EarthChat

This week Tim Budge and Ruth Yeatman chat with the Joshua Waters about Indigenous Knowledge.

Euroa Arboretum workers, Bronte Haines, Charlotte Langman, and Nelly Watson join Ruth Yeatman to talk about the wonderful conservation work of the ‘Arb’, its many offerings, and why they love working in this truly beautiful natural environment.

This week Tim Budge and Peter Lockyer chat with the legendary Cam Walker about forests, climate change, supporting Traditional Owners and his enduring love of the High Country.Cam is the campaigns co-ordinator with Friends of the Earth in Melbourne.

This week on EarthChat, John Thompson president of Mitchell Community Energy joins Narelle Liepa from Mitchell Shire Council on EarthChat to share some of the good work happening in community renewables in Mitchell Shire. What is happening?   

It is an energising conversation, so listen in! Learn more about Mitchell Community Energy here.  On this program, we played Ann's Song and Wind in my Head. We don't have the rights to put them on the podcast, but you can find them on Spotify.

Join Tim Budge and Jessica Morrison as they chat about Jessica's involvement in peace and social justice issues. Jess has been a passionate advocate for working towards peace in situations such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine and has been outspoken in her opposition to war. She discusses the impact of the war on Gaza on innocent people and how Palestinians (and Lebanese) are suffering. She was Executive Officer for the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) for 13 years.

Jess now works for Quakers Australia.

Other topics we discuss include the problem of burnout and how the climate movement needs should be addressing the trauma of fighting for climate action. See here (by Jessica and others) and here (by Charlie Wood) for good articles on this topic.

We also discussed her work with Pay The Rent. Paying the Rent is about non-Indigenous people honouring the Sovereignty of Aboriginal people; it is a somewhat more just way of living on this stolen land.

Ruth chats with creative team members of the Seymour Performers Workshop (SPW) to explore the far reaching benefits of the performing arts, along with exciting news of their latest production and the creation of a Community Choir.

They explore how creating music theatre along with the act of singing creates social, physical, and mental benefits, not only for the performers but also for the audience who is invited to interact and reciprocate through their attention, engagement, and reaction. This inclusive co-creation allows a collective exploration of new ways to look at the world - an opportunity that can ultimately benefit all species and potentially foster planetary wellbeing.

Using the ‘Visual and Performing Arts to encourage Pro-Environmental Behaviour’, edited by David Curtis, (first published in 2020 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing), provides evidence that artistic methods provide valuable tools to enhance communication about the environment and degradation, and create empathy for nature. Artistic methods can also help us find new ways of looking at a problem, to express solutions, and facilitate community processes. These authors show that the arts and artists are an important part of changing our society so that we exist more sustainably into the future.

Peter Read and Caitlyn Trotter from Seymour Performers’ Workshop join EarthChat for this interesting conversation when we’ll also hear the latest SPW news.

About Caitlyn Trotter

Listen in to this week's EarthChat where Marie Gerrard and Ruth Yeatman chat to Wallan environment advocate Claudia James about managing growth while caring for the environment. They look at the challenges and opportunities for improving amenities particularly in our high growth areas and focus on the connections between health, wellbeing and nature and practical ways of planning these connections in new developments.

Tim Budge and Peter Lockyer chat with Andrew Mahar, AM about taking practical steps to support climate action around the world. Andrew is an internationally recognised social entrepreneur, having spent the past 35 years seeding, nurturing, and mentoring over 15 successful social enterprises, both in Australia and Timor-Leste. This includes working with Timorese farmers to produce and market delicious coffee.

Peter Sawyer is a Seymour resident with a passion for watching birds. Birds in town, on the Goulburn River and recently at Borroloola in the Northern Territory. On EarthChat, Peter Lockyer teases out some of the delights of Peter’s birdwatching, and of threatened species still about, and what we all could do to assist in their conservation. It's been a wet year and birdlife is abundant.

Ruth and Phil welcome Levi Power and Jarvis Atkinson from the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria who bring us the latest Victorian Treaty news. Treaty is an opportunity for First Peoples to have a greater say and control over matters that affect them. It is an opportunity to secure meaningful structural reform to ensure First Peoples make the decisions about their communities, their culture, and their country. Australia is the only Commonwealth country without a Treaty with its First Nation’s People but this is about to change with the State of Victoria leading the way.