Theme: Community Responses to Climate Change

Climate change is already upon us. With rising sea levels, increasingly irregular weather and rampant climate anomalies like bushfires, mega typhoons and droughts, climate instability is becoming a new normal for our generation. Often in the face of such overwhelming change one can feel paralysed to take action. Many of us have such a strong desire to change the world for the better, but feel incapable of making any real change - what can one person do?

This summit was put together to tackle these issues on an accessible platform, with a variety of speakers who are actively building resilient communities and working against climate change.

Whether this be on a political, economic, industrial or community level - this summit is about sharing stories and practical take-aways to empower and engage us into action. Covid19 has shown us that it is possible to create a new normal - and using the knowledge of first nations cultures, permaculture design techniques and social engineering we will workshop this new reality. Our incredible speakers will be covering a variety of topics followed by a Q&A panel at the end, these categories are:

• First nations understandings of living a meaningful life in partnership with our landscape and how we begin to integrate this into contemporary living.

• Food webs and supply. How can we ethically engage in food production and consumption?

• Share/welfare economies. How can we engage in ethical economies and what are our possibilities within ecological limits?

• Landscape cultivation and practices for immediate climate mitigation. What are our options and what are people already doing?

• Transport and its intrinsic link to fossil fuels. How can we uncouple these?

• Using and valuing renewables. What does this look like in a contemporary setting?

Some of our speakers include David Holmgren (Co-originator of permaculture), Rosemary Morrow, Daryl Taylor, Patrick Jones (Artist as Family) Jacynta L Fa'amau (Pacific Climate Warriors), Delldint Fleming, Quinn Earthchild, Morag Gamble, PermaQueer amongst a host of others confirmed.

This event will run from the 15th-17th of October online and will be recorded for later viewing as well.

In the spirit of accessibility and engaging a wider audience in the climate discussion this event is donation based or free.

Delldint Permaculture Learning
56 Main street
Blackburn, Victoria, 3130
Australia

Alana Marsh

Wayapa Practitioner

Alana is a Meriam woman (Torres Strait Islander), who has only ever lived on mainland Australia. She also has Irish and Papuan strands in her life tapestry. Alana feels a deep respect and pride in calling herself an Australian, locally, nationally and internationally, as she has experienced some of the many wisdoms and strengths within this continent. Prior to colonisation Traditional Custodians from many nations enlivened these ways of Knowing, Being and Doing, which still continues, if in different ways today. Alana shares Wayapa; a wellness modality that enables the transmission of intergenerational wellbeing by deepening our individual and collective reciprocity with our shared Mother; Mother Earth. With 14 readily recognised elements and a movement sequence it is a simple yet powerful species centred intervention for some of the complex challenges we face today across the planet.

Amanda Morglund

Mycologist & Fashion Designer

Amanda Morglund is the Founder of Mycelium Made and Director of Fungi Solutions where collaboration with Fungi is used to recycle waste sources into new materials. Mycelium Made produces grown to order, zero waste and circular loungewear and accessories. Fungi Solutions is a Mycocycling service, transforming industry waste and environmental pollutants into packaging and structural materials. Amanda is a passionate cultivator of educational and community projects as well as a part of the Mycommunity Applied Mycology Board. She is currently researching the remediation of cigarette butt pollution using Fungi. With advancements in Mycology we have the opportunity to tackle some of the world’s most challenging ecosystem disruptors, restore health to damaged environments and learn to produce what we need circularly .

Artist As Family

Degrowth Performance Collective

Artist as Family is a performance collective who incorporate degrowth and permaculture principles to live a radical lifeway they call neopeasantry. They live without cars, air travel, supermarkets and industrial pharmaceuticals, which has freed them up to transition to subsistence and share economies built on relationships. They are community gardeners, goat herders, filmmakers, storytellers, fermenters, community foresters and actors who live in sacred Djaara Peoples' Country.

