Earthcare

‘Earthcare’ is a term that is emerging in environmental humanities from feminist and indigenous research and practice that aims to capture the historical relations of care between humans and nature. By bringing together the terms ‘earth’ and ‘care,’ ’Earthcare’ refers to the life-making and life-sustaining activities that maintain humans and more-than-humans in their lifeworlds. I use the term ‘care’ to mean the social, political, ecological, and embodied processes necessary to nurture relationships, responsibilities, and accountabilities for flourishing lifeworlds. I use the term ‘Earth’ to refer to all aspects of life on the planet. Caring for the Earth, or ‘Earthcare,’ is for humans to be aware of and take responsibility for devastating human impacts on the rivers, seas, forests, soils, and the animals on a shared planet. The term ‘Earthcare’ challenges capitalocentric narratives of nature as an economic source to be exploited.  ‘Earthcare’ is not a grand narrative; rather, it is grounded in context and shaped by the myriad of everyday stories of survival due to care. In my exploration of the term ’Earthcare’, I engage with recent feminist and indigenous understandings as a contribution to environmental humanities interest in how humans can and should relate to the environment by accepting their co-existence with more-than-human others (Suchet-Pearson et. al. 2013).