The Courageous Life of Sister Dorothy Stang
What: Binka Le Breton, an author and environmentalist who heads the Iracambi Rainforest Research Center in southeastern Brazil, will speak about her latest book, The Greatest Gift: The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang. Sister Stang worked for 40 years to improve the lives of migrant peasants, farmers and the poor in the Amazon frontier.
When: Wednesday, March 12 at 4:15 p.m.
Where: McCook Auditorium on the Trinity campus.
Background: Binka Le Breton, a British journalist, is also the co-founder and co-director of the Iracambi Rainforest Research Center in the Atlantic Forest region in southeastern Brazil. She and her husband Robin work on conservation of biodiversity and sustainable development. Each year, the center has about 85 students, researchers and conservation volunteers.
Iracambi’s projects range from Atlantic Forest conservation and sustainable development to medicinal plants as alternative income sources; social and environmental impact of bauxite mining; alternative agriculture; and empowerment and human rights.
Le Breton is also a concert pianist who has lived in such far-flung places as Nairobi, Jakarta, New Delhi and London. She has written Voices From the Amazon (1993); A Land to Die For (1997); Rainforest (1997); and Trapped: Modern Day Slavery in the Amazon (2003), which was awarded a prize by the World Hunger Year Organization of New York.
Le Breton’s latest book, The Courageous Life and Martyrdom of Sister Dorothy Stang, examines the murder of the U.S.-born human rights activist in the Amazon. Sister Stang was assassinated in February 2005 while working to protect the rights of family farmers threatened by illegal loggers.
Eighteen years after entering a convent for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Sister Stang was granted her desire to serve the poor as a missionary in Brazil. During the nearly 40 years that she was in that country, she worked with migrant peasants to build schools and improve rudimentary farming techniques, and showed people how to take charge of their lives. She also aided in the struggle of poor farmers for land rights against logging and development countries.
According to Publishers Weekly, “The story is heartbreaking and Le Breton’s prose is gripping throughout, as she weaves in several personal narratives from Dorothy’s family and close friends. These lend a gentle warmth to an account that is at times harrowing and cruel.”
Of Sister Stang, National Geographic said, “She worked unceasingly to transform settlers along the Trans-Amazon Highway into environmentally conscious, cohesive, and combative communities, able to resist violent cliques of ranchers and speculators who would lay claim to the same land.”