Barney Swan

Regenerative Accelerator

Through a regenerative portfolio, Barney Swan accelerates ecosystem protection, carbon drawdown and leadership expeditions. He is currently in Far North Queensland, Australia, leading a project to restore 450 acres of the world’s oldest rainforest: Daintree. Prior to Founding the charity, ClimateForce Limited, Barneyskied over 1000km over 60 days to the South Pole, pulling a sledge with supplies and shelter. Surviving off clean technologies including a NASA-designed solar melter, biofuels made from waste products, vacuum flasks, and solar batteries. With a spirit of collaboration, he connects audiences to better understand their environmental footprint and the responsibility to do more about it. Open-sourcing solutions and making sustainable development inclusive to businesses, students and families

Bianca Ott

Vegan Activist

Plant Based Punx is a solo project by Bianca Ott. Having switched to a vegan lifestyle over 4 years ago, she felt the need to share her journey with the world and let them know it's all about doing your best, being open to learn & being more conscious about what you consume.

Brenna Quinlan

Permaculture Teacher & Artist

Brenna Quinlan is an illustrator and educator who strives to make the world a better place through her art and her actions. For the past four years she has lived a low-impact lifestyle at Melliodora, the permaculture demonstration site created by permaculture co-originator David Holmgren and partner Su Dennett in Central Victoria, Australia. With a knack for making complex information accessible and fun, Brenna's illustrations have been shared far and wide, both in print and online, inspiring a growing movement of people committed to climate, ecological and social justice.

Charlie MGee

Permaculture Teacher & Musician

Charlie Mgee has used the power of song to communicate the ethics and principles of permaculture to diverse audiences with his band Formidable Vegetable. Environmental activist and ecofeminist Vandana Shiva once praised the band for 'connecting the creativity of nature with the creativity of music' and, with the addition of Brenna's art, the two hope to activate and empower a new generation of changemakers around the world to connect back with the land and life that sustains us all.

Chela .

Musician & Climate Activist

Chela is an Australian/Filipino artist, musician, songwriter, producer, and filmmaker originally from Fremantle, Western Australia. After relocating to Melbourne with her family at age 15, she taught herself how to play bass guitar so she could start an all-female punk pop band with her best friends. They toured Australia extensively for 3 years and within this time Chelsea also appeared twice as a guest on Rockwiz.

Daryl Taylor

Megafire Survivor

Daryl is the co-convenor (with Julian Cohen) of the Facing Fire dialogue, an international collaboration among fire survivors exploring post-firestorm landscape rehydration and integrated and systemic approaches to regenerative agriculture, regenerative forestry, regenerative aquaculture and regenerative settlement re-design and re-development. He is a ‘Black Saturday’ mega-firestorm survivor and owner-builder of 'Kinship' the Kinglake Earthship, Victoria's first Biotecture- and Permaculture-inspired climate-and fire-resistant home and property (an ongoing and ever-evolving work in progress with the long-term goal of creating a convivial space for community-based bioculture and permaculture education, and a sanctuary for human and animal trauma and mental health recovery and healing).

David Holmgren

Co-originator of the Permaculture concept & ecologist

David Holmgren is the co-originator of the permaculture concept following publication of Permaculture One, co-authored with Bill Mollison in 1978. David is globally recognised as a leading ecological thinker, teacher, writer and speaker promoting permaculture as a realistic, attractive and powerful alternative to dependent consumerism. Other key publications include Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability (2002) and Future Scenarios: How Communities Can Adapt To Peak Oil and Climate Change (2009) and most recently, RetroSuburbia: The Downshifter’s Guide to a Resilient Future (2018).

Delldint Fleming

Permaculture Teacher

Delldint is a passionate and neurodiverse permaculture teacher in Naarm (Melbourne). On the autism spectrum, her special interests change frequently as befits a person with ADHD, however constants are neuroplasticity, health and longevity, all things food, nature and science. A writer all her life, she is an explorer, landscape reader, forager, story-teller and taoist. Nature is her solace, teacher and great love. She teaches PDCs in a slow, flexible, cyclical and interactive way, and runs a permaculture share house, constantly seeking edge-ful ways of teaching and interacting to build community.

Dr Rachel Goldlust

Natural Builder & Historian

Near the end of her Town Planning degree in 2009, Rachel attended a panel on post-bushfire recovery by Earthship founder Michael Reynolds. Helping to establish a collective for developing the principles of Biotecture, Earthship Australia was formed. After travelling to New Mexico in 2011, Rachel has participated in and hosted dozens of workshops around the world and across the spectrum of natural building styles and designs including hemp, earthbag, cob and mud brick. While undertaking her Ph.D. in Environmental History, she has continued to tour and educate the community on planning, logistics and the implementation of alternative building design across Australia.

