The RegenNarration

Tens of millions of ‘pests’ degrade lands and waters in Australia alone – pigs, goats, camels, buffalos, donkeys. Cruel, wasteful, expensive, mostly futile and often counter-productive culling programs are no solution. But what if it didn’t have to be this way? What if some of those large wild herbivores could be harnessed towards regeneration?

This is the story of a family that has regenerated an incredible patch of country, and for 20 years that has incorporated and relied on wild donkeys. The bond these animals share with this Station family is clear. But the state department recently ordered the family to gun them down. It’s a painful flashpoint. One of the great stories of regeneration is on the line, and by extension, the potential for next generations to build on it, further restoring landscapes at scale for all our benefit.

Chris Henggeler and his family manage Kachana Station in a remote pocket of the East Kimberley, only accessible by foot or air. They took responsibility for this desertified and abandoned country, and have achieved so much. Yet with still vast lands desertifying around them, and so much opportunity to build on models like Kachana, Chris gave a presentation earlier this year called ‘Wanted Land Doctors’. It was a powerful invitation for the next generations to join the fray, and how rest of us can help them do it.

The model areas at Kachana feel like an oasis. But imagine this being the norm.  As Judith Schwartz, renowned author of The Reindeer Chronicles, says: we could be a world leader off the back of developments like this.

My family spent a couple of days here back in 2018, and felt transformed. We spent ten days this time, to delve more deeply and see for myself whether the donkey shoot order is a necessary evil, or as Chris argues, an enormous error in regeneration, at a time when we can least afford it.

We start here heading out in the old Cessna light plane, before a short evening stroll on arrival &, come morning, an extended walk in the gorge behind the homestead.

This episode was recorded at Kachana Station in the East Kimberley, in the far north east of Western Australia, throughout the week of 13 September 2021.

Title slide: Chris Henggeler on our gorge walk at Kachana Station (pic: Anthony James). See more photos on the episode web page.

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

The tune with the intro is by Jeremiah Johnson.

Find more:
Tune in to the special Extra out shortly, and the closing chapter to our time at Kachana, out next week.

For our first visit to Kachana Station back in 2018, tune into episode 25.

Kachana Station.

And a blog with short videos of Chris on a webinar hosted by Biodiversity for Livable Climate (which also took place while we were at Kachana).

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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!

Momentum continues to build in our efforts to gear economies towards shared quality of life, rather than sheer quantity of stuff. With COP 26 starting in Glasgow next week, I reached out to Dr Katherine Trebeck for a sense of how it feels on the ground there, along with how the event might leverage more of that broader momentum. That’s our take-off point for looking at some of the significant shifts happening around the world in this space. And we’re joined again by Mike Salvaris, with a major update on the West Australian Development Index that featured in his Ministerial presentation in episode 55.

Dr Katherine Trebeck is a Senior Strategic Advisor for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (or WEAll) – a global collaboration she co-founded in 2018, the same year she co-founded WEAll Scotland. She has also instigated the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments, previously developed Oxfam’s Humankind Index, and led Oxfam’s work downscaling Kate Raworth’s ‘doughnut economics’ for various countries.

Katherine’s book The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown-Up Economy (co-authored with Jeremy Williams) was published in early 2019. The last time we spoke on this podcast was at one of the Australian events launching that book. And one of our guests that night was Mike Salvaris, a global leader in the development of wellbeing measures, and Director of the Australian National Development Index.

So what’s happened in the two years since that event in the development of ‘wellbeing economies’, and this prospective pilot Development Index in WA?

This conversation was recorded online at the Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation on Nyikina Country in the West Kimberley, with Katherine at home in Glasgow and Mike in Melbourne, 12 October 2021.

Title slide: Katherine and Mike against a Scottish backdrop (pics of Katherine and Scotland are from Katherine's website, and the one of Mike is from our Zoom conversation).

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

Find more:
Wellbeing Economy Alliance.

Australian National Development Index (ANDI).

Katherine’s website.

You can hear my first conversation with Katherine in episode 29, and on stage with Mike for Katherine’s book launch in episode 48.

Mike’s other previous appearances, on a panel and in his pivotal Ministerial presentation, are featured in episodes 6 & 55 respectively.

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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!

