AELA Events

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How do we navigate the complexity of our uncertain future?  How do we face into uncertainty with our whole being rather than turning away from it?  What capacities do we need to develop to enable our responsiveness, to shift from ‘strategy and control’ paradigms to participative action? AELA invites you to join Wicked Elephants for an interactive session to explore these issues. We’ll share some embodied practices that we can take into our lives to enable us to be responsive, flexible and allow emergence.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Caresse Cranwell – Caresse is an eco-philosopher, facilitator, coach and experiential therapist.  She loves to facilitate the ‘aha’ moments through experiential inquiry and to deepen people’s connection to Nature.  Her guiding inspiration is the embodied perception that we are in evolutionary partnership with life.

Sophia van Ruth – Sophia offers highly interactive workshops and trainings using play-based, arts-based and meditative methodologies to support people in gaining deeper insights into complex problems in their lives or work.

Join innovative scientists and artists from Australia and New Zealand for a lively discussion about interdisciplinary collaborations in art and science. What elements make for a successful collaboration? Are artists and scientists even compatible? And what are the benefits to cross-collaborations?

Hear from four art and science collaborators as they share insights and experiences on their work, including: Dr Miles Parsons from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Andrew Grodecki, art-science producer/curator and QUT PhD candidate, Tessie Liddell, animator and science communicator and Nadine Schmoll, award-winning environmental artist and educator.

Facilitated by Dr Michelle Maloney, AELA.

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Nadine Schmoll

Nadine Schmoll is a Meanjin/Brisbane artist and educator whose interdisciplinary practice spans art and science to explore plant, animal and human interconnections. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education (Visual Arts) and has over ten years experience as a museum and arts educator. Nadine was awarded First Prize in the Remagine Art Prize (2022 and 2021). She was the recipient of the SWELL Smalls People’s Choice Award (2021) and the LUMAS Gallery and Sequana Partners Arts Grant (2020).

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Dr Miles Parsons, Australian Institute of Marine Science

Dr. Miles Parsons attained his PhD at the Centre for Marine Science and Technology, Curtin University, in 2010, where he remained as a Research Fellow until December, 2017. He then joined the Australian Institute for Marine Science as a Research Scientist, focusing on underwater acoustics and, in particular, the use of passive acoustic monitoring to census marine fauna, assess biodiversity and health, and to investigate the impacts of manmade activities on aquatic animals.

Andy Grodecki, Department of Environment and Science

Andy Grodecki has been a very long-term conservationist and an advocate for the arts, especially all forms of public art. For over 30 years Andy has worked as a public servant in area of community engagement, science and natural resource management. As part of this over the last decade Andy introduced and managed 4 Artist in Residence Science Programs and has curated 8 Art meets Science Exhibitions. For the last few years, he has also been doing a PhD with QUT about stakeholder engagement for art-science projects aiming to motivate action on climate change.

Tessie Liddell, animator and science communicator

Tessie Liddell is a New Zealand/Australian animator who specialises in 2D hand drawn animation to create films that combine science education with storytelling. She is currently completing a PhD with Griffith University investigating how animated storytelling may be used to disseminate environmental messages.Recently, Tessie completed two films for the Department of Environment and Science on sustainable property management for animal graziers.

“There is no possibility of achieving our stated goal of sustainable development if we don’t stabilise the human population and reduce our resource demands” Professor Ian Lowe

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In this webinar we’ll have brave conversations about the tricky subjects of population and consumption. We’ll examine the impact of growing human populations and escalating consumption levels on our climate and ecological crisis, and discuss positive actions that we can take to address these impacts.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

IAN LOWE – Emeritus Professor, Griffith University and Patron of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). Read more about Ian Lowe’s remarkable work here: https://population.org.au/abou…

JANE O’SULLIVAN, Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Queensland. For more details about Jane’s work, visit her profile page here: https://researchers.uq.edu.au/…

HAYDN WASHINGTON – Adjunct Lecturer, UNSW. He has a forty year history as an environmental scientist, writer and activist. He has a degree in ecology, a Masters of Science in eco-toxicology (heavy metal pollution), a Dip. Ed., and a Ph.D. ‘The Wilderness Knot’ in Social Ecology (2007).

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Is it possible to create an Earth-centred economy in Australia? What would it take, what changes would have to be made, to build an economic system that prioritises the health of the living world, thereby ensuring a long term future all human and non-human life?

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

RICHARD DENNISS – Executive Director of the Australia Institute. Dr Richard Denniss is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator, and has spent the last twenty years moving between policy-focused roles in academia, federal politics and think-tanks. He was a Lecturer in Economics at the university of Newcastle and former Associate Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at ANU. He is a regular contributor to The Monthly and the author of several books including: Econobabble, Curing Affluenza and Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next?

MICHELLE MALONEY (BA/LLB(Hons),PhD) is Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia.  She advocates for systems change, in order to shift industrialised societies from a human-centred, to an Earth centred governance system.

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What exactly is ‘degrowth’? And, why are people advocating for it? Where does degrowth sit with respect to other alternative economic models and futures? Anitra Nelson and Terry Leahy will discuss Australian degrowth initiatives in a worldwide context.

Degrowth is a political, philosophical, social and economic approach to transform ourselves away from growth economies and build, instead, a society based on satisfying everyone’s basic needs within Earth’s limits in a just, caring and commoning economy. In short, degrowth is to growth as quality is to quantity.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

ANITRA NELSON – is an activist-scholar affiliated with the Informal Urbanism Research Hub (InfUr-) at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Anitra has written several books and many articles about degrowth including:

• ‘Work for degrowth’ Green Agenda Quarterly Journal, 2022, #2
• Beyond Money: A Postcapitalist Strategy, Pluto Press, 2022.
• Exploring Degrowth: A Critical Guide, with Vincent Liegey, Pluto Press, 2020
• Food for Degrowth: Perspectives and Practices, with Ferne Edwards, Routledge 2021
• Housing for Degrowth: Principles, Models, Challenges and Opportunities, with François Schneider, Routledge, 2018

TERRY LEAHY – Terry Leahy recently retired and is now a conjoint at the School of Humanities and Social Science, University of Newcastle. Terry does research in social theory, the global environmental crisis and food security for Africa. Taken as a whole, his work is related to the project of non-market socialism and the gift economy. His current writing and research investigates sustainable agriculture and food security, the global environmental crisis, and the philosophy of the social sciences. His most recent publication is The Politics of Permaculture (Pluto Press, 2021). See his site — http://gifteconomy.org.au/

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AELA is delighted to be hosting this discussion with Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil from the Center for Democratic and Community Rights (CDER). Thomas and Mari are pioneers in the field of developing laws to protect the Rights of Nature and community rights. Join our discussion as they reflect on more than 15 years of Rights of Nature activism and legal developments.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

THOMAS LINZEY- serves as Senior Legal Counsel for the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights. He is the co-founder of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, and is widely recognized as the founder of the contemporary “community rights” movement which has resulted in the adoption of hundreds of municipal laws across the United States. He also sits on the Board of Advisors of the New Earth Foundation. Linzey is a graduate of Widener Law School and a three-time recipient of the law school’s public interest law award. He has been a finalist for the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World Award, and is a recipient of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union’s Golden Triangle Legislative Award. He is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, and is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the U.S. District Court for the Western and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.

