THE SACREDNESS OF GOD'S CREATION

Franciscan sister, Marya Grathwohl visited Australia recently with Sr Helen Prejean. She sees her passion to save our Earth similar to Helen's for saving those on death row. Rosie Hoban spoke with her.

American Franciscan Sister, Marya Grathwohl, wants people to think differently about the American dream, draped in mythology and red, white and blue. Her version is contrary to the one depicted on US films and TV programs that now flood Australian screens.

'Our economy is based on the American dream', Sr Marya said during a recent visit to Australia, 'which is affecting the rest of the world. The American dream defines a person as a consumer. Not even a citizen, but someone who votes and consumes. If we are to live with this Earth and sustain life then we must break out of the American dream.'

Sr Grathwohl joined human rights activist Sr Helen Prejean for two weeks of public lectures on justice. Sr Prejean, a high-profile campaigner against the death penalty in the United States, wrote the best-seller, Dead Man Walking, after witnessing the execution of a man in 1984. The book was later made into a hit movie starring Susan Sarandon.

Sr Marya and Sr Helen, in one public 'conversation', implored people to make the connections between justice to the disadvantaged and justice to the Earth. Sr Marya, a cosmologist and teacher of creation spirituality and environmental ethics, talked about 'the death penalty for Earth' and said caring for the earth was 'integral to the radical inclusive compassion of Jesus'.

'The whole universe, all creation, throbs in the heart of God. Care for the environment is also about our survival. It's about our souls', she said.

Sr Marya, who lives on a northern Cheyenne and Crow Reserve in Montana, believes her spirituality and relationship with God has been strengthened by her involvement with native Americans in her community. She recalls her first insight into the intrinsic connection between people and the land when she was just eight years old, walking along streets of her local neighbourhood in Cincinatti, Ohio.

'I was walking past an old Indian mound, a ceremonial mound near my home built by the Hopewell-Adena people. I sensed then that the mound had some sort of power because I always stopped. I knew native American people had once lived in the area and I began to picture the children who would have played there and I really felt the spirit of those people.

Those dreams of the Hopewell-Adena children influenced the young Marya in ways she probably never imaged or made sense of for many years. She joined the Franciscan sisters 42 years ago and became a teacher, though she wanted to become a priest. It seems that each step of Sr Marya's journey as a teacher has brought her closer to the earth, to people who suffer injustice and to God.

Teaching school children seemed like the right place to be, particularly when she was asked to teach at a school in an Afro-American community in the 1960s, during a time of sweeping change, rallies led by Martin Luther King and personal reflection.

'I learned that although I was not “awake” enough to know that I should have participated in the rallies, our school was one where children got a good education and that education was important for human fulfilment.'

Years later, when Marya was appointed principal of a school on an Indian reservation, she immediately employed staff from the indigenous population, people who would be able to foster their culture and help the children prepare for the future.

Her house was in a wide valley at the bottom of a mountain range and each morning she opened her door and watched the space fill with the view of sun rising over the pinnacles. The glorious spectacle became a welcomed part of Sr Marya's morning prayer.

Like most wise teachers, she learned a great deal from her students, particularly the grade 1, 2 and 3 students, whose first language was Crow and who spoke little English.

'Those kids introduced me to another world view. One day I asked them to list living and non-living things. In the living column they had listed clouds, streams and rocks. The other column was empty', she said. 'I began to see the sacredness of creation and that it was all filled with God's Holy Spirit.'

Sr Marya lives in Montana in northern Cheyenne country, which shares a boundary with the Crow people. It's a small and overpopulated reservation where 4000 people live, many in very difficult circumstances. Unemployment is around 70 per cent, the annual income is $US4500, health care services are poor and farming is no longer viable as erosion has reduced the once productive land to dust. Although people feel 'rooted' to the land, most young ones are forced to leave in search of hope and money.

Sr Marya is part of a women's centre on the reservation called the Prayer Lodge, where a community has developed to support women who are rebuilding their lives after abuse or alcohol. 'The women who come to the Lodge are looking for ways to sustain their families and support their culture. We have a sweat lodge and use dance, stories and ceremonies as part of the healing', she said.

As well as her life at Prayer Lodge, Sr Marya is committed to advocating for the Cheyenne people and the land—as far as she is concerned the two cannot be divided. Her goal is to work with people within her own community and around the world to help 'break out of the American dream'.

'The American dream has left 1.2 billion people living on the edge of starvation', Sr Marya said. 'And in order to hold this system in place and to gain more resources we use bombs and we exploit the land and the people on it. We humans need to look at how we are connected to the land and share within the whole life community.

'In every country in the world the way we live on this planet is destructive. It's like we are on a fast train heading towards a brick wall. A different way of looking at the earth is to see that all creation flowed from God and never left God.'

The Indian mound of Sr Marya's childhood is still in the street, in the middle of a suburb, surrounded by bustling life.