Learning and Change
7.3 Results
7.3.2 Patterns of identifying with the Boksburg Lake social-ecological system Introduction
In this section I explore patterns of identifying with the Boksburg Lake social- ecological system. The data is structured according to the two categories that emerged from the last round of data analysis, namely participants’ values and relational positions adopted with respect to Boksburg Lake, as reflected in figure 7.4. The way participants felt implicated in Boksburg Lake’s degradation, their strong emotional responses to the lake’s condition and deep empathy and connection experienced with the lake and its animals, are discussed. These factors influenced the three main ways respondents began to relate to Boksburg Lake; namely as change agents, as persons who adopt a positive attitude to the lake and as persons who feel a sense of oneness and belonging with it. These are now examined in detail.
Figure 7.4: Two concepts (values of participants; how participants relate to Boksburg Lake) explored under the category: patterns of identifying in the Boksburg Lake social- ecological system
Values of participants
Learners and teachers attached a diversity of values to Boksburg Lake and the natural environment: the lake was valued for its history and connection to Boksburg’s identity, its recreational and wildlife potential, and affective and aesthetic benefits.
The natural environment was valued for its inherent value and because it is vital for human survival. Both Boksburg Lake and the natural environment were given spiritual value. These values are examined in turn.
Patterns of identifying in the Boksburg Lake social-ecological system
How participants relate to Boksburg Lake Values of
participants
A dominant theme throughout the four-year research process was the strong collective memories of Boksburg Lake. It is remembered, by both locals and nationals, as a place of important recreational and social value and people would often reminisce about the Christmas lights, carols by candlelight, the Chinese restaurant, picnics, playing putt- putt and feeding the ducks and swans, to mention a few of the activities previously enjoyed. Nine quotes indicate how Boksburg locals strongly identified with this lake of the past, pointing to its high historical value and close association with Boksburg’s identity. A learner wrote: “Boksburg Lake is a part of our history for many years” and this is the reason given for why “we have to save it for the future generations” (HV, E, 2010). It is described as: “one of the very few milestones that we do have of Boksburg”
(I, 2009); “a monument and symbol of Boksburg” (BH, FG, 2009); “Boksburg’s gold”
(BH, E, 2010); and as a teacher poignantly said in an interview in 2009, “As a child we used to go to Boksburg Lake for picnics, we had Christmas there. My children grew up swimming around the lake, feeding the ducks. So to see it in the state that it is in now, it is almost as if a piece of your past that is being destroyed. I think it really impacts on you”. This expresses a deep identification with the lake of the past and can be interpreted as the destruction of a part of the individual.
This relationship with the historical Boksburg Lake influenced the value given to it as a potential recreational site, reflected in thirty responses. It was seen as a social space to be enjoyed by families; a safe and fun place for children; a tourist destination, and an environment where one could engage with and enjoy nature: A learner reminisced
“[What] I loved to see was that the Boksburg Lake was at a stage a holiday resort. I would love to see that again. All the things going there, all the events going on. I really liked that fact” (DS, FG, 2009). Another learner wrote:
I want people to have their honeymoons there again. I want the flowers to bloom and light up the atmosfeer [sic] like they always did. It has to be safe again for the kids to run around and have picnics on Sunday afternoons. I want it to be the place where the fairies build their homes in the bushes. (EJH, E, 2010)
Affective values (22 responses) express the emotional benefit of nature, particularly of Boksburg Lake. The main emotional benefit was a feeling of peace, quiet and calm (17 responses):
Boksburg Lake is so quiet. That is what I really like about it, there is peace. (GHP, FG, 2011)
‘Calm down’ it [Boksburg Lake] tells me. ‘Don’t be jumpy’ they [animals at the lake]
tell me. (SMP, S, 2010)
The emotional benefits of having a natural place nearby are expressed in the following quote:
The only time I have to just be in nature, I either have to travel hours, where I can just be surrounded by trees, water and animals, so if you don’t have the finances to go for example a place where [sic] surrounded by mountains, water, trees or just nature as a whole, so won’t get the experience to be in nature, because Johannesburg [sic] only surrounded by infrastructure. So if a lake like this where you can sit for a few minutes, where you just hear the wind blow [sic] no one disturbing you, it help[s] mentally.