MARI MARGIL – serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Democratic and Environmental Rights and program manager for CDER’s International Center for the Rights of Nature. Margil previously served as the Associate Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). In 2008, she served as a consultant to Ecuador’s national Constituent Assembly, helping to draft the world’s first Rights of Nature constitutional provisions. Margil is widely viewed as one of the leading global voices for the recognition of legally enforceable rights of ecosystems and nature. In her role with CDER, Margil works with national, state, and local governments, tribal nations, and indigenous communities in Australia, Sweden, the Philippines, Nepal, and elsewhere, to advance legal and policy frameworks regarding Rights of Nature. She has served as the primary drafter of a “Himalayas Bill of Rights” (Nepal) and other groundbreaking legislation.

ABOUT OUR WEBINAR

Wellbeing Economics are being heralded around the world as a viable alternative to the ills of growth capitalism. A number of government agencies in Australia are exploring wellbeing economics and budgets, and recently the Federal Government announced that it would develop a wellbeing budget. But what does it really mean to have an economy focussed on ‘wellbeing’? And what does it mean for humanity’s relationship with the living world? Can Wellbeing Economics protect the environment? Join us for an important discussion with Katherine Trebeck, Mike Salvaris and Gareth Hughes, where we’ll explore what wellbeing economics are about, how they’ve been developed in other countries around the world – including New Zealand – and what’s possible in Australia.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

KATHERINE TREBECK – Katherine is a political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change. She co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and also WEAll Scotland, its Scottish hub. She sits on a range of boards and advisory groups such as The Democracy Collaborative, the C40 Centre for Urban Climate Policy and Economy, and the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity. Her most recent book The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown Up Economy (co-authored with Jeremy Williams and published by Policy Press) was published in January 2019 and her major report Being Bold: Budgeting for Children’s Wellbeing was launched in March 2021.

MIKE SALVARIS – Mike Salvaris is the ANDI Project Manager (Australian National Development Index Limited) and a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He is a former legal aid lawyer, tenants advocate, senior policy advisor and human rights and wellbeing researcher and is co-founder of the OECD Global Progress Research Network.

GARETH HUGHES – Gareth is the Country Lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand. Gareth was a Green MP in New Zealand Parliament for 10 years, and is now working with hubs members, officials, community groups, businesses and individuals to help drive Wellbeing Economy policy making processes and grow a movement for a Wellbeing Economy.

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How the heck are we human beings in industrialised societies going to cope with the types of societal changes heading towards us, due to climate change? While we see a significant focus and debate about the role of renewable energy and technology in transitioning us away from fossil fuels and reducing carbon emissions, we’re seeing less discussion about the deeper issues around our culture and our expectations of Mother Earth.

Please join us for this fascinating conversation between Mary Graham, Ross Williams and Michelle Maloney, as they reflect on the different ways that Indigenous and non-indigenous cultures and societies organise themselves, work with (and against) nature and what types of cultural changes might help us all work together into the future, to better care for the Earth community, and survive a climate changing world.

THIS EVENT IS BEING CO-HOSTED WITH FUTURE DREAMING

Future Dreaming is a not-for-profit organisation working to share ecological knowledge across cultures, to build a better future for all of us. For more information – www.futuredreaming.org.au

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

Mary Graham – Dr Mary Graham is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, and has written and spoken extensively about Aboriginal philosophy, ethics, politics and social issues. Mary grew up in South-East Queensland, and is a Kombu-merri person through her father’s heritage and a Wakka Wakka clan through her mother’s heritage. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Mary has worked across several government agencies, community organisations and universities. Mary has been a dedicated lecturer with the University of Queensland, teaching Aboriginal history, politics and comparative philosophy. Mary has written and published many prominent works, including – publications in the Aboriginal Encyclopaedia, training modules for Cross Cultural Awareness and a host of academic papers.

Ross Williams, Future Dreaming – Ross [Timmulbar] Williams is a proud Bindal descendent of the Mt Elliot, Townsville and Cape Cleveland clans and the Juru people of Bowen region on his father’s side, and Erub and Mer in the Torres Straits through his mother’s ‘side. Ross lives, works, and gives recognition and respect to the Yuggera and Turrbal clans and peoples (Brisbane/Meeanjin), as the rightful Traditional Owners and direct descendants of the original inhabitants, and to their ongoing connection to their traditional estates. Ross has lived and worked for many years with First Nations land and water based cultural management and has developed that knowledge over his lifetime.

Michelle Maloney – Dr Michelle Maloney (BA/LLB(Hons),PhD) is Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia.  She advocates for systems change, in order to shift industrialised societies from a human-centred, to an Earth centred governance system.

What could Australia’s society and economy look like, if we transition away from an extractive economy?

Join this fascinating webinar, where we’ll discuss how modern industrialised societies have been built on an extractivist culture and economy, and explore what our society and economy could look like if we shift to a regenerative, rather than an extractivist mode of operating.

Our speakers have extensive experience researching and advocating for policy changes so we that we can move to “post-extractivism”, and cease practices such as industrial-scale minerals extraction, deep sea bed mining and forestry. They will share important facts about the ongoing scale of modern extractivism, and inspirational stories from communities who are challenging unwanted mineral and other extraction.

GUEST SPEAKERS

• Nat Lowrey
• Liz Downes
• Marta Conde
• Carlos Zorrilla

NAT LOWREY

Nat Lowrey has been working as a grassroots activist and campaigner for over two decades on a range of justice issues with a strong focus on the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples resisting development aggressions on their lands and territories. Nat is the coordinator of Aid/Watch and communications coordinator for the Deep Sea Mining Campaign. She has held campaigner and communications positions with Friends of the Earth International, Mineral Policy Institute, Conservation Council of Western Australia, and Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA.

LIZ DOWNES

Liz Downes is a campaigner, researcher, writer and currently a Director of the Rainforest Information Centre and member of the Melbourne Rainforest Action Group (MRAG). With a background in community health, community development, environmental conservation, and working for non-government and nonprofit organisations in Australia and Latin America, Liz has spent the past several years working with local communities in Ecuador who are resisting Australian mining extractive interests. Liz is leading Aid/Watch research to map Australia’s ‘green’ extractivism footprint domestically and internationally.

MARTA CONDE

Marta Conde is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM) at the University of Queensland, Australia and the Institute of Science and Environmental Technology (ICTA) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain (UAB).

CARLOS ZORRILLA

Carlos Zorrilla is a full-time resident of Intag, co-founder of DECOIN, the environmental organization on the front lines of the resistance to the Llurimagua mining project since day one. In 2017, DECOIN was a recipient of the prestigious Equator Prize for its conservation work. The award is only given out every two years by the United Nations.