This is a very special episode, a live conversation event with Nyikina Warrwa elder, Dr Anne Poelina. We last spoke on the podcast for episode 84 back in May, on the launch of Regenerative Songlines Australia, and resolved to catch up on her Country here in the Kimberley later in the year. We ended up doing that at this live event I was honoured to host the Q&A for - a screening of the film we also talked about in May, The Serpent’s Tale.

The film features the story of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River, its ancient Country, its First Peoples, its First Law, its need for recognition and protection, and its abundant opportunities for new economies, and as Anne puts it, the overarching need for sustainable lifeways on Country for Aboriginal people.

I wasn’t sure if this would turn into a podcast episode. But when the previous episode with Alessandro Pelizzon revealed such profound and significant global implications stemming from Anne’s work and what’s happening here, it had to be. All the more, given the quality and consequence of the dialogue that night.

Given, then, that this is in addition to the usual weekly releases, I initially thought I’d produce a shorter summary version of the conversation. I did edit it down a little, partly due to sound issues, but the conversation gets more profound as it goes, and it’s so connected and applicable to dialogue happening right around this country and elsewhere. We’re so in this together.

More on Anne: Anne is Chair of the esteemed Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, an international award winner, has multiple postgraduate degrees, and over 30 years’ experience in Indigenous health, education, language and community development.

This episode was recorded live at the Sporties in Derby, on Nyikina Country, 9 October 2021.

With thanks to the Red Shed Derby Women’s Collective, Harry Jakamarra & 6DBY Larrkardi Radio.

CORRECTION: Where Anne talks about the sacred site on her country as being 100 million years old, she later corrected this – it’s a ridge that is 20 million years old, on bedrock that is 200 million years old.

Title slide: Dr Anne Poelina, live on the night (pic: Chris Lean). See more photos on the episode website.

Music:
River Feeling, at the top, & Liyan at the end, both by Anne’s son Mark Coles-Smith, composing as Kalaji (joined in Liyan by Ursula Yovich).

Find more:
Dr Anne Poelina.

You’re invited to a special event on 26 October 2021, for Regenerative Songlines Australia, featuring Anne.

The Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council.

Trailer for the film, The Serpent’s Tale.

A new short film on elder and artist Mervyn Street, by Sarah Laborde (who also contributed to The Serpent’s Tale).

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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!

There has been a rush this year of landmark court decisions on climate change, ruling on duties of care, emissions reductions, and other actions for corporations and governments, in Australia and around the world. It’s another sign this generation is changing things, and fast. And some of the broader change afoot is even more powerful than what’s hitting the headlines.

This is one of those rapid systemic developments we can easily take for granted. In just over a decade we have witnessed the incredible rise in ecological jurisprudence and the rights of nature. The notion of ecocide is now being officially tabled, there are a number of famous instances of rivers being granted legal rights, and all this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In just twelve years it’s gone from whether this could happen, to how it can best happen. And just a few years ago, out of a conversation between today’s guest and Nyikina elder Dr Anne Poelina, a concept was landed upon that just might unlock the door to colonial law finally recognising First Law. And more profoundly still, in a way that involves us all in understanding the depths of what that means, the enormous gifts it offers, and how it might just end up transforming everything.

Dr Alessandro Pelizzon is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University. He is one of the founding members of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and the Australian Earth Laws Alliance, he has been an expert member of the UN Harmony with Nature programme, and supported the drafting of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva. Alessandro has been exploring the emerging phenomenon of rights of nature, Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence since its inception.

This conversation was recorded on 2 September 2021, with thanks to the team at the Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation for the use of their studio.

Title slide: Alessandro Pelizzon (supplied).

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

The tune accompanying the introduction is by Jeremiah Johnson.

Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.

Find more:
On Dr Alessandro Pelizzon.

For an hilarious and poignant connection with this episode, listen back from about the 28-minute mark of my conversation with Margo Neale in episode 93, ‘Songlines’, on how First Law was made.

Alessandro’s music choices were Souad Massi & Faun. 

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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!

This is a very special extra to episode 96 with Paul Hawken, the globally renowned environmentalist, author, entrepreneur and activist. I say extra, but it’s really a second part, a whole conversation in its own right. Some of the story behind the story. This is essentially the middle hour and a bit of our conversation, where we deep-dove into some of the keystone themes, if you like, of Regeneration - the themes that enable all the other themes. Or disable them, if absent or mis-placed. Some of this is based on what’s in the book, some on what I noted isn’t in it.