(RPH, FG, 2012)
Additional emotional benefits included feeling enlightened, inspired, hopeful, embraced by the earth’s kindness, free, refreshed and invigorated (one response each).
Eighteen respondents mentioned Boksburg Lake’s aesthetic value: it was described as beautiful, captivating, romantic, lovely and treasured. Two quotes expressed how Boksburg Lake of the past was one of the most beautiful places and few attractions of Boksburg, “It’s sad to see something that was once so beautiful and wonderful, so ugly and untidy” (SP, E, 2010). Seven quotes expressed its present beauty, marred by pollution, “It’s so unique, antique, beautiful but very dirty, damage[d]” (BH, S, 2009);
while one quote reflected on the high aesthetic value the lake would obtain if restored
“I feel that if restored the lake will be a place of endless beauty” (BH, S, 2009).
Boksburg Lake was valued as a potential wildlife refuge as reflected in eleven quotes.
There is recognition that the lake did not currently have this value; the statements were future oriented, expressing a desire to see wildlife at the lake, particularly birds and water creatures: “An unpolluted environment where ducks and fish, all these lovely creatures that live in the lake can relive and dream that’s their environment” (WP, FG, 2009).
Dependency on the natural world (21 responses) was a strong value. Respondents realised the fundamental connection between their existence and well-being and environmental health. A learner stated: “We can’t live without nature” (RPH, FG, 2010), echoed by another: “We owe our existence to you [nature]” (BH, E, 2010).
Learners from Witdeep Primary sang the following words at the 2011 Boksburg Lake Day that expressed recognition of human dependence on the natural world: “Don’t kill
the world our means of life but heed to nature’s cry. Don’t kill the world she’s all we have”.
Seventeen quotes expressed the inherent value of nature with learners expressing some poetic responses about the non-utilitarian gifts provided by nature: “Sounds of the beautiful wind blowing. The sound of hidden sweet secrets that whisper themselves into your ear. The sound of natural nature in the air. The breeze that makes you just want to listen to what nature is saying” (SP, S, 2010). During the same activity another learner from Reiger Park High wrote, “The sound is like nature bringing fresh air to us”.
Spiritual values (five responses) expressed how nature is a gift from and habitation for God as well as part of the bigger spiritual community: “We never understood the saying ‘cleanliness is next to Godliness’ but after the project we understood that God is in nature, so if we pollute it means we [sic] taking God way from nature.
Cleanliness is not a just but a must” (RPH, FG, 2011). Another learner passionately wrote:
Mother Nature I hear you’re calling And I know what I must do
I won’t let them kill the lake We owe our existence to you We won’t dam the rivers
We don’t need any more concrete walls
The plants and mammals are our brothers and sisters We will save them all! (BH, E, 2010)
How participants relate to Boksburg Lake
This section explores how participants viewed themselves relating to Boksburg Lake in the present and future.
A recurring theme was the recognition that Boksburg Lake is a degraded system and a number of respondents realised the implication of human beings (20 responses) and themselves (16 responses) in this degradation. As a learner wrote in an essay, “We have used our precious lake as a junk yard. Dumping papers, waste material and everything that we can find to destroy the lake and its ecology. But in the end, us
‘Homo Sapiens’ are going to be suffering the actions we are taking, which [is]
destroying the lake” (WP, 2010). A notable way respondents thus related to Boksburg Lake was recognising their implication in its degradation.