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ABOUT THIS EVENT

AELA is pleased to present the September Future Dreaming workshop, “Connecting to place, Caring for Country” as part of AELA’s Earth Laws Month.

Future Dreaming hosts identical workshops, on different dates between May – September 2022, to help people find a workshop date that suits their schedule.

COST

• $65 Standard Ticket
• $35 Concession Ticket
• $85 Standard Ticket + DONATION to Future Dreaming Australia.
• Limited scholarships are available – please email: aela@earthlaws.org.au

Read more and book your ticket for this event here

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

In this workshop, we focus on how human relationships with the living world can form a foundation for society.

By bringing together Aboriginal philosophy and law, with Western critiques of the current governance system, this workshop focuses on how ancient and emerging place-based, Earth-centred approaches can offer an effective, practical, compassionate and successful future for Australia.

The need for new approaches to social and environmental governance has never been greater. Governance structures at the local, national and global level are faltering in the face of multiple challenges, including climate change, the perceived failures of democracy, increasing social and economic inequities – and more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic.  In Australia, our changing climate – evidenced by the scale and intensity of the 2019/2020 summer of devastating bushfires, and the recent (March 2022) floods – is pushing communities to their limits and forcing many of us to reflect on our how we live on this continent.

The afternoon workshop includes presentations and discussions, to engage us all in the important work of reflecting on who we are, how we fit into the interconnected community of life, and the types of changes we can make in our individual, community and collective lives, to build a stronger, healthier and more resilient society.

WORKSHOP PRESENTERS

The workshop is presented by Future Dreaming, in partnership with the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA).

Three speakers will guide the afternoon discussions:

• Dr Mary Graham, Kombumerri person, Adjunct Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Queensland and Director of Future Dreaming
• Ross Williams, Bindal/Juru People and Director of Future Dreaming
• Dr Michelle Maloney, Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) and Director of Future Dreaming

Please join us for a fascinating discussion with Simon Kerr and Robin Davidson, about how the performing arts can stimulate, educate, provoke and support our connection to our planet, and to Earth-centred ideas and issues.

ABOUT OUR WEBINAR

In our webinar, Simon and Robin will share stories from their own experiences ‘performing for the Earth’, and share their insights into the processes involved with creating performances and ideas that can help us think, feel and care about the living world and each other.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

SIMON KERR – Simon is a musician, scientist and the driving force of the performing group – “Music for a Warming World”.  He is a communicator, able to translate the science and politics of climate change into music. Much of his songwriting over the years has addressed the challenges of living sustainably and well on a crowded planet. He also a written songs on many other topics, such a his infamous ‘Zombie Bride Trilogy’. Simon has had a long history working on the challenges of climate change. He taught environmental policy at Lincoln University in New Zealand for a number of years, and has a Masters of Applied Science in Environmental Management and a PhD in Political Ecology. He also has extensive research development experience at the University of Otago, The University of Melbourne and La Trobe University and is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at La Trobe and Engagement Lead an a 4 year Commonwealth Funded $12m Water and Environment Research Program on the Murray Darling Basin. In 2019 he attended the first Artists and Climate Change Incubator in Anchorage.

ROBIN DAVIDSON – Robin is the founding director of Rebus Theatre, a Canberra-based mixed ability theatre for social change. He is an actor, clown, director, teacher and writer. Robin works in applied theatre, devising theatre with communities, including five years as founding artistic director of Hidden Corners Theatre, a company for young carers (young people who have a family member with a disability), seven years as director of Imperfectly Sane Productions, the Mental Health Foundation ACT’s theatre company, and fifteen years as a founding member of Canberra Playback Theatre. He has taught in East Timor, Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. He was co-awarded the 2005 Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance ACT Green Room Award for services to community theatre. He also performs, directs and teaches clown and Commedia dell’Arte, including having performed in Nara, Japan and at the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic Games.

ABOUT OUR WEBINAR

How much DNA do you share with an octopus? Or a wombat? Or a bag of rice? The answers may surprise you!

This webinar explores the wonder of our interconnected Earth community, through the lens of science. We explore what science actually “is” (and what it isn’t) and what scientists have learnt about the evolution of life on Earth.

Join two of Australia’s leading scientists, for a fascinating discussion about life, the universe and everything.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

IAN LOWE – Ian Lowe AO is an Australian academic and writer focused on environmental issues. A physics graduate, he is an Emeritus Professor of Science, Technology and Society and former Head of the School of Science at Griffith University. He is also an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University. Ian has authored or co-authored 14 books, 10 Open University books, more than 50 book chapters and over 500 other publications. Books by Lowe include A Big Fix, Reaction Time, Living in the Hothouse, Why vs Why: Nuclear Power, A Voice of Reason: Reflections on Australia, Bigger or Better? Australia’s Population Debate, The Lucky Country? Reinventing Australia and Long Half-life: The Nuclear Industry in Australia.

BRENDAN MACKEY – Professor Brendan Mackey is Director of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon, Griffith Climate Change Response Program, and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility at Griffith University. He has a PhD in ecology from The Australian National University. Brendan has published extensively in the fields of climate change research, forest ecology and other topics in natural sciences, and was a Coordinating Lead Author for the 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC 6th Assessment Report, Working Group II – impacts, vulnerability & adaptation.

Please join us for an important discussion about sustainability, regeneration and Caring for Country.

‘Regeneration’ has become the popular framing for initiatives that aim to manage the environment and create systems that support rather than destroy the living world. ‘Regeneration’ is said to be ‘more’ than sustainability, and better able to achieve ecological health and restoration, while still achieving human goals. But is the current ‘regeneration’ trend everything that we need it to be?

Indigenous leaders from ‘Regenerative Songlines Australia’ will share their perspectives and insights into the concepts of sustainability and regeneration, in the context of Indigenous knowledge systems and ancient approaches to Caring for Country.  Our speakers will share insights into the Aboriginal Relationist Ethos, what it means to be guided by Country and First Laws, and share insights into the limitations of current discourse about sustainability and regenerative practices.

Regenerative Songlines Australia is an Indigenous led initiative, working to create continent wide connections, conversations and initiatives that enable people to Care for Country and build regenerative economies and societies.

OUR SPEAKERS

This roundtable will feature members of the Regen Songlines Steering Group: Mary Graham, Tyson Yunkaporta, Ross Williams and Alana Marsh.

Join us for an important update from ‘Ecocide Laws Australia’, about the potential of creating ecocide laws in Australia.

ABOUT ECOCIDE

Around the world, lawyers and environmentalists are advocating for the law of ecocide to be recognised in international law. There are various definitions of ‘Ecocide’ – a simple definition is that ecocide is “large scale damage and destruction of ecosystems causing severe harm to nature which is widespread or long term’.

In Australia, a group of lawyers, academic researchers and law students have created ‘Ecocide Laws Australia’, a working group auspiced by the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), which is exploring how ecocide laws might be created and implemented in Australia.