Drika Horton

Regenerative Development Practitioner

Healing from whole has been the river that braids the seemingly dissonant streams throughout Drika’s lifepath. With a background in Traditional Chinese Medicine, healing arts and Sculpture, for almost 20yrs Drika’s art practice has been poetic license to explore worldviews, earth based practices, pollinate cross disciplinary collaboration and use whole system thinking as a form of creative problem solving to address social and environmental issues. Honouring Indigenous wisdom as the critical cosmological worldview, Drika works with the uniqueness of place and people to help heal our relationship with Country and enables others to do the same through Regenerative Development.

Ema Coro

Mycologist

Ema is a mycologist with an interest in sustainability, conservation and ecology. She is currently researching the production of sustainable mycelium-based sound insulation materials from agricultural by-products at RMIT University. She is also the president of MYCOmmunity Applied Mycology which is an organisation that aims to raise awareness of the importance of fungi in health, sustainability and the environment, as well as providing scientific training and resources. She is the coordinator of the Wild Fungi Project which is developing environmental DNA techniques that citizen scientists can use to search for rare and endangered fungi.

Engineers Declare

Network of Engineers

A little known fact about engineering is that its activities are directly responsible for 65% of Australia's carbon emissions. In response to Industry and Government apathy, the Australian Engineers Declare Climate Emergency and Biodiversity Loss movement was formed in September 2019, joining the global Climate Emergency Declaration movement which has now spread to over 23 countries, covering a population size of 814 million. In Australia, 75 government jurisdictions have also joined the movement in declaring a climate and biodiversity emergency. In this one hour segment, anchored by Willow Aliento, a qualified journalist, our panel speakers, Jane Hadjion, co-founder of Australian Engineers Declare, and Priya Gandhi, a senior sustainability consultant, share what it means to build an ethical career.

Guy Ritani

Permaculture Climate Activist

Guy Ritani (They/Them) is a Maori artist, activist, dancer & permaculture teacher living in Naarm (Melbourne). Guy has a deep passion and connection to landscape and draws from this in their art, teaching and projects around the world. Isolation has seen guy teaching from lockdown all around the world and attending many climate summits, they’ve all informed the action that guy takes and currently all manifest in the current TEDx talk today. Guy believes grassroots initiatives empower people to take action and make change in their communities to impact the system in large. They hope this will be one stepping stone in the pathway to inspiring people to take action in their own lives to ensure we steer humanity onto the correct path and within our ecological limits.

Jacynta Fa'amau

Climate Activist

An Australian born Samoan woman who’s journey in climate justice began in 2014 for the Pacific Climate Warriors Canoe Blockade in Australia. Now currently working as an Organiser for 350 Australia. She is also a Council of Elder representative for the Pacific-Diaspora region with the Pacific Climate Warriors. Jacynta hopes to inspire young leaders to discover their craft and use it to fulfil our shared responsibility to our People, Land and ocean.

Joel Meadows

Environmental Educator

Joel Meadows is an environmental educator, energy auditor, building designer, sustainable transport consultant, illustrator, maker of things of steel and wood, grower, cooker and preserver of food, avid gardener and musician. Joel has studied Sculpture, Blacksmithing, Renewable Energy Technology and Permaculture, he has worked for private, government and not for profit organisations and run the Green Hand Institute. Joel illustrated the second edition of David Holmgren’s ‘Principles’ book and ‘The Rocket Powered Oven’ e-book with Tim Barker. Joel lives with his family on the fringe of Castlemaine – Central Victoria, where he continually works on his permaculture business, property and ideas.

Keitha Thuy Young

Seed Sovereignty Advocate

Keitha Thuy Young (she/her) is a disabled mother, farmer, herbalist, daughter of a refugee and food sovereignty advocate. After studying Organic Farming and Agroecology with Dr. Vandana Shiva, she founded Seed Freedom Food Festival to inform and inspire on the importance of seed saving and local food movements. While pregnant she unexpectedly gained an ileostomy bag to save her life and is now exploring the link between soil health + gut health and their connections with intersectional climate justice. She currently tends a regenerative farm, crafts plant medicine and stewards seeds, as she's able, with her daughter alongside.

