Reclaiming Our Cosmo-Ecological Selves to Help You Discover the Work That Is Yours to Do

Schumacher College with founder Satish Kumar is seen as one of the most influential holistic ‘Ecoversities’ in the world and an inspiration through its Resurgence magazine to us since the late 90s.

We offer pioneering wisdom-based ecoliteracy courses, holistic participatory transformative learning that blend creative practice, ecological knowledge, and community engagement.

Whether you’re an artist, educator, researcher, local government staff member, river, peatland, forest, farmer, or soil activist, plant or animal advocate, or simply someone yearning to reconnect with the living world, our learning journeys are designed to help you uncover “the work that is yours to do”.1

This is not about fixing the world from the outside in, but about healing our relationship with it from the inside out.

As the late Joanna Macy taught, we are living through Three Stories: the Business as Usual story of industrial growth, the Great Unravelling of ecological and social systems, and the Great Turning—the epochal shift toward a life-sustaining society.

At Haumea Ecoversity, we stand firmly in the Great Turning, inspired by Thomas Berry’s call in the 1970s to the Great Work of our time: the transition from a period of human devastation of the Earth to share the ‘New Story’ of how we can live well.

This vision is echoed in the holistic Earth Charter, which invites us to ‘be more’ in service of personal, planetary, and intergenerational wellbeing.

While our roots are in the emergent field of ecological art practice, we’ve connected with the wisdom of many cultures, the unifying vision of the peoples’ Earth Charter arising in the 90s, and the emergent 10-year-old Earth-wide Ecoversities Alliance to embrace a broader, holistic vision to re-enchant the education now urgently needed for our troubled times: ecoliteracy is education on living well on Earth and is for all people.

As Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us, ‘We are here to awaken from the illusion of separateness,’ and coming ‘joyfully together is the art of building a harmonious community, with the power of a sacred forest, and this correlates with the late James Doty’s work in neuroscience which shows, our capacity to cultivate compassion and connection, is the foundation of meaningful change to care for ourselves, others and the world.

We live in a time of unravelling—ecological, social, and spiritual. The challenges we face, from accelerating climate breakdown to the erosion of biodiversity and mounting social injustices and inequalities, are not technical problems to be solved, but symptoms of a deeper disconnect: a forgetting of caring for ourselves, others, and our belonging to Earth and the community of life. Haumea Ecoversity exists to reverse this amnesia. Our courses and community of practice are spaces where you can slow down, listen deeply, and remember what it means to be part of many ecologies, wherever you live.

Here, ecoliteracy is not just about understanding ecosystems, but about embodying cosmo-ecological consciousness in every aspect of your life and work. We draw on wisdom from the West and East, from the holistic vision of the Earth Charter to the evolving Universe Story, indigenous wisdom, and systems thinking to help you see the world anew—and to act from a place of love, responsibility, and joy. As Thich Nhat Hanh taught, ‘We are the Earth walking, the Earth thinking, the Earth loving.’*

You are not alone in this eco-cultural turn.

Haumea Ecoversity is a community of creatives, educators, researchers, local government staff, river and soil activists, plant and animal advocates, and change-makers across Ireland and beyond, wishing to become more ecoliterate and contribute to a better world.

We relate as a small organisation, not premised on growth but on connecting with one another and our places as our primary focus.

As one of 400 independent ecoversities arising in 40 countries over the last decade, as part of the international Ecoversities Alliance, we are part of a global movement reimagining education as a force for bioregional belonging, cultural renewal, and goodwill.

From rural Carlow to Kerry, from Wexford to Leitrim, from Meath to Mayo, from Ireland to Scotland, England, Wales, Denmark, Canada, and the US, we gather to explore what it means to live and create in right relationship with each other and the communities and places we care about.

Our members include creative professionals, curators, cultural researchers, teachers, activists, and local authority staff weaving ecological values into their practices, curricula, and policies.

Together, we co-create a culture of care, where everyone’s voice is heard, and where diversity is celebrated as a source of social resilience and inspiring cultural renewal.

What Makes
Haumea Ecoversity Unique

Haumea Ecoversity grew from a shared vision for Earth-wise holistic learning between its co-founders: forest-loving, Aotearoa New Zealand-born ecological artist Cathy Fitzgerald, living in rural Ireland, the home of her Irish ancestors for the last 30 years, and horse-loving, wisdom-based philosopher Nikos Patedakis, living in the mountains of California.

Since developing our Essential Ecoliteracy courses in 2019 with over 400 others who joined our call, Haumea Ecoversity has become part of the emergent global Ecoversities Alliance—a movement reimagining education as a force for regeneration, creativity, and compassion for a better, more just world.

Unlike traditional institutions, we don’t offer degrees or certificates. Instead, we offer something far more valuable: the opportunity to become the kind of person the world needs now.

Our learning, collectively and through mentoring, advocates a holistic, compassionate ethos—experiential, embodied, and heartfelt. We believe this work, as observed by pioneering eco-social creatives like Helen and Newton Harrison and David Haley, is about asking better questions, not just finding answers or jumping too quickly to solutions. It’s about slowing down to develop a wiser, life-affirming mindset, trusting the wisdom that arises when we listen to the lands, forests, rivers, oceans—our home places—to each other, and to our own deep knowing.

Inspired by James Doty’s work at the Centre for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, we cultivate a wisdom-based learning environment where practising compassion, kindness, curiosity, and courage are the foundation of all we do. It’s about expanding our values to guide our lives, our creativity, work, and actions—not out of guilt or fear, but from a place of alignment with the life-affirming values that sustain us all. As the unifying vision of the Earth Charter invites us to reflect:

‘We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward, we must recognise that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms, we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.’

At Haumea Ecoversity, we learn to see, think, and act from this truth.