Featuring Rob White, Gwynn MacCarrick, Danielle Celermajer, Anthony Burke and Michelle Maloney, this webinar will provide an update about the key issues currently being addressed by the working group, and explore what Australian ecocide laws might look like.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

ROB WHITE – Rob White is Adjunct (Distinguished Professor) at the University of Tasmania. He has written extensively about green criminology, eco-justice and climate politics. Among his recent books are Climate Change Criminology (Bristol University Press, 2018), The Extinction Curve (with John van der Velden, Emerald Press, 2021) and Theorising Green Criminology (Routledge, 2022).

GWYNN MACCARRICK – Dr Gwynn MacCarrick currently works in Aboriginal legal services in Northern Queensland and leads ecocide research within the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA). Gwynn was formerly a lecturer at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) Law School, and has worked as an international law practitioner, international counsel, refugee lawyer, domestic criminal lawyer, university lecturer and academic. She has had extensive international field experience and brings a real-world applied focus to her research and teaching. Gwynn was a leading legal authority in the International Monsanto Ecocide Tribunal (2016-2017) and was a panelist and contributing author for the 2019 Citizen’s Inquiry into the Health of the Darling/Barka River.

DANIELLE CELERMAJER – Danielle Celermajer is a Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Sydney, Deputy Director of the Sydney Environment Institute and lead of the Multispecies Justice project. Her latest book, Summertime (Penguin Random House, 2021) was written in recognition of the critical urgency of conveying the complex conceptual recognition of the multispecies harms of the climate catastrophe in ways that can provoke affect and hence action. Summertime was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for non-fiction.

ANTHONY BURKE – Anthony Burke teaches in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra (2008-), and previously worked in the School of Social Sciences and International Studies at UNSW in Sydney (2005-7) and the Universities of Adelaide (2001-4) and Queensland (2001), and worked for two years as a research officer in the Senate’s environment, arts and communications committee (1999-2000), where he co-authored reports on the ABC, the Jabiluka uranium mine and Australia’s response to climate change. Anthony is a leading international scholar in the areas of international security studies, international ethics, war and peace, and political and international relations theory. His current interests include cosmopolitanism, new security agendas and conflicts, war and peace, security ethics, the posthuman, and climate change.

MICHELLE MALONEY – Dr Michelle Maloney is Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia.  She advocates for systems change, in order to shift industrialised societies from a human-centred, to an Earth centred governance system.

Join us for an update from some of the fantastic people involved in the rapidly growing ‘Regen Australia’ movement.

Many Australians are searching for better ways to respond to our ecological and climate crisis, to honour, respect and connect with the knowledge and laws of First Nations Peoples and to build regenerative cultures and societies that live within healthy ecological limits and the living capacity of our beautiful continent. As part of this, a fantastic movement of people is working to create regenerative principles and practices for towns, cities and regions. Join our webinar for an update from a range of speakers, from around Australia. Learn about their initiatives and consider joining or starting your own regenerative initiatives.

Regenerative means able to or tending to regenerate—to regrow or be renewed or restored, especially after being damaged or lost. Regeneration recognises that human and planetary health are deeply interwoven, and actively seeks to enable the flourishing of human and non-human life, on an ongoing basis, forever.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

• Mary Graham – Kombu-merri person, Adjunct Associate Professor UQ, Director of Future Dreaming and Steering Group member, Regen Songlines Australia
• Ross Williams – Bindal/Juru person, Director of Future Dreaming and Steering Group member, Regen Songlines Australia
• Alana Marsh – Miriam woman (Torres Strait Islander), Wayapa Wuurrk Reset practitioner and Steering Group member, Regen Songlines Australia
• Michelle Maloney – Greenprints program, AELA, Future Dreaming and NENA
• Dimity Podger – WWF and co-convenor of ‘Regen Australia Alliance’
• Willow Berzin – Coalition of Everyone (COE) and co-convenor of ‘Regen Australia Alliance’
• Nicole Barling-Luke – Regen Melbourne and Small Giants
• Kira Athanasiov – Regen Brisbane and Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA)
• Bronwen Morgan – Regen Sydney and Professor of Law, UNSW
• Trish Hansen – Regen Adelaide
• Tim Collings – Nowra regen movement
• Miya Isherwood – Far North Queensland/Atherton Tablelands

Please join us for an update about the international campaign to make Ecocide a crime, with our guest speaker Jojo Mehta, Co-founder of Stop Ecocide International.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER

Jojo Mehta Co-founded Stop Ecocide in 2017, together with barrister and legal pioneer the late Polly Higgins, to support the establishment of ecocide as a crime at the International Criminal Court.  As key spokesperson and Executive Director of Stop Ecocide International, Jojo has overseen the remarkable growth of the movement (teams in 15 countries across 6 continents, websites in 9 languages) while coordinating between legal developments, diplomatic traction and public narrative.

She is Chair of the charitable Stop Ecocide Foundation and convenor of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide chaired by Philippe Sands QC and Dior Fall Sow.

Jojo will speak for 30 minutes, and then engage in facilitated discussion with AELA’s National Convenor, Dr Michelle Maloney, followed by Q&A with participants.

ABOUT OUR WEBINAR

Earth jurisprudence, a term coined by the late Thomas Berry, calls on us to recognise that Nature is, and should be, the source of human laws, ethics and how we govern ourselves.  (Jurisprudence refers to the principles by which we live: the norms and rules that govern our lives.) Earth Jurisprudence calls for us to transform dominant, anthropocentric (human-centred) ways of seeing to Earth-centred understandings of our place on Earth and Earth-centred governance.

In this webinar, we explore what Earth jurisprudence is, and how it can be used as a theoretical framework for a range of practical programs and approaches. With stories and examples from around the world, this is an excellent opportunity to learn about Earth jurisprudence and how it’s being applied around the world.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

CARLOTTA BYRNE – is the Earth Jurisprudence Programme Lead at the Gaia Foundation, UK. In this role, she supports the delivery of Gaia’s three-year training programme for Earth Jurisprudence Practitioners and accompanies members of the African Earth Jurisprudence Collective: a community of practice dedicated to reviving and enhancing Indigenous lifeways, restoring sacred lands and waters, and promoting Earth Jurisprudence.

MARGARET STEWART – is the Director at the Center for Earth Jurisprudence, USA. She oversees CEJ’s programs and operations and has created educational forums throughout the United States and abroad. She also serves as the key Advisor to Barry University law students that work with CEJ as Earth Law & Policy Fellows. Margaret formerly served on the Executive Committee and chaired the Legal Committee of the Florida Springs Council. She is on the Executive Committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN).

