The RegenNarration

Today’s episode features the legendary author, advisor and media producer, Hazel Henderson. Hazel has had such a big impact on so many, including yours truly. In my case, it has stemmed from over two decades following her work, and two hours of unhurried conversation for this podcast back in 2019. At the end of that conversation, Hazel invited me to visit if ever I was in Florida. And though I haven’t travelled overseas for 15 years, with emissions and other things in mind, I couldn’t help but wonder if one day that might be possible. Two months ago, however, the sad news arrived that Hazel had passed away, at the age of 89.

So this episode is a tribute to Hazel, drawn from our 2-part conversation almost three years ago – essentially, it’s the first 25 minutes or so of part 1 and the last 20 minutes or so of part 2. So it starts at the start, giving you my full introduction to Hazel, and the priceless, unassuming nature of how our conversation began – with a personal exchange on how we were going about life, media, connection and learning. Then it’s over to her beginnings, for what became a much-loved, pioneering and globally recognised life. And it culminates with some profound poignance that blew me away when listening back to it now.

Title slide image: Hazel Henderson at the outset, and towards the end (with EF Schumacher in the photo on the wall), of her public life (photos supplied – the latter taken by Vicki Robin).

Music:
The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

The acoustic interlude about half way through is Cycles, by Simon Edwards (guitarist from the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra).

The tune accompanying the outro is by Jeremiah Johnson.

What If? (Impact: the Musical), by Jacqueline Emerson & co. – watch the film clip.

Find more:
A tribute to Hazel.

Donate in honour of Hazel, and to assist with the collating of her life’s work (all Hazel’s books are also available electronically on this page, in exchange for that donation).

If you’d like to hear the full 2-part conversation I shared with Hazel back in 2019 (and follow some additional links), head to episodes 49 and 50. 

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The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Jade Miles is an author, podcaster, farmer, organiser, speaker, and a few other things besides. I first came across Jade’s podcast, Futuresteading, back when it started. Then last year, the visual extravaganza of Futuresteading the book came along - sub-titled ‘live like tomorrow matters: practical skills, recipes and rituals for a simpler life’. It draws on Jade’s family life at Black Barn Farm – which features an incredible orchard of around 100 varieties of heritage fruit and berries, along with nursery, and workshop space in the Black Barn.

Jade has also more recently become the CEO of Sustainable Table – so we get the inside story here of that transformative work and Fund we’ve heard a bit about in recent episodes.

Jade is one terrific communicator and connector. And here there is also some pretty raw, honest and grounded reflection. We start with the fascinating and at times funny back story of their journey to becoming farmers, before exploring that inside story of Sustainable Table. Then standby for our chat about her book and podcast, particularly the one episode that shook her for days - with Tyson Yunkaporta.

And that’s our take off point for exploring her profound experiments with ritual at home, deeply felt mother’s dilemma on education and rites of passage, and her emotional connection with her music selection – one that comes full circle to her life’s beginnings.

This conversation was recorded at Black Barn Farm in Stanley, Victoria, on 29 March 2022.

Title slide image: Jade Miles during our raspberry walk at the farm (pic: Anthony James). You can see more photos on the episode web page.

Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.

Find more:
Black Barn Farm.

Futuresteading, the book.

Futuresteading, the podcast (where btw, you can hear more of Jade and I in conversation, on episode 5 of series 5, 4 July 2022 – though it was recorded after our visit to Black Barn).

Sustainable Table Fund.

And if you’d like to hear the conversation I had with Jake Claro from Vermont, that’s episode 51, ‘Farm to Plate: Regenerating a state’s economy through food, land and culture’.

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Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

 You might remember Ian Congdon and Courtney Young from one of the great stories we heard about last year, on how this young family is changing the face of farming - and milling - in Australia. That’s through their incredibly delicious enterprise Woodstock Flour, and Courtney’s spectacular art.

As it happens, our conversation last year took place on the day they finished building the first Australian mill in who knows how long. And coincidentally, it was also settlement day for the purchase of their own farm. So after we visited Serenity and Kirsten for the last episode, we dropped in to meet Ian and Courtney in person at that farm. And again, while just intending to say hi, another riveting chat over dinner compelled us to sit down and put something on record for you all.

