Listening with young children: enchanted animism of trees, rocks, clouds (and other things)

Abstract

This article introduces the notion of enchanted animism, contending that an enchanted re-animation of the world may be necessary for learning to live on a damaged planet. The paper draws on a project with young children which invited them to share what they thought was ‘good’ in the outdoor spaces at their early learning centre. These encounters revealed children’s relationship with nonhuman elements which seemed to be calling in and enchanting children. In particular, children’s playful animation of so-called inanimate things – trees, rocks, clouds – allowed an egalitarian view of the world in which both humans and nonhumans were seen to be engaged in intentional projects. The paper argues that enchanted animism kindles children’s sensitivity to Earthly processes, enabling them to listen to the Earth more attentively, with the awareness and responsiveness that a planetary crisis demands.

Keywords:

• Enchanted animism
• enchantment
• animism
• listening with children
• early childhood

Acknowledgements

My sincere gratitude to the children, teachers and families of the Centre for their generous participation in this research. I also thank the scholars who have read this paper and offered their thoughtful advice.

Notes

1. This research is conducted with ethics approval from Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW.

2. As discussed by van Dooren, Kirksey, and Münster (2016), the term ‘multispecies’ has been broadened by multispecies ethnographers to include both biotic and abiotic matter.

3. The ‘rock cave’ is a slab of rock supported by two rocks. Its roof is about a metre off the ground. The rock cave is a popular ‘hang out’ for the children who snuggle into the one-child-sized cavity underneath, or use the roof as a platform to sit on, or leap off.

4. Barad (2007) introduces the term ‘intra-active,’ distinguishing it from the more commonly used ‘interactive’ which is predicated on an assumption of separate bodies which take turns to affect one another. Intra-activity, in contrast, draws from physics and understands entities (human and nonhuman) as not having distinct boundaries but as being in entangled and co-emerging relationships, each affecting the other.