MICHELLE MALONEY – Dr Michelle Maloney (BA/LLB(Hons),PhD) is Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA). AELA’s founding directors built the organisation to respond to Earth jurisprudence, and AELA’s programs continue to connect theory and practice, around how we can move from human-centred to Earth-centred governance, with a focus on law, economics, Indigenous knowledge systems, education, ethics and the arts.  Michelle is also Adjunct Senior Fellow, Law Futures Centre, Griffith University; and Director of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) and Future Dreaming Australia.  She advocates for systems change, in order to shift industrialised societies from a human-centred, to an Earth centred governance system.

Join us for a fascinating workshop about learning from the sounds of nature.

Nature is rich in acoustic communication. To make sense of what we hear requires listening skills and learning the languages of the natural world. This takes us on a journey of discovery into the sentient lives of creatures, and the interactions of species within habitats – relationships which embody the processes by which nature thrives, adapts and ensures the continuance of life.  Deep listening allows us to personally tune in to how nature achieves sustainability. These principles can be applied in our communities and social institutions to respond positively to the challenges we currently face.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER

Andrew Skeoch is an educator, naturalist, environmental thinker, and one of Australia’s best-known nature sound recordists.  In 1993, he established the independent label Listening Earth to publish immersive nature soundscape recordings, work which has since taken him around the world documenting the sounds of threatened ecosystems.  His presentations seek to address the fundamental questions of our human relationship with the living biosphere, and have been given at TedX, on ABC Radio’s ‘Big Ideas’, and to academic and community audiences.

ABOUT OUR WEBINAR

The Ocean Rights and Kinship Network is made up of Indigenous people, marine biologists, lawyers, researchers, activists and organisations dedicated to caring for oceans and respecting the rights and kinship of peoples and oceans around the Pacific, and around the world.

Join us as we provide updates about:

• Indigenous led projects in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific
• the Universal Declaration for the Rights of Oceans
• new developments in international law, including proposals for greater protection for Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ)
• and more!

Speaker details will be confirmed soon!

ABOUT THE REGENESIS PROJECT

Through the Regenesis Collective (regenesis.org.au), the Blue Mountains Creative Arts Network is telling the new/ancient story of RE-GENESIS, a way out of our dark path of ecological and civilisational collapse that can be traced back to a foundational story of Western Culture in Genesis, Old Testament, Verse 1.26. This story from Western culture—the idea that God made ‘man’ in his own image and gave him dominion over the Earth and all its lifeforms – generated the idea that only humans have souls/minds, and therefore the ‘right’ to control and exploit ‘brute’ nature for our benefit. 18th century mechanistic materialist science and the various waves of our techno-industrial revolutions since have further weaponised our alienation from nature through technological entrancement based on what First Nations’ elder Mary Graham has called ‘extractivist logic’. Regenesis counters this with our new/ancient story rooted in the ‘relationist logic’ of Caring for Country embodied in First Nations knowledge systems that have been kept alive by the arts in the songlines as a living, breathing presence in the land. This ancient story is now the foundation of the modern story of REGENESIS, informed by the wisdom of total ecological systems awareness in every cell of our being, knowing and praxis in all its multiple meanings and expressions. It is the story, which must now shape our future.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

BARBARA LEPANI – Barbara is a sociologist of technological innovation, writer, and cultural change advocate, with the lived experience of living across cultures. She is also a long-term student-practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and author of Tulkus, Tertons Turmoil: East Tibet 1855-1955, and Call of the Dakini: A Memoir of a Life Lived. Barbara is the president of Blue Mountains Creative Arts Network and co-ordinator of the Regenesis Collective and its various multi-arts regenesis projects. She is a key force behind the recently formed Arts & Culture Alliance Blue Mountains, and supporter of the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative and the regenerative agriculture movement.

HENRYK TOPOLNICKI – Henryk is a sculptor with over 25 years experience producing public artworks in metal, stone, wood and a variety of reclaimed materials. He is currently developing an extensive sculpture garden set in the rugged landscape of the Monkey Creek Escarpment near the famous Garden of Stones, which was heavily impacted by the Black Summer fires of 2019-2020. With his partner Merren French, Henryk also runs a commercial art gallery in the Monkey Creek art precinct at Dargan just east of Lithgow, featuring works by local artists and artisans.

SEAN O’KEEFFE – Sean is a multi-disciplinary artist who works across a range of media including video, painting and site-specific sculpture that responds to the Blue Mountains environment. His meditation on hope, which points to the breathtaking dimension of the human spirit and its efforts, suffuses his artistic sensibility and responses to time and the environment. As a filmmaker, Sean has worked extensively with young people teaching and producing many award-winning films.

JANELLE RANDALL-COURT – Janelle is a Bundjalung arts worker and practising artist who lives in the Blue Mountains. She has a long history of works that re-imagine our relationship with domestic waste through art, as part of her First Nation’s commitment to Caring for Country. She has co-produced a documentary featuring local Gundungurra Elder, Aunty Carol Cooper, featured in her work with Barbara Lepani on REIMAGINE, a waste to art project with funding support from Wentworth Health, Nepean Primary Health Network. The final part of this project till link this work to REGENESIS whereby participants will co-create their own regenesis journey through their different art works.

MELISSA CHAMBERS — Melissa is a young artist living and practising in the Blue Mountains whose work Art-i-fact Being won the prize for the best artwork in REGENESIS, an anthology of poetry, short stories and artworks produced by Rosey Ravelston Books and Publishing in partnership with the Blue Mountains Creative Arts Network for the 2022 Winter Magic Festival Revival. Together with her poem, ‘Lungs of the World’, Melissa’s art practice speaks directly to the search for a regenerative philosophy of living and her engagement with the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative.

The way we glow when having a great conversation, building off each other’s ideas, finding solutions we can all be satisfied with. The way we spark together when marching and chanting in protest. This is living democracy.

Join us for an important discussion with Tim Hollo, author of ‘Living Democracy: An ecological manifesto for the end of the world‘. Tim Hollo offers bold ideas and a positive vision. It’s the end of the world as we know it, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. In fact, around the globe, people and communities are beginning an exciting new journey.

Yes, the world looks bleak. Across our society there’s a mounting sense of desperation in the face of the climate crisis, gaping economic inequality and racial injustice, increasing threat of war, and a post-truth politics divorced from reality. Extinction is in the air.

But what if the solutions to our ecological, social and political crises could all be found in the same approach? What if it was possible for us to not just survive, but thrive?

ABOUT TIM HOLLO

Tim Hollo is Executive Director of The Green Institute and a Visiting Fellow at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University. He is also a musician and environmentalist who co-founded Green Music Australia in 2013.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT TIM’S BOOK

‘A brilliant conversation and action kick-starter from a man who walks the talk.’ – Christine Milne

‘It’s pretty clear that the world we’ve known isn’t working very well anymore; we need to reinvent it, and this book brims with good ideas about what that means!’ – Bill McKibben

‘A great vision for a bloodless coup of mutual aid and rule-governed anarchy.’ – Tyson Yunkaporta

‘A manual for making a new and better world that shows us, with lucidity, courage and compassion, that the tools for building that world are already in our hands.’ – James Bradley

‘I have been waiting for this book, and now that Tim Hollo has written it, I’ll be putting it in the hands of pretty much everyone I know.’ – Danielle Celermajer

‘Timely, vivid and urgent, this is a book that meets the challenges of our age head-on.’ – Scott Ludlam

‘A brilliant treatise for our future and based on a deep understanding of First Nations knowledge – Tim Hollo has given us so much with this beautifully written work.’ – Tjanara Goreng Goreng

In this webinar, we discuss how current western legal systems have failed to regulate industrial societies’ relationship with the living world, and propose a new paradigm for western law and governance.