What we found was another uplifting sighter of a brilliant couple continuing to manifest transformative visions. We start here with the first item of huge news – their major grant success from the Sustainable Table Fund. That’s the ground-breaking Fund we heard about in the last episode, and from Tanya Massy earlier this year. This represents a big step towards creating a local regenerative grains economy in their region.

Then we delve into their attempt at an innovative renewable energy set up, their artistic and practical explorations of what it means to be land-owners now in the context of Aboriginal dispossession, and the many opportunities for others to join in these regenerative efforts.

We also talk briefly about the changes in farming they’re observing with rapidly escalating input costs, some profound and entertaining experiments milling native grains from Black Duck Foods, and let’s just say a unique music selection on Ian’s part.

This conversation was recorded on their farm near Rutherglen, Victoria, on 31 March 2022.

Title slide image: Sunset at the Woodstock Flour farm near Rutherglen, Victoria (pic: Anthony James).

You can find more photos on the episode web page, and a further selection of pics on the page of our first conversation together last year, on episode 89 (link below).

Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.

Find more:
Woodstock Flour.

Courtney’s art.

You can hear more of Courtney, Ian and I in conversation in episode 89: ‘A Native Grains and Native Mills Resurgence (Part 2): On making mills and the art of regeneration’.

Sustainable Table Fund.

Convergence, the RCS international conference in Brisbane on 16-17 July 2022.

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

This is a profound personal and collective story right at the heart of systemic and cultural change. Serenity Hill and Kirsten Larsen are regenerative farmers and co-founders of the Open Food Network. You might remember my conversation with Kirsten online two years ago, as Covid took hold, and Open Food Network took off. At that stage, they’d experienced a tenfold increase in both people signing up to the platform and in turnover, while spanning over a dozen countries. 

A lot has happened since, too, with the Network, with the trailblazing land ownership and succession model we touched on last time, and on a transformative personal level. So when our family visited theirs recently, we had to pull up a pew on the front porch together, and press record.

Our conversation starts with a very frank and vital conversation about land, ownership and money, and how investment can work best for those doing the actual work of regeneration. From there we delve into other ways to enable more of that work, including more values-based supply networks.

And that leads us to where this pioneering couple is currently exploring further layers of personal transformation. Oh, and how over a decade ago, Serenity foresaw the independents movement that has just transformed Australia’s parliament.

More on the Open Food Network: it’s a not-for-profit, global collaboration building food distribution systems that are fair, local and transparent. The Network’s flagship open source platform enables new, ethical supply chains. And in the wake of COVID-19 has gone to a whole new level, as producers look for alternative ways to sell quality produce, and eaters look for alternative ways to access it.

This conversation was recorded in Violet Town, Victoria, on 29 March 2022.

Title slide image: Serenity and Kirsten (L-R), just before pressing record on this conversation (Anthony’s foot just makes it into this slide – the full photo can be viewed on the episode web page, along with a couple of photos on the farm) (pic: Olivia Cheng).

Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.

Find more:
Open Food Network.

And the farm, Pukawidgee.

The pivotal survey being run currently by the Network.

Sustainable Table Fund.

Convergence, the RCS international conference in Brisbane on 16-17 July 2022.

You can hear more of Kirsten and I in conversation from 2020, in episode 63: ‘Food Unincorporated: How a grass-roots system went global’. 

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Paul Cleary is a best-selling author and journalist who’s just written an incredible book – certainly a must read for any Aussie, and every West Aussie, with implications that arguably extend far beyond. It’s called ‘Title Fight: How the Yindjibarndi battled and defeated a mining giant’. The back cover bills it as ‘a David and Goliath story set in the ancient landscape of the Pilbara’. That’s in the north-west, here in WA. And the mining giant is Fortescue Metals Group (or FMG), led by billionaire Chairman Andrew Forrest.

In the face of that company’s staggering array of unscrupulous tactics, intimidation and exploitation, the Yindjibarndi people and their leader Michael Woodley, prevailed through to the highest court in the land. And this story is far from done at the closing of that back cover.

