22 April, Earth Day, we gather in gratitude to celebrate our living Earth – the source of nourishment, healing and connection for all beings. Beyond borders, beliefs and species, we are bound together as members of one Earth community.

As Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) celebrates its 70th anniversary, this Earth Day offers a moment to reflect on an evolving journey of care, from its early humanitarian roots, as a centre for agricultural aid, to a living commitment to nature conservation, holistic education and the flourishing of all beings. It is a time to honour how love for people has grown into a wider ethic of care for the Earth herself.

Across cultures and traditions, sacred natural sites have long been recognised as places of connection – spaces where nature, spirit and human presence meet, and where memory is held and renewed. At the heart of KFBG lies Kwun Yum Shan (KYS), a mountain named after the Goddess of Love and Compassion, long revered as a place of healing, pilgrimage and quiet transformation. In this talk, Satish Kumar, life-long Earth Pilgrim, and Andrew McAulay, Chairman of KFBG, explore how the relationship with sacred landscapes such as this can awaken a deeper sense of belonging and responsibility within the Earth community.

This gathering also reflects on a recent series of land-based experiences at Kadoorie Farm in March: moments designed to awaken memory, deepen relationships and reconnect people with the living intelligence of nature. Earth Day becomes an opportunity to share these local experiences with a wider global audience.

22 April also marks the anniversary of the passing of Sir Horace Kadoorie, who co-founded KFBG with his brother Lawrence in 1956. On this day, we honour his legacy and reaffirm our shared responsibility – and promise – as members of the Earth community.

Speakers

Satish Kumar Raised as a Jain monk from the age of nine, Satish Kumar became a campaigner for land reform at 18, working to turn Gandhi's vision of a renewed India and peaceful world into reality. In 1962, concerned about nuclear proliferation, he began, with his friend E.P. Menon, an 8,000-mile peace pilgrimage, walking from India to Moscow, Paris, London and Washington with no money, through deserts, mountains and supposedly hostile territories to deliver a message of peace to the leaders of the four nuclear powers at the time. In 1973, he settled in England and was invited by the renowned economist E. F. Schumacher to be the editor of Resurgence magazine, now titled Resurgence and Ecologist. Under his editorship the magazine has become, according to the Guardian newspaper, ‘The spiritual and artistic flagship of the green movement’. In 1991, Satish co-founded Schumacher College, in Totnes, Devon, UK, an international residential education centre named after E. F. Schumacher, which aims to provide transformative learning for sustainable living. Satish writes, teaches and leads workshops internationally on holistic economics, reverential ecology, holistic education and voluntary simplicity. His books include Soil · Soul · Society: A New Trinity for Our Time, No Destination, Earth Pilgrim, You Are Therefore I Am, Elegant Simplicity and the recently launched Radical Love.

Andrew McAulay Andrew was born in Hong Kong and educated in England. After spending some time in a meditation centre in his early 20s, he returned to Hong Kong to help transform KFBG’s mission from agricultural aid to nature conservation and holistic education. He has chaired the KFBG Board since 1999 and also chairs the Board of KFBG's sister organisation, Partnerships for Community Development (PCD). Andrew loves to spend time in nature and continues to practice and teach meditation, as well as breathwork. He has also published two books of poetry.

Facilitator

Juliana Schneider Juliana is a close collaborator of Kadoorie Farm since 2020, engaged with the development of Kadoorie Earth Programme. For more than a decade she has been an affiliate with Schumacher College in the UK, having graduated with a master’s in holistic science and worked as a facilitator alongside experts in different areas such as Stephan Harding, David Abram, Vandana Shiva and Satish Kumar. In 2013 she founded an educational enterprise in Brazil experimenting with more participatory ways of organising. Beyond leading the organisation, she has taught and facilitated holistic thinking through numerous groups with highly diverse backgrounds. She currently collaborates with educational initiatives around the world through mentoring, consulting and teaching, as well as conducting a PhD as a researcher with the Schumacher Society. She also writes poetry and literary works in Portuguese, her native language.

Date
22 April 2026 (Wednesday)

Time
19:00-20:30 HKT (11:00 - 12:30 GMT)

Format
Zoom

Language
English (supports simultaneous interpretation in Cantonese and Putonghua)

Fee
Free (a donation to support our conservation work is appreciated) 

Donations help cover essential expenses such as speakers’ fees, translation services and other resources. Additional donations support KFBG‘s ecological conservation and holistic education work. Please donate within your means, or still join us even if you are unable to contribute. Together, we can foster a transformative shift towards an ecological perspective.

Application
Please click HERE for online registration by 19:00 HKT, 22 April 2026

Note
● You will receive an auto-reply confirmation email upon registration with the Zoom link attached.
● In case of cancellation, you will be notified in advance.

Enquiry
Email Ms Jamie Ngai at jamie.ngai@kfbg.org

Kadoorie Earth Programme (KEP) is co-created by KFBG and its network of collaborators and volunteers. By integrating the various strands of KFBG’s nature conservation, sustainable living and holistic education programmes, it provides life-transforming learning experiences that reconnect people with themselves, each other and the rest of nature and enable them to cultivate resilience in the face of climate crisis, economic uncertainty and other related challenges.

Kadoorie Earth Programme Main Page
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