We pick up with a profound story Paul tells of an encounter he had with a Yupik woman from the Bering Strait region. This stemmed from where we spoke in the main episode of what gripped each of us most in Regeneration. We go on to delve into those keystone themes (mapped out below), before closing with some beautiful and revealing personal musings. Firstly, on how Paul approaches his days with Regeneration in mind. And then he offers us a rare glimpse ahead to his next book.

In case you want to hit up particular parts of our conversation, here’s a mapping of it (though the inter-weaving of each topic comes from listening in sequence):

Title slide: from the extraordinary Solutions page on the Regeneration website.

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode (along with access to links in the show notes), ‘Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation’.

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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 an excerpt from episode 96 featuring the last 25 minutes or so of my conversation with the legendary environmentalist, activist, entrepreneur and author, Paul Hawken, plus a brilliant preview performance of The Regeneration Song!

This really felt like a crescendo of sorts, as we neared the end of a conversation that delved deep over a few hours. The main episode that went out Monday is an edited version. The middle hour or so will be out next, as a special Extra this Monday. For now, if you want to start with a snapshot, or would just like to hear the end again (like I did), this excerpt is for you.

We pick up our conversation where Paul comments on stories being the only thing that change us. We go on to talk about the incredible online tools that have launched with the book, some brilliant stories where politics is being transformed, and what that and other stories in Regeneration tell us about how big change happens via the small. We all count in this.

We go out with why Paul feels optimistic about what could be a ‘shocking’ few years ahead.

Title slide: Paul Hawken (supplied).

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

Preview Performance of We Can Change the World (The Regeneration Song), by AY Young & Jonathan Russell of The Head & The Heart.

Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode (with a series of links in the show notes), ‘Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation’.

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 feels like a pivotal moment. Four years ago, legendary environmentalist, activist, entrepreneur and author, Paul Hawken, compiled the best-selling book Drawdown, a comprehensive plan for reversing global warming. That book changed the world in many ways. And his new one, the sequel to Drawdown, is creating another big wave. It’s called Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation, and just one week out, it’s already #6 in the New York Times best-seller list.

Regeneration is billed as the first book to describe the burgeoning regeneration movement spreading rapidly around the world. And like Drawdown, it doesn’t end at the book. The not-for-profit Regeneration organisation is developing an extraordinary set of online guides and resources, teaching materials and media productions to assist our efforts, whoever and wherever we are.

If Drawdown was what-could-be-done, Regeneration is how-to-get-it-done. And that’s in a context where we’re still going backwards in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, our health, and other critical crises. And, most people in the world remain disengaged.

So how do we change this? How do we, as this one generation, engage the majority of humanity and fundamentally shift our collective course?

More on Drawdown:
Drawdown was a NYT bestseller, is published in 14 languages, has been used by heads of state, is part of the curriculum on every grade level from 4th grade to MIT graduate school, and is placed in a New Zealand hotel chain alongside the Gideon Bible.

Drawdown named the goal. Before the book was published, the goal and word were not mentioned in climate literature. The term drawdown is now in generic use, employed and referred to thousands of times a day, and the book’s conclusions became the “bible” for over a trillion dollars of funds managed by numerous financial institutions.

This conversation was recorded online with Anthony in the Kimberley and Paul at home in California on 30 September 2021 (Australian time), with thanks to the Derby Media Aboriginal Corporation.

Title slide: Regeneration book cover.

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

Tune with the intro is by Jeremiah Johnson.

We Can Change the World (The Regeneration Song), by AY Young & Jonathan Russell of The Head & The Heart.

Find more:
A special extra to this episode, where we deep-dive into some of the key themes of Regeneration.

Regeneration, the not-for-profit organisation, inc. NEXUS & how to get hold of the book.

The video of the preview performance of AY Young’s Regeneration anthem.

More on Paul.

And Paul & I back in 2018 for episodes 13 & 14 (inc. his amazing life story). 

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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!

Community-owned media is a vital part of regeneration, and this is all the more true for First Nations communities. It’s a well-documented leverage point for attaining massive benefits for local and regional communities - which of course, ultimately, means all of us. The award-winning Larrkardi Radio in Derby, far north Western Australia, is a brilliant and resurgent case-in-point. With a 5-pronged boab out front, and a local, regional, national and now even global reach growing within.

