Inspired by Sister Dorothy Stang by Meg Wroe
I have painted 7 watercolours - of trees, clouds, atmosphere, inspired by Sister Dorothy Stang, a nun who lived among the poorest communities in Brazil’s Amazon Basin. There are 7 paintings to link with the 7 last words on the cross.
Sister Dorothy - known as Dot - stood up for the people she lived with and the forest she lived in.
She helped run schools for children and studied Brazilian law to stand with the peasants against the corporations who wanted to own the Amazon.
She began to receive death threats but she wouldn’t be silenced.
She wouldn’t abandon the local farmers who, she said, want to ‘live and work with dignity while respecting the environment.
She knew that our lives as whole human beings are intrinsically related to the life of this planet we share.
She put it like this - ‘the death of the forest is the end of our lives.’
In February 2005, Sister Dot was walking alone in the jungle when three gunmen came out of the bushes.
She had her Bible and started reading the Beatitudes to them. ‘Blessed are the poor…’
She was shot dead at 73 years of age.
Some people have called Sister Dot the Patron Saint of Extinction Rebellion.
At her funeral one of her friends in the community stood up and said this – ‘Sister Dot, we are not burying you; we are planting you.’
The UN Climate Conference COP 26 is happening in Glasgow this November. As a community we have a chance to stand up like Sister Dot and be the change we want to see. Like Sister Dot we can turn our anger at injustice into action.