Category: News

This is a big week for many of us and for many reasons…The CRF co-hosted the Festival of Embodiment yesterday (30th June) at Deakin Downtown – see story in this newsletter. The Australasian Science Education Research Association (ASERA) Conference is being held at Deakin Downtown on Tuesday – Friday. CRF members are presenting in a symposium about art/science interactions. Around this, trimester 2 is igniting… and it is NAIDOC Week! A time to celebrate and recognise our First Nations colleagues.

The Research Retreat held on Peek Whurrong Country, within the wider Eastern Maar/Gunditjmara Country in Warrnambool, south-western Victoria was a wonderful success. Over the three days we had 13 CRF members plus our Warrnambool colleagues enjoying the research community and spending productive research time. We decided that instead of calling it a research retreat…. that this event and others like it should be called a research ADVANCE! We retreat in order to advance research. So here is to our next one planned for next year.

And then it was June… welcome to the inter-trimester break… the time in our year that seems fraught with marking, taking leave, and setting up for trimester 2 – it is also the conference season for some. So, take care of yourself and enjoy.

This is a big week for the CRF – we hosted our On Country Day #2 yesterday at Common Ground – on Wadawurrung Country at Freshwater Creek near Geelong! This was a chance to engage in a warm data workshop as we considered What is food in an ever changing world? See below for images from our day.

We have been rescheduling a few events lately – acknowledging that sometimes unexpected things come up for presenters and we all need to look after ourselves and each other… and simply change the date.  We value our collaborators and you – our members.  We appreciate that changes in scheduled events can feel frustrating, yet we are committed to honouring each of us and ensuring our colleagues can give us their best.

Happy day after Earth Day! Earth Day has been celebrated on 22nd April since 1970, so this is the 55th year! This year’s theme is Our Power, Our Planet. We trust you are enjoying our planet and some wellbeing on your intra-trimester break. Maybe this is a welcome treat for when you return from well-earned leave. We’ve been enjoying some leaves of the plant variety, Jo spent a few days on Gunai Kurnai Country and Peta is on Kaniyang Boodja. 

We are really sorry to have needed to postpone the On Country day in Geelong – scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday 8th April). Thanks to Lachy and Jayne-Louise who were committed to going ahead… too few were able to take advantage of the opportunity. We will reschedule for some time in May. Look out for the calendar invite coming soon.

The fifth newsletter of the year presents some amazing opportunities and possibilities for learning and collaborating. The CRF is pleased to curate this information and we are especially grateful to our members, HDR Colleagues, and allied members. We greatly appreciate those who share connections and ideas with us regularly.

Trimester 1 is underway and we start to settle into our new ways of working. We trust that you are now able to bring your focus around to research and to think about how to enact and enliven your program across this year.

This week we will hold our first of four On Country events for the year. Although it can be difficult to carve out time for these days, those who attend always report that it is time well spent.  On Thursday we’ll be taking some time before the start of Trimester 1 for walking and sharing research, the arts, culture, yarning and food on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung Country, Naarm. The details are in the newsletter, read on