The implications of this extraordinary triumph continue to be enormous, for the Yindjibarndi, for Forrest and FMG, and for communities, economies and landscapes everywhere. For the Yindjibarndi have not just won a pivotal legal battle, they are demonstrating a model of holistic development that feels instructive for us all. And all based on deciding for themselves what sort of culture, community and commerce they want to create.

This story is so relevant to not just how to stop Forrest and FMG (and anyone else) from such ongoing disregard for Australian and Aboriginal culture, heritage and law. But for what this might mean for the renewable energy transition and other laudable initiatives that Forrest and his Foundation are engaged with, and for the nearby flashpoint of Woodside’s Scarborough Gas proposal (and others), among the greatest rock art site in the world.

This conversation was recorded by in Russell Square, Northbridge, in inner city Perth, on Whadjuk Noongar Country, 20 June 2022.

Title slide: Paul Cleary, just before pressing record on this conversation (pic: Anthony James).

You can also see the transcendent image of Ned Cheedy, aged 106, with Michael Woodley’s grandson, from the back cover of Paul’s book, on the episode web page.

Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.

Find more:
Title Fight: How the Yindjibarndi Battled and Defeated a Mining Giant

Paul Cleary on LinkedIn

The Great Native Title Swindle short video mentioned in the conversation, featuring the notorious 2011 meeting in Roebourne.

Ngaarda Media is an independent community broadcaster and media training hub with a vision to unite and broadcast the voices of the Pilbara.

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Jane Slattery is the co-founder, with Diane and Ian Haggerty, of natural intelligence farming – underpinning what Charles Massy has called their ‘world breakthrough’ operation. And to hear Di an Ian defer to Jane in many ways, had me so looking forward to meeting her. Then, earlier this year, I happened to be near Jane’s neck of the woods in South Australia, hosting one of the Planet Talks at WOMAD. Thankfully, she was up for coming into Adelaide for a chat.

And more by fate than design, she follows the episode with the legend Fred Provenza. In some ways, Jane sings off a similar song sheet. But where Fred was led by science to soul, you could say Jane has come at it from soul first - while still utterly grounded in our embodied experience of a wondrous world.

This is a very special and rare conversation. Jane is only now feeling like speaking publicly about her work in media like this. You’ll hear some of why. After running a successful family business around Australia, she gave it all up to follow a compelling sense of what she felt she needed to be doing. And, along with the Haggerty’s, she has gone on to guide and inspire an increasing number of brilliant regenerative outcomes around the country.

This conversation was recorded by the River Torrens in Adelaide, on the land of the Kaurna people, on 15 March 2022.

Title slide: Jane Slattery (pic: Anthony James).

Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.

Find more:
Jane Slattery.

You can meet Jane at the upcoming RCS Australia conference in Brisbane in July.

And if you’d like to hear from Di and Ian Haggerty out on their farm.

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

This extra to episode 123, with the legendary Fred Provenza, delves into more of the metaphysical context of everything we spoke about in the main episode. We traverse the spectra of collapse and regeneration, and how we can live well in all that, here and now. There are some profound stories of personal transformation here – and an ultimate convergence of mythology and mysticism with his life’s work on the wisdom body.

This part of our conversation led up to the ‘music question’ that closed the main episode, so it’ll also give a bit more context to Fred’s moving response there.

Title slide: the cover to Fred’s book Nourishment (linked in the main episode below).

Music:
Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.

Find more:
You can hear the rest of my conversation with Fred Provenza in the main episode: ‘The Wisdom Body: Fred Provenza on a paradigm change in animal, human and planetary health’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too.

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Professor Fred Provenza is the legendary behavioural ecologist and author who has revolutionised how we understand the nature of animal health and intelligence, and its connection to our human health and intelligence. This includes the regenerative role of livestock, in all sorts of ways. And through his own deep personal trials and transformations, Fred has come to embody this knowledge in ways that shine a light not only on the extraordinary regenerative capacities of nature, including humans, but how regenerating all human systems stems from the wisdom of our bodies.