Leon, Owen, Bekah, Sunimah and the crew are an inspiration. They’re engaging diverse communities, building understanding and opportunity, recording local artists and ancient Songlines, generating their own stories and systems, and amplifying some of the game-changing stuff happening here. Whether it’s with health outcomes, the vital success of the youth centre, or sparking the local women’s footy league that has since spread like wildfire across the Kimberley (and will feature on an ABC documentary soon). And if you’re wondering how much that matters, listen in.

As with so much we hear on this podcast, the team at Larrkardi are finding that what they do is bubbling up everywhere. A First Nations media movement gathers pace, helping to bring people alive, and communities and a country together.

Join us in the new podcast room at 6DBY Larrkardi Radio - your deadly Derby Station. Leon Khan is the trail blazing Indigenous health worker and coach of the Derby Tigers footy club, recruited to manage the station and unexpectedly finding a calling. And Owen Burns (or OJ) is the young guy who hated moving to Derby as a kid, but found his home there as a broadcaster from the age of 11.

This conversation was recorded at the station on 24 August 2021.

Title slide: Larrkardi Radio in Derby (pic: Anthony James). See the episode web page for more photos.

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

The tune accompanying the introduction is by Jeremiah Johnson.

Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.

Find more:
Stream 6DBY Larrkardi Radio from Derby, Western Australia 

Follow The Conversation podcast, produced at 6DBY, available on Spotify

They’ve also just launched their YouTube channel

First Nations Media Australia

IndigiTube 

And there’ll be a community screening of The Serpent’s Tale, directed by my previous guest Mark Jones, in Derby on 9 October 2021, at the Sporties at 6.30pm.

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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 an excerpt from episode 94 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with award-winning Australian film-maker, Mark Jones.

We pick up our conversation with perhaps the biggest question I had for Mark: on the back of his charting stories of cultural transformation and survival through enormous climactic and other shifts, can we do it again? And of course, how? The answer, inevitably, is far from a straight line, but it is instructive. And forms the backbone of his epic film currently in production, Stories in Stone.

Title slide: Roebuck Bay in Broome (pic: Anthony James).

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

Find more:
You can hear the rest of our conversation in the main episode 94, ‘Stories in Stone: What the ancients are telling us, with award-winning film-maker Mark Jones’.

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!

Mark Jones is a crocodile handling, campaign building, award-winning Australian film-maker. He has been living and working extensively in the Kimberley for nearly 30 years, since unexpectedly becoming a novice camera operator with revered adventure film maker Malcolm Douglas. Mark develops stories and films with deep underlying messages that reflect this very special part of the world, and its increasingly important part in where we go from here as a society and civilisation. And all that is coming out in both his films and activism to profound effect.

Mark has helped lead one of the most formative and successful campaigns in Australian history. And he’s collaborated with some of the greats in Australian film and television, also producing for some of the larger international TV broadcasters including the BBC, and NHK in Japan. The WA State Library will archive his collection in 2022.

Most recently, Mark directed The Serpent’s Tale, the spectacular half-hour film produced in collaboration with the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council, that Anne Poelina and I talked about in episode 84. Now he’s onto making the epic and vital Stories in Stone, collaborating with other previous guests on this podcast like Lynne Kelly (ep 92) and Albert Wiggan (ep 34). It’s the culmination of a life’s work to date, on what science and traditional knowledge are showing us, about the messages left by our ancient ancestors for future generations.

This is the first in a series of episodes on-location in the Kimberley – a region often described as one of the last great remaining wildernesses left on the planet. To the Original people, as the Stories in Stone blurb puts it, it’s seen as ‘Country’, a vast Cultural landscape where story, song, geography and art meld into an epic story with no beginning… and no end.

This conversation was recorded by the mud flats of Roebuck Bay in Broome, on 2 August 2021.

Title slide: Mark Jones (supplied). You can see a selection of spectacular photographs by Mark on the episode website.

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

The tune accompanying the introduction is by Jeremiah Johnson.

Stones & Bones, by Owls of the Swamp.

Find more:
Mark Jones' website

The Serpent’s Tale trailer (stay tuned to the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council for more on the launch of the film on the festival circuit soon – and note there’ll be a community screening in Derby, Western Australia on 9 October 2021).

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!