Gather with community and experts for an evening of bold conversation about climate justice.
An inspiring and inclusive evening of conversation and connection in the lead-up to Planting, a day of community action and celebration on Sunday 7 September.
This free event brings together First Nations Knowledge holders, artists, gardeners, activists and thinkers of all ages and backgrounds for a powerful discussion about climate justice and caring for Country.
Moderated by Creative Climate facilitator Angharad Wynne-Jones, with First Nations writers, artists and knowledge holders Claire G Coleman, Dr Jen Rae, Tony Birch and artist, performer, curator Lichen Kelp we’ll tackle the big questions, share knowledge, and spark ideas for how we can act together – from the bush to our gardens and our city streets.
Together, we’ll explore:
What does climate justice really mean?
How do First Nations knowledges shape our response to climate change?
How can we ensure this knowledge is honoured, not exploited?
How can art, culture and community drive climate action?
What does a ‘Nature First’ approach look like in urban spaces?
And how do we best honour nonhuman life?
This is an intergenerational, intersectional space – all are welcome. Registration below.
Claire G. Coleman (she/her) is a Noongar woman whose ancestral country is on the south coast of Western Australia. She was born in Boorloo (Perth) and is currently based in Naarm. Her debut novel Terra Nullius [2017], published in Australia and in the US, won a Norma K. Hemming Award and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and an Aurealis Award. Her second novel is The Old Lie [2019], followed by Lies, Damn Lies [2021] unpacks the damages of colonisation, and her new book Enclave was released in July 2022. Her essays, poetry, short fiction, and art criticism has been published in the Saturday Paper, Guardian, Spectrum, Meanjin, Griffith Review and many others. Claire is a Co-founder and Lead Writer at the Centre for Reworlding and is currently working on a commissioned play for the Malthouse Theatre.
Jen Rae is an award-winning artist-researcher of Canadian Métis*-Scottish descent, living and creating on Wurrundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Her practice-led research expertise is in the discursive field of contemporary environmental art and arts-based environmental communication. It is centered around cultural responses to climate change/emergency (a.k.a. ‘everything change’), specifically the role of artists. Her work is engaged in discourses around climate-related disaster risk reduction + resilience, speculative futures and intergenerational justice predominantly articulated through transdisciplinary collaborative methodologies, Indigenous pedagogies and community alliances.
Tony Birch is the author of four novels: Women & Children, which won the 2024 The Age Fiction Book of the Year; The White Girl, winner of the 2020 NSW Premier’s Award for Indigenous Writing, and shortlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award; Ghost River, winner of the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing; and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2012. He has also published two poetry books and four short story collections, the most recent of which, Dark as Last Night, won both the 2022 NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the Queensland Literary Award for Fiction. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. Tony Birch is an activist, historian and essayist, and is currently the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne.
Lichen Kelp is an artist, performer and curator. Her solo work investigates ephemeral biological processes and the transubstantiation of chemical reactions. Melting, subliming, fruiting, flowering, decomposing, bubbling and shapeshifting are explored through field work, photography and live experiments emerging from liquid landscapes. Performing as part of Kelping with Dylan Martorell as well as sometime members Benjamin Hancock and Jason Hood, she creates haptic and multi-sensorial unfolding scenographies, with soundscapes derived from electronic ikebana; local botanicals and handbuilt electronics as well as hydrophones, water percussion and ice based touch sensitive instruments. Her curatorial projects include Seaweed Appreciation Society international (SASi), School of Untourism- East Gippsland and the travelling residency program; Forum of Sensory Motion as well as her performance picnic series MULCH.
Presented by Creative Climate and Fed Square, as part of RESET – A free festival for greener living.
Planting is commissioned and presented by Fed Square in partnership with Creative Climate.
Planting is generously supported by Landcare Victoria, Bupa, and Melbourne Water.
