Jane Burt

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT JANE BURT

Twenty-four years ago I started working in the water sector in rural South Africa. Since then I have been involved in various programmes and evaluations focusing on democratic and sustainability visions. My early interests were not only water and environment but a passion for democracy and social and environmental justice. During this first project I developed a deep love and fascination with systems of water, particularly rivers as central to social spaces. As time has progressed this has included the damaging impact of the climate emergency on all beings. Within this socio-ecological space my interests flow around issues of power, learning and gender. My particular interest in learning is the politics of knowing, cognitive justice, gender, mediation and change-oriented learning. This leads me to work and lead projects that engage with an emancipatory pedagogy and consider all sorts of ways to learn and change including theatre for the oppressed, photography, spiritual and indigenous practices, creative writing techniques, embroidery and care work. I work at multiple scales from global to local communities. I am struck by the labour that is needed to weave these different realities together and particularly how there is very little understanding of local realities at a global scale. I situate my work, no matter at what scale, in solidarity with womxn, local communities and indigenous people. I believe that we all have a commitment towards doing as little harm as possible. Part of this commitment is working with the forces within us that perpetuate negative mind patterns which directly effect the way we are in the world.