Fred’s published a few books on all this, culminating a few years ago in his master work, ‘Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom’. It’s been called a ‘paradigm-changing exploration’ with ‘implications that could vastly improve our health through a simple change in the way we view our relationships with the plants and animals we eat’. Montana Public Radio said: “Nourishment is a conversation between science, culture, and a greater spiritual or cosmological umbrella.” Indeed, you might describe this conversation the same way.

More on Fred: As professor emeritus of Behavioral Ecology in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University, Provenza directed an award-winning research group focused on how learning influences foraging behavior and how behavior links soils and plants with herbivores and humans. In addition to penning a book, he is one of the founders of BEHAVE, an international network of scientists and land managers.

This conversation was recorded online, with Fred at home in Montana USA, on 8 June 2022.

Title slide: Fred Provenza (supplied).

Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.

Find more:
Tune into the special extra to this episode with Fred, ‘A Cosmic Voyager with Amnesia’.

Fred’s book Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us about Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom.

The BEHAVE international network Fred co-founded.

Fred will be a keynote speaker (online) at the upcoming RCS Australia conference in Brisbane in July.

A reminder that Regenerating Australia will be screened at the Beverley Town Hall, in the wheatbelt of WA, on 17 June, with panel conversation featuring Oral McGuire, Di Haggerty, Grant Revell & Damon Gameau (online), hosted by Anthony James.

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Damon Gameau, the award-winning director of That Sugar Film and 2040, toured his new film Regenerating Australia around Western Australia’s south a few weeks ago. Joining him on the panel in Leederville, inner-city Perth, was highly regarded First Nations woman Heidi Mippy, Natural Intelligence Farming co-founder Dianne Haggerty, and me.

Ballardong Noongar man, Oral McGuire, who you’ll have heard mentioned a bit on this podcast (like in eps 87 and 105), granted us the privilege of his powerful Welcome to Country. And as you’ll hear, in some ways, proceedings on this night presaged the transformative federal election that was to come two days later (see ep 121 for more on that).

Incidentally, I’ll release the inspiring panel conversations from Margaret River and Fremantle for subscribers to the podcast on Patreon – so do jump on there if you haven’t yet! And I ended up hosting the Busselton event, where a very distinct conversation took place – I’ll have that out for you all to hear soon.

For now, it’s over to the Luna Cinema in Leederville, where 300 people came along for this final west coast screening, the penultimate event of Damon’s national tour, on 19 May 2022.

3.00m - Oral’s Welcome

9.00m - Damon’s entry at the end of the film & panel exchange

21.45m - Questions from the audience

Title slide: the Regenerating Australia tour image (supplied).

Music:
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now.

Find more:
Regenerating Australia is available for community screenings now (and grant applications, requests for materials etc.).

It’ll also screen at the Beverley Town Hall, in the wheatbelt of WA, on 17 June, with panel conversation featuring Oral McGuire, Di Haggerty, Grant Revell & Damon Gameau (online), hosted by Anthony James.

And for more on the RCS Australia conference.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

This extra to episode 121 follows how election day unfolded with Kate Chaney, in the now independent seat of Curtin. You’ll hear the growing atmosphere on the day, culminating in an extraordinary night, with powerful words from Kate that give great insight into the building of a community, and a campaign.

We start at the local polling booth, and hear from Kate early on. Then it’s on to the Claremont Showgrounds for what was certainly our first election night candidate celebration – and we weren’t alone in that. You’ll hear a special Welcome to Country from Carol Innes AO. Then campaign manager, Sarah Silbert, introduces Kate. And if you last through to the end of it, you might hear a certain podcast host rock out a little Ode to Kate to close the evening celebration.

Stage host, and another prominent campaign contributor, was James Lush.

This was recorded on election day, 21 May 2022.

Title slide: the bicycle powered billboards mentioned in the main episode, sitting outside the Scarborough Primary School polling station on election day.

Music:
Ode to Kate, by Anthony James.

Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.

Find more:
You can hear my conversation with Kate Chaney six days later, after she was confirmed as having won the seat, in the main episode: ‘A Political Paradigm Shift: Kate Chaney on becoming the 7th new female independent MP in Australia’. You’ll find a few links in the show notes there too, and some photos.

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!