Lara Hunt

Regenerative Development Practitioner

Lara is a Regenerative Development Practitioner with a background in sustainability, engineering, community development and grassroots initiatives. Having a love for nature and the mystery of life, her life has been a series of journeys, through which she has gained a deep respect for the wisdom of indigenous cultures. Enquiring into her own indigeneity of the Celtic Irish, she has been uncovering ways of seeing and knowing a world where humans were not separate from nature- but a symbiotic part of the web of land, people and spirit. Her sharing’s are dedicated to bringing humans back to the nature of who they are.

Les Spencer

Social Scientist

Les completed his Ph.D. combining natural and human sciences and biography and using one's living body as a method. Les has written a biography of the life work of Dr. Neville Yeomans founder of Keyline, a way of working well with nature and land topography. Neville explored links between natural topography and social topography. Neville’s life work (1927-2000) continues in networking networks towards increasing individual and communal wellness towards thriving futures. Les extended Keyline in Cultural Keyline that engages in bio-mimicry in evolving and extending all forms of wellbeing. David Holmgren speaks of being influenced by the Yeomans in evolving Permaculture. Les’ studies embrace clinical psychology, neuro-psycho-biology, behavioural science, clinical sociology, community psychiatry, futures studies, somatic movement, large money investment, probability, compound interest, and actuarial science. Some of Dr. Les’ writings are included in the archive www.laceweb.org.au

Lisa Mitchell

Musician & Climate Activist

After crash-landing into the music industry while still at school, Lisa released her debut EP when she was just 17, and her second at 18; both accomplished folk pieces harbouring pop ambitions. Mitchell’s full-length debut, “Wonder”, delivered on their promise, reaching No. 6 in Australia and going Platinum. Countless Australian, UK and European tours and festival appearances followed. With highlights such as a spot at Glastonbury, many ARIA Nominations, and winning the Australian Music Prize. Mitchell's songwriting is informed by her rural, country childhood, a deep respect for the body, and what it means to live in so-called Australia.

Liz Sanders & Georgia Larkin

Community Food Connectors

Liz Sanders is the Co- founder and Manager of the Food Embassy, a not for profit business connecting community through food. Liz is a dietitian and has worked for many years with SA local and state government in the food and community development space where she co-founded the SA Community Foodies program. Liz She also teaches occasionally in health science, education and community nutrition at Flinders University . Liz is passionate about the right to all to nourishing sustainable food and driven by a desire to build local regenerative food communities that brings the deliciousness of food to everyone.

Louissa Barte

Artist & Climate Change Activist

Issa Barte is a Filipino artist and Co-Founder of Fund the Forest. She explores human connection and emotion, and integrates these into her advocacy in working with the youth and indigenous communities. She is a TEDx speaker sharing stories of her generation at work and the stories of Filipino hope. She is also a Climate Leader for Climate Reality Global.

Morag Gamble

Permaculture & Ecovillage Ambassador

Morag Gamble is a global permaculture and ecovillage ambassador who has taught permaculture for 25 years around the world. She is the founder of the Permaculture Education Institute teaching permaculture teachers on 6 continents through her online Permaculture Educators Program. She is the co-founder of Permayouth with her daughter, and leads a permaculture education charity, Ethos Foundation, supporting women, young people and local farmers in the global south, particularly in refugee camps. Morag is the creator of the Our Permaculture Life blog and youtube channel that have been watched by millions. She is a speaker and [pr]activist, gardener, ecovillage and (un)homeschooler. She shares weekly conversations on her podcast, Sense-making in a Changing World, with leading thinkers/activists and writes regularly for permaculture magazines.

Quinn Earthchild

Floating Seed Permaculturist

Quinn EarthChild is a queer Floating Seed Permaculturist; Freelance Educator, Consultant, Graphic Designer, Musician, Eco-craftsperson and Artist. They're currently establishing and stewarding EarthChild Permaculture Cottage on Wuddawurrung Country in Geelong, Australia. They have hitchhiked, cycled and backpacked around Eastern Australia cross pollinating and co-stewarding permaculture projects since their graduation with an accredited diploma of Permaculture Design in 2016. They are currently documenting their work developing contemporary systems of regenerative travel and are in production of their first full length album.

Rosemary Morrow

Pioneering Permaculture Teacher

Rosemary is a pioneering women in permaculture: for almost 40 years she has worked extensively with farmers and villagers in Africa, Central and South East Asia, and Eastern Europe. She has especially dedicated much work to the people of war-torn nations such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a dedicated teacher and also writes permaculture books. For the last five years she had worked with refugees in a range of countries and cultures.

