Comments on: Memorial Page

By: aadeniyi

aadeniyi — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:37:26 +0000

Val will always be remembered for his relentless effort to keep the earth in its original state. He is a true lover of nature, and we will always love him for that.

By: Tim Stilwell

Tim Stilwell — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:41:31 +0000

After Minding Animals

One of those days when twigs don’t crack on
the fox-trod path to any part of a forest.
White gumtree bark curls round an unsparked fire
so tight, the dry perspective goes awol
in the sky grid, slow siphon of a greeting,
vacuums footprints, old movie in reverse.
Black and white to blue, the canopy thieves
from the spheres, trills the rain song to the leaf.
The wood is the walker on Plumwood Mountain,
indifferent from the active voice.
Val heard. Those crows knew her in that instant.
Here by the supercontinental strand,
ground ochre, the sea-green lichen company,
they fall to cawing in the murderous court.

By: Bron Taylor

Bron Taylor — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:53:55 +0000

Val figures prominently in part of my book DARK GREEN RELIGION: NATURE SPIRITUALITY AND THE PLANETARY FUTURE, which is introduced at my website. The crocodile taught her a lesson, and thus, many of us, too.

By: Jane Salmon

Jane Salmon — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:30:38 +0000

Very grateful too for the new acquaintances that have developed through Val. The group Friends of Plumwood is specialm wise and strong.

Best wishes to Anne Edwards who has done so much to preserve, guard and project Val’s knowledge, her work, public understanding of Val and her place.

By: Jane Salmon

Jane Salmon — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:27:09 +0000

It’s been a year today (29 Feb 2008). The sting is still there. So is the gratitude and so are the lessons, which keep rolling out. Few did as much as Val to defend the bush and the hole she has left as a philosopher, friend and activist is very large. Looking forward to Val’s published work and a growing appreciation of her academic legacy.

By: jim isenberg

jim isenberg — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:11:18 +0000

I just learned about Val’s death today. I have many very warm memories of spending weekends with her and Jill Bowling (my former wife), both in Australia and in America. . I will always remember going to dinner at a restaurant near Val’s home in Braidwood, bringing along her pet wombat. The restaurant folks were happy to help prepare a bowl of (formula) wombat milk for the little wombat to eat while we ate dinner.

Jill was a very good friend of Val’s. Very sadly she died 20 months ago, in a tragic accident in Nepal. It is shocking for them both to be gone.

Jim Isenberg
Eugene, Oregon, USA

By: jan copland

jan copland — Mon, 19 May 2008 02:39:32 +0000

YOu were an inspiration , I miss you. I enjoyed being in the forest with you
janet

By: Ruth Irwin

Ruth Irwin — Sat, 17 May 2008 22:22:59 +0000

I’m grateful to have this opportunity to talk about Val Plumwood. I couldn’t make it to her funeral, and along with many, many other prople I want to pay my respects.

Val’s work iss incredibly important, and possibly not yet fully recognised by the wider community for its philosophical and ecological potential. It is not simply that she has produced a really impressive legacy but instead, something far more worthwhile. Val has been one of a handful of people who have opened up a space for rethinking what it is to be human and how to shake ourselves out of the dead-end of late modernity.

Possibly one of her last articles was submitted to me shortly before she died. It is called “Nature in the Active Voice”. It is coming out an edited collection titled _Climate Change and Philosophy; transformational possibilities_. It should be out at some stage next year.

Val will leave a real gap in advocates for ecologcialy sensitive, cultural change at a time when voices such as hers are sorely needed. Hopefully the rest of us will step up and realise some of the ideas that she has set out with so much thought and care!

Ruth Irwin, University of Auckland
r.irwin@auckland.ac.nz

By: Pip Wilson

Pip Wilson — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:14:48 +0000

Thank you for many things.

By: Jane Salmon

Jane Salmon — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:04:13 +0000

Val,

You were warm, wise, flawed and caring, detached and engaged, lively and an elder.

Your love and knowledge of nature was shared with exuberance and insight.

Your values were carefully wrought.

We didn’t understand the half of your intelligence.

You are a point on the compass, prematurely sheered off.

And you are missed every day.

The planet is so lucky to have such an intellect, such knowledge, such a friend.