Rezendes spoke next about the art of use herbal medicine.” In support, the take of animal powers, sometimes it is tracking large mammals in New England. speaker cited a story of a hunter who necessary to actually become the ani- Rezendes began by emphasizing that watched a grizzly strip bark from a willow mal.” People have become a leopard (in tracking is not about pursuing an actual tree, which has little nutritional value. stories), she noted as an example, and animal as in hunting, but rather is about After the hunter shot the bear, he pried then as a leopard killed an enemy, reading the signs an animal leaves behind open the animal’s jaws and saw the bear though they would never kill if they had in order to become intimate with it. A had an abscessed tooth. “But around remained human. “In all these stories,” person who achieves this kind of intimacy that tooth was wrapped all that willow Montgomery said, “we and the animals can, for example, use the concentration bark. Willow bark contains salicylic acid, are part of one another. Their stories are of American Yew, a favorite food of which is the ingredient that makes aspirin our stories, too, only using different white-tailed deer, to determine how relieve pain,” she said. language.” many deer per acre there are on a parcel of land.. “It is a world where hemlock When Montgomery traveled to West She cited the old English root of the trees speak of porcupines, and blueberry Bengal, India, to study man-eating tigers, word “truth” as resting on the concept shoots talk about snowshoe hares,” ac- she heard stories of the forest goddess of loyalty. The interaction of people’s cording to the speaker. “By observing who agreed with other gods to share stories and connections to animals are what is happening to the animal, you the riches of the forest with humans. true “in that they honor that loyalty that learn what is happening to the surround- 2 long ago we had pledged to our place on ing environment, and ultimately to the sions. Bears also leave a distinctive pat- reaches about 34 degrees, and an ob- tracker, himself.” Paul Rezendes asserted tern of claw or bite marks on certain trees server must be careful not to startle or to participants that once an individual generation after generation. Rezendes disturb them at this time. The naturalist hones the skill of tracking, there becomes closed his remarks by reminding partici- spoke fondly of one spotted turtle he no separation between what is happening pants that “animals can teach us to look nicknamed Ariadne, who he has wit- to the forest and what is happening inside within ourselves to find reasons to ex- nessed emerge from her hibernation for the self. “The inner landscape becomes plain the behaviors we exhibit.” more than 18 years.