Ruby Thorburn

Climate Activist & Permaculture Teacher

RubyThorburn is an activist, permaculture teacher, refugee advocate and co-founder of Growing Fourward Meanjin. Growin Forward is an anti-capitalist, anti-racist urban farming mutual aid initiative that developed in response to COVID-19 and increasing rates of natural disaster. Ruby is deeply concerned with addressing the root causes of social and environmental breakdown and spendsher energy building community and resisting the state.

Sapphire McMullan-Fisher

Mycologist

Dr Sapphire McMullan-Fisher has been practicing Permaculture in gardening and farming since 1990. She has lived and traveled across our continent from east to Western Australia, and from northern WA & FNQ to south as far as Tasmania with a focus on developing landscapes reading skills. By considering local ecosystems we can learn to better live with our local species and do the least harm with species humans have come to depend on. Dr Sapphire is passionate about getting into Australian bushland to teach and learn about the local fungi. She has been working with community groups to help them understand the importance of fungi in maintaining healthy bushlands and is working on a management guide called a Fungi4Land.

Serenity Hill

Regenerative Agriculture Ambassador

Serenity is a co-founder of the Open Food Network, and a Director of both Open Food Foundation and Open Food Network Australia. Serenity’s work with the Open Food Network focuses on sector and enterprise development – advocacy, research and project development and implementation to expand regenerative agriculture in Australia and the values-based supply networks that undergird it. Serenity has extensive experience in policy development in government most recently in climate adaptation, and in delivery of large-scale projects for government clients. Serenity comes from long lines of farmers on both sides of her family. She is a regenerative farmer, passionate about developing solutions that deal with the multitude of barriers to expansion of ecological farming across the country. She works opportunistically and strategically at multiple levels to enable practical and groundbreaking action.

The Perma Pixie

Permaculture Teacher & Herbalist

The Perma Pixie (Taj Scicluna) is passionate and motivated to inspire and educate people to live more nourishing and regenerative lifestyles with a deep connection to Nature. Using her skills of Permaculture and Herbalism, she reminds those wishing for a deeper sense of purpose that individual and collective action can generate change and reformat the current state of humanity. This is where functionality meets alchemy, a marriage of the mystical and practicality, an awareness of the internal and external landscapes which can exist in harmony. Through Passionate Permaculture Education and Regenerative Environmental Services such as Permaculture Design and the creation of diverse ornamental Edible and Medicinal Gardens, The Perma Pixie aims to nurture diversity and protect ecology through harbouring healthy and resilient communities and ecosystems.

Toad Dell

Permaculture Teacher

Toad Dell (They/Them/it’s) is a permaculture designer and educator with a focus on queering and decolonising themselves and the cultures and communities they’re a part of. They started PermaQueer to teach permaculture with a focus on accessibility to queer folk and BIPOC folk and regularly teach classes online with Guy Ritani. Toad currently lives in Naarm (so called Melbourne) in Wurundjeri country in a Permaculture share house with Delldint Flemming. What drew Toad to permaculture was the community aspect, specifically social permaculture which is very apparent whenever Toad covers this subject in their online classes. Currently they are in a cell with activists studying transformative and restorative justice and how we can use a systems thinking and permaculture approach to conflict within communities.

Tyson Yunkaporta

Artist, academic and senoir lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in Melbourne

Tyson Yunkaporta is an academic, an arts critic, and a researcher who belongs to the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland. He carves traditional tools and weapons and also works as a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in Melbourne.

Yaraan Bundle

Aboriginal Cultural Connector

Yaraan Bundle is a proud descendant of Yuin and Gungitjmara nations. She is a proud mother of three, two boys, and a girl. Yaraan, along with her four sisters, has grown up immersed in learning and living her culture. She is a passionate teacher and advocate in the continuing of our cultural knowledge and practices. She had been handed down a wide range of cultural knowledge orally from elders across Victoria and NSW.Yaraan has been participating in community events, programs and festivals since she was a young girl including Mallacoota Festical, Tarerer Festival, Rainbow Serpent Festival, and most recently an important ‘Calling Out Ceremony’ for the Possum Cloak Story at Light in Winter Festival at Federation Square in July 2016 Yaraan is a traditional dancer, firekeeper, storyteller, pyrographer environmental and language activist, and language teacher. Strong in her learnings, her vibrant and compelling teachings inspire deep appreciation and understanding of family and culture.