Ecological law maintains human activity within ecological limits such as planetary boundaries while ensuring social justice and equity as an essential element of an urgently needed radical pathway of change toward a perpetual, mutually enhancing human-Earth relationship. It also offers a systems-based analytical tool for organizing actions to promote the transition from environmental to ecological law.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

GEOFF GARVER

Dr. Geoffrey Garver is a leading academic in the field of ecological law and governance and his recent book ‘Ecological Law and the Planetary Crisis’ sets out ‘a legal guide for harmony on earth’.  Geoff teaches environmental courses at McGill University and Concordia University in Montreal and coordinates law and governance research for the Leadership for the Ecozoic program, formerly the Economics for the Anthropocene Partnership. He is on the Steering Committee of the Ecological Law and Governance Association (elgaworld.org) and is active in the international degrowth movement.  Geoff completed his PhD (Geography) at McGill in 2016, and has a B.S. (Chemical Engineering) from Cornell University (1982), a J.D. from Michigan law School (1987) and an LL.M. from McGill (2011).

KATY GWIAZDON

Kathryn (Katy) Gwiazdon, J.D. currently lives and works in Washington, D.C. and serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Ethics and Law, an international non-governmental organization based in the U.S. (501(c)3). The core of her work advances the Biosphere Ethics Initiative, a program (adopted by IUCN) that seeks to evolve and push law and governance norms to better protect our planet and its natural and human communities. The heart of the work consists of meeting with local communities around the world to learn about the values that underlie their actions and decision-making, connecting these communities with one another to better address shared challenges, highlighting their stories on the global stage to help inform and move legal norms, and then
support this work with inter-disciplinary scholarly research. Alongside her role as Executive Director, she teaches Public International Law and International Business Transactions at Northern Illinois University College of Law, and is a founding member of the Ecological Law and Governance Association (ELGA).

CARLA SBERT

Carla completed her Ph.D. at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Graduate Studies in Law in 2019. Her doctoral thesis, directed by CELGS’s professors Heather McLeod-Kilmurray and Nathalie Chalifour, explored the role law can play in the transition from the current economic-growth-based society to one based on ecological justice. In April 2020, Edward Elgar published The Lens of Ecological Law: A Look at Mining, based on this research (https://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781839102127.xml). Previously, Carla studied law at ITAM in her native Mexico, received an LL.M. from Harvard Law School and worked for twenty years on environmental law and policy in different contexts. She is currently an independent researcher and aspiring self-sufficiency farmer.  

Join us for an important discussion about Australia’s Rush for Energy Transition Minerals & Metals

Scouring the globe, Australian corporations and investors are expanding into new territories, both domestically and internationally, for new sources of “critical and strategic” minerals for the “green energy transition” to a zero carbon world. These minerals include lithium, copper, nickel, rare earth, and cobalt.

In this presentation, Liz Downes (lead researcher and author) and Nat Lowrey (Aid/Watch) will present the research of an upcoming report that Aid/Watch Australia will be launching in September.

The research maps Australian ‘Green Extractivism’ projects, domestically and internationally, and identifies key intersecting issues through case studies including socio-environmental impacts; greenwashing; sacrifice zones; supply chains; ESG; corporate-state power; energy security; and militarisation. The report highlights the need for us to consider alternative pathways beyond extractivism towards a liveable future for ourselves and our planet.

For more information on NENA’s Post-Extractivism Hub:

https://www.neweconomy.org.au/nena-hubs/sector/post-extractivism/

For more information on Aid/Watch’s Alternatives to ‘Green’ Extractivism project:

https://aidwatch.org.au/alternatives-to-green-extractivism/

Join us for a fascinating discussion about how rocks, geology and the power of creativity can help us understand the foundations of our planet and the future of life on earth.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS

MARIAN DREW

Marian Drew is one of Australia’s most significant photographic artists, with a practice spanning 30 years in both education and exhibition. She has held more than 25 solo exhibitions in Australia, United States of America, France, Hong Kong and Germany and over 100 group shows in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, France, China, Germany, Singapore, Taiwan, Peru and the United States.

Marian Drew lives in Brisbane Australia, and is currently Adjunct Associate Professor at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University and PhD candidate at the Canberra School of Art and Design, Australian National University. She was Queensland College of Art (QCA) Director of the Photography Program 2005-2016, and QCA Deputy Director, 2001-2003, where she taught full time 1986-2016.

You can visit Marian’s website here:
https://www.mariandrew.com.au/

CLIVE WILLMAN

Clive Willman is a geologist and educator. Clive’s interest in geology started with a fascination for reconstructing the story of the earth.  Clive finds it endlessly exciting that we can look far back in time using evidence left in landscapes and rocky outcrops. His first geological work was in Victoria’s oldest underground gold mine at Chewton which ultimately led to postgraduate studies on the way that gold is clustered in some areas and not others; the detailed study of ancient marine fossils was a key part of this work.

Clive spent 21 years with a mapping team in the Geological Survey of Victoria studying areas from the goldfields of central Victoria to the eastern mountains.  Their fundamental task was to map the distribution of different rocks, but more importantly, the team attempted to unravel the history of the earth by uncovering the sequence of events that has affected the land. Clive now devotes his time making educational films in the earth sciences and he loves bringing the earth’s history to a wider audience.

You can visit Clive’s Youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/GeologyFilms/videos

Please join us for a special evening, in conversation with Victor Steffensen.

Victor Steffensen’s book “Fire Country” was released in February 2020. The book outlines how the revival of Indigenous fire management practices, including improved ’reading’ of country and undertaking ’cool burns’, can help to restore our nation. Released just after the horrific 2019/2020 bushfires caused unimaginable damage, killing billions of animals and traumatising communities around Australia, Victor’s book became a best-seller, and has become influential in helping Australians rethink and come to terms with, Australia’s relationship with fire.

Victor developed a passion for traditional cultural and ecological knowledge from a young age, but it was after leaving high school that Victor met two Elders who became his mentors, particularly to revive cultural burning. Developed over many generations, this knowledge shows clearly that Australia actually needs fire – with burning done in a controlled manner – for land care and healing.

OUR SPEAKER – VICTOR STEFFENSEN

Victor Steffensen is an Indigenous writer, filmmaker, musician and consultant applying traditional knowledge values in a contemporary context, through workshops and artistic projects. He is a descendant of the Tagalaka people through his mother’s connections from the Gulf Country of north Queensland. Much of Victor’s work over the past 27 years has been based on the arts and reviving traditional knowledge values – particularly traditional burning – through mentoring and leadership, as well as on-ground training with Aboriginal communities and many non-Indigenous Australians.