There were strong emotional reactions to the lake’s degradation. Eighty-eight of these were in reaction to the lake’s general condition, with the overwhelming emotion being sadness and heartbreak (40 responses). Additional emotions included fear (9), disgust (7), unhappiness (7), disappointment (4) and shock (4). Eleven emotional responses, predominantly anger (4), were directed at those who had caused the degradation, while ten emotional responses resulted from learners’ own sense of responsibility for the lake’s condition, including embarrassment (3), feeling bad (3), ashamed (2), disappointment (1) and regret (1). As a learner wrote (SP, S, 2010), “I am disappointed. I can’t believe people like me did this to what used to be a beautiful lake”. Seven emotional responses indicated a lack of agency in the situation, including feelings of despair, depression, anxiety and being downcast and overwhelmed. In contrast, nine responses were much more positive and focused on the desire to help see an improvement as well as hope that this is possible: “The moment I saw the river being polluted like that I just felt like I could do something” (DP, E, 2011).
Learners and teachers also expressed a strong connection with Boksburg Lake. A primary way was through animals. Thirty-seven responses, from nine schools, made direct reference to animals and in many instances the learners meaningfully identified with animals. An emotive and frequent argument (19 responses) was that lake pollution must end as it negatively affects animals. Seventeen of these learners stated their wish for change in littering/ polluting practices within the community, schools and themselves and/ or their desire to clean Boksburg Lake because of the negative impact litter has on animals. Two examples follow:
They have to teach the learners that if they litter and the wind blows, the papers can end up in a river or lake where some living organism can lose their lives. (RPH, E, 2010)
I also used to litter but since they showed us the picture of the animals dying in the water every thing’s changed. I don’t litter anymore. (RPP, FG, 2010)
Knowledge related to animals was a primary way that the impact of litter was highlighted and prompted a desire to change one’s way of relating to Boksburg Lake, while empathy was a notable emotional response (11 responses) to the harm inflicted on animals:
It really broke my heart to see that there wasn’t actually fish or any nice animals that are there. (WP, FG, 2009, my emphasis)
We need to clean our lake and make it a place for everyone to enjoy themselves so that the swans and all the other animals won’t feel that we are abusing them. (RPH, FG, 2011, my emphasis)
I feel like I can be a magician so I can change all of this dirt. I’m hurt because the creatures that live here don’t have any safe environment. (HV, S, 2009, my emphasis)
Learners’ responses express that humans aren’t the only important beings and identifying with animals goes beyond utilitarian values. Concern is felt because animals as animals are getting hurt and not because of a direct loss to human beings:
I learned that when you [throw] a paper on the ground that you are destroying the environment because the paper may not affect you, yourself or family, it can/ may kill animals, insects, aquatics because they are not able to live with human ‘filth’.
Therefore, if you pick up a paper you are not helping me but you are helping the ecosystem and Boksburg Lake. (SP, E 2010)
Another learner described plants and mammals as “our brothers and sisters”. These are inclusive words into a shared community of value and concern. Empathy was also felt for Boksburg Lake itself, which was most commonly described as a sad (4 responses) and lonely (3 responses) person. Additional phrases and adjectives included: “depressed”, “angry”, “abandoned”, “quite as if it’s suffering”, and
“neglected and abused”. A number of learners expressed how they suffer because the lake suffers: “It really hurts to see how dirty the lake is, when it was once so clean. It is like there is no hope” (DP, E, 2011, my emphasis). There was also a sense that humans had betrayed the lake and nature: “When we man came into the world nature took time to accommodate us. It gave us a safe environment to live in and [we] just stabbed it in [the] back and polluted earth” (BH, FG, 2010, my emphasis).
Consequently learners (3) expressed how they wanted Boksburg Lake to be “loved”,
“taken care of” (HV, E, 2010) and “treated with the kindness and respect it deserves”
(BH, E, 2010).
The realisation of being implicated in Boksburg Lake’s degradation, the strong emotional responses to the lake’s current condition and the deep empathy and connection participants felt with the lake and animals influenced the three main identified ways respondents had begun to relate to the lake: namely, as change agents, as persons who adopt a positive attitude to the lake and persons who feel a sense of oneness and belonging with it.