Victor is co-founder and advisor to the Board of Firesticks Alliance, which provides Indigenous leadership, advocacy and action to protect Country through cultural fire and land management practices. He is also the co-founder of the National Indigenous Fire Workshops, which have so far been hosted in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Victor has also connected with First Nations communities in North America and the Sámi people of Scandinavia, sharing cultural knowledge practices related to caring for country. Victor is regularly interviewed by media regarding Indigenous fire management, including on The Drum, ABC News, Insight and for The Saturday Paper and Dumbo Feather magazine.

OUR HOST – ROSS WILLIAMS, FUTURE DREAMING

Ross [Timmulbar] Williams is a proud Bindal descendent of the Mt Elliot, Townsville and Cape Cleveland clans and the Juru people of Bowen region on his father’s side, and Erub and Mer in the Torres Straits through his mother’s ‘side. Ross lives, works, and gives recognition and respect to the Yuggera and Turrbal clans and peoples (Brisbane/Meeanjin), as the rightful Traditional Owners and direct descendants of the original inhabitants, and to their ongoing connection to their traditional estates. Ross has lived and worked for many years with First Nations land and water based cultural management and has developed that knowledge over his lifetime. He has worked with governments, private corporations and communities, to develop cross-cultural understanding and collaboration, runs his own consulting business and is a Director of Future Dreaming.

ABOUT FUTURE DREAMING

Future Dreaming Australia is a not-for-profit organisation created by Indigenous non-indigenous leaders, to share ecological knowledge across cultures, to build a better future for all of us.

For more information, please visit our website: www.futuredreaming.org.au
Or get in touch – info@futuredreaming.org.au

Join us for an important update from ‘Stop Ecocide’ advocates in New Zealand, Hawaii and other communities in the Pacific.

ABOUT OUR WEBINAR

Around the world, concerned citizens, environmentalists and lawyers are advocating for ecocide to be recognised as a crime in international law. Many nations in the Pacific have been vocal advocates for the recognition of ecocide as a crime. In the Pacific, communities have been arguing for decades that human-created climate change is setting up the conditions for ecocide in their communities: increasingly violent weather cycles and cyclone events are causing significant harm to human and non-human island communities, and sea level rise is threatening the complete extinction of many places.

In this webinar, guest speakers from Hawaii, New Zealand (and other communities, to be confirmed) will share updates about the threats faced by their communities, and the actions being taken by stop ecocide advocates and others.

Ecocide is broadly understood to mean mass damage and destruction of ecosystems – severe harm to nature which is widespread or long-term. Ecocide, committed repeatedly over decades, is a root cause of the climate and ecological emergency that we now face.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS 

JOHN MILLER – HAWAII

John Miller is the President & Co-Founder of Mana Pacific, a public benefit corporation in Hawaii and the initiator of the Moana Pledge, an international initiative to unite the 21 Pacific Island Countries & Territories (PICTs) to accelerate the adoption of clean energy in an equitable way. John is a Board Trustee for the American Renewable Energy Institute (AREI) in Colorado, the Paia Youth & Cultural Center in Hawaii, and Island Ambassador with Island Innovation, based in the UK. John is a two-spirit water protector working with the indigenous-led Stop Line 3 movement in MN, founder of the non-profit Wai Ola Alliance suing the US Navy for poisoning the water in Hawaii, and is an advocate and Earth Protector for Stop Ecocide, a global campaign to establish a law of ECOCIDE.

LYNDON DE VANTIER – AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

Lyndon De Vantier is the Co-Lead for Stop Ecocide Aotearoa/New Zealand. He is also a freelance coral ecologist. He has worked with many international agencies and governments over the past 35 years, from Arabia to SE and E Asia, Australasia, Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean. His work has focused on ecological assessment, monitoring and sampling design, taxonomy and biogeography. His main career goals are to improve understanding of the biological structure and ecological function of coral reefs, and assist in development of effective management. He is also increasingly focused on the impacts of changing climate and oceanography, particularly on threatened species.

ALAN WEBB – AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND

Alan Webb has over 28 years of experience in litigating company, contract, commercial, negligence, property, resource management and land disputes. He has extensive appellate Court experience. He also has experience in the District Court Civil and Criminal jurisdictions, the Environment Court, Council resource consent hearings, hearings before Parliamentary Select Committees, the Commerce Commission, and in Arbitral proceedings. Alan focuses predominantly on environmental issues arising under the Resource Management Act 1991. Although based in Auckland, he provides services throughout New Zealand and advises on all aspects on environmental, resource management, local government, public law, administrative and enforcement issues. He also acts as counsel for developers, property holdings companies, industrial services companies and community groups undertaking a wide range of projects. Alan regularly appears in council hearings, the Environment Court, the High Court and occasionally in the Appellate jurisdiction.

FACILITATED BY – Dr Michelle Maloney, National Convenor, Australian Earth Laws Alliance

Please join us for the launch of the 2022/2023 Citizens’ Inquiry into Australia’s Planning Laws.

Across Australia, from Tasmania to the Kimberley, Indigenous and non-indigenous communities spend extensive amounts of their time challenging unwanted developments that threaten the places they love. Again and again, we see that the planning and development laws in our State, Territory and Federal jurisdictions rarely protect the environment, but continue to support development at all costs. Australian communities seem to be endlessly engaged in development approval processes, litigation and political advocacy in order to protect and care for their local ecosystems.

The Australian Peoples’ Tribunal (APT) for Community and Nature’s Rights is launching a special “Citizen’s Inquiry into Australia’s Planning Laws”, which will invite testimonies from people around Australia, about how planning laws are working (and not working) for them and their communities, and how we can transform our planning system to truly support local communities and the living world.

GUEST SPEAKERS

The launch event will be hosted by Dr Michelle Maloney, National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), and Coordinator of the Australian Peoples’ Tribunal (APT) for Community and Nature’s Rights. Michelle will provide an introduction to the Citizen’s Inquiry, and share the Terms of Reference and website information that will enabled people to share their testimonies and ideas.

Our guest speakers are Sue Higginson, NSW Greens MP and Sheena Gillman from Birdlife Australia. Sue and Sheena will discuss their experiences with and insights into Australia’s planning law system, and why this Citizens’ Inquiry is needed, in order to provide a forum for communities to share their concerns and suggestions for the future of planning law in Australia.

ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN PEOPLES’ TRIBUNAL

www.tribunal.org.au

The Australian Peoples’ Tribunal (APT) for Community and Nature’s Rights is a unique forum for ecological and social justice in Australia. It has been created as a permanent civil society institution to enable people to share their concerns about the destruction of the environment, articulate their vision for ecological justice and law reform, and work collectively to develop their ideas for building a socially just, Earth centred society.

The APT aims to respond to situations where the current Australian legal system is perceived as failing to support the rights of nature to exist and thrive, and the obligations of communities to care for local ecosystems.

The APT holds Citizens’ Inquiries and hears Ecological Justice Cases, brought on behalf of flora, fauna, ecosystems, bioregions and local communities around Australia. As a ‘Citizens’ tribunal’ the APT is not a government endorsed activity nor do any of its activities, decisions or recommendations have the force of government-sanctioned law. The APT is independent, managed by volunteers and brings people together to speak out for justice. The APT provides an educative and culturally transformative forum in which to present a positive, alternative process to address environmental justice and Caring for Country.

The APT Panel is made up of First Nations Peoples, lawyers, community representatives and eminent scientists. It hears Inquiries and Cases,and makes recommendations for restorative justice, innovative law reform and socio-political reforms that will Care for Country and protect Community and Nature’s Rights.

To see previous work carried out by the APT, visit the APT website and read the 230 page report from the “Citizens’ Inquiry into the Health of the Barka River” – https://tribunal.org.au/hearings/2019-tribunal/

Please join us for an experiential and thought-provoking workshop with the awesome folks from “Wicked Elephants“.

Wicked Elephants are building a reputation for facilitating remarkable workshops and events. With their mix of creative exercises and delightful provocations, they are able to take participants on a journey that supports creative responses to wicked problems, and brings us into deeper connection with our innate understandings of ourselves, our lives and our work.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP

We are Nature too. Nature seeing, nature sensing, nature speaking of nature to nature’. In this interactive session we will explore in an embodied way our deeper connection to nature, regenerating and re-sourcing ourselves through a conversation with nature.

ABOUT OUR WORKSHOP HOSTS

CARESSE CRANWELL

Caresse is an eco-philosopher, facilitator, coach and experiential therapist. She loves to facilitate the ‘aha’ moments through experiential inquiry and to deepen people’s connection to Nature. Her guiding inspiration is the embodied perception that we are in evolutionary partnership with life.

JOHANNA DE RUYTER

Johanna is an experienced facilitator of improvisation, storytelling and embodied language.

Join us for a fascinating presentation and discussion with the Faith Ecology Network (FEN), an Australian hub for strengthening an interfaith dialogue between science and religion in the interests of advancing ecological consciousness and care for the Earth.

The Faith Ecology Network currently includes, but is not exclusive to, people embracing Aboriginal Spirituality, and Anglican, Bahá’í, Brahma Kumaris, Buddhist, Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Islamic, Orthodox Christian, Quaker, and Uniting Church faith traditions.

OUR SPEAKERS

Sue Martin, David Low and Anne Lanyon will present the new Ten Ways process and resource developed by FEN and permaculture artist, Brenna Quinlan which will be launched later in October.

ABOUT OUR WEBINAR

The 21st Century has seen the rise of laws that recognise nature as having its own legal rights. This is a radical shift for western legal systems, that typically treat nature as merely being human property.  Laws have now been created in more than a dozen countries, that recognise that nature is not just human property, but a living community

that deserves the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate vital cycles.

Join us for an update about this fascinating and fast moving area of law, with expert speakers from around the world.  We’ll provide an introduction to the key concepts about Rights of Nature, as well as updates about how rights of nature laws are being implemented in different cultures, using very different legal tools and approaches.

Our symposium will provide an important update about developments in the creation and implementation, of rights of nature laws and policies, from Ecuador, Colombia, the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

SPEAKERS CONFIRMED SO FAR!

• Natalia Greene, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (GARN)
• Grant Wilson, Earth Laws Center (ELC)
• Osprey Orielle Lake, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International
• Margaret Stewart, Center for Earth Jurisprudence
• Shannon Biggs, Movement Rights
• Erin O’Donnell, Birrarung Council and Melbourne University, Australia
• Michelle Maloney, Australian Earth Laws Alliance
• Speakers from Columbia, New Zealand and India to be confirmed shortly!

Please join us to celebrate the launch of AELA’s second Earthwords and Artlings Anthology: “Tipping Points”

The Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA) believes that cultural change is a vital part of building Earth centred law, governance and ethics. To explore and recognise the role of creativity and cultural expression in supporting humanity’s connection to, and care for, the living world, AELA hosts an ‘Earth Arts Program‘, which features art exhibitions, creative writing anthologies, acoustic ecology projects and much more.

Join us on 29 September from 1pm to 2pm AEST (Brisbane time), to celebrate the beautiful poetry, stories, photographs and images that make up “Tipping Points”.

What’s really going on with international and national policies addressing climate change? What is the Australian government doing to address climate change and is it enough? And what are the best actions we can continue to take, right now, in our own households and communities, to respond to climate change?

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER

BRENDAN MACKEY

Professor Brendan Mackey is Director of the Griffith Climate Action Beacon, Griffith Climate Change Response Program, and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility at Griffith University. He has a PhD in ecology from The Australian National University. Brendan has published extensively in the fields of climate change research, forest ecology and other topics in natural sciences, and was a Coordinating Lead Author for the 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC 6th Assessment Report, Working Group II – impacts, vulnerability & adaptation.

ABOUT OUR WEBINAR

Creative practices provide a powerful medium for promoting engagement with nature and the environment.

NatureArt Lab’s environmental education work through art, photography and nature immersion tours has brought opportunities for many people to connect with nature, learn how to observe their environment, and become advocates for conservation.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKER

Julia Landford is the Founding Director of NatureArt Lab. She is passionate about environmental education, fostering human connections with nature through creative practices of art, photography and nature immersion tours. Julia won ACT Educator of the Year (AAEE, 2019) and Telstra Best of Business Award 2022 (ACT winner for Promoting Sustainability).

ABOUT OUR WORKSHOP

Learn how to create your own nature journal with Julia Landford! Learn about nature journaling and start to see the natural world around you through mindfulness, observation, sketching, drawing and note-taking. This is the perfect way to slow down, explore the environment and get to know the plants and animals around you. Suitable for beginners through to advanced artists, nature journaling provides a structured and enjoyable way to record your observations in nature, with beautiful results to revisit over time.

Have your journaling materials ready (see the list below) and enjoy a 2 hour workshop of guided exercises, that will help you engage with deep observation and record your nature experiences.

Materials Required

• some natural objects (eg a leaf, feather, stone, sea shell or seeds etc)
• visual art diary (200gsm paper in A5 or A4 size recommended)
• graphite and colour pencils
• watercolour paint set
• small and medium-sized paint brush (with a good tip)
• water brush
• ruler
• magnifying glass
• eraser
• pencil sharpener

ABOUT OUR WORKSHOP HOST

Julia Landford is the Founding Director of NatureArt Lab. She’s passionate about environmental education, fostering human connections with nature through creative practices of art, photography and nature immersion tours. Julia won ACT Educator of the Year (AAEE, 2019) and Telstra Best of Business Award 2022 (ACT winner for Promoting Sustainability).