Category: News

September is Biodiversity month and 7th September was National Threatened Species day. It’s the kind of day that we should be aspiring NOT to have! However, Threatened Species day provokes us to pay attention to our roles in our ecosystem, to find ways to live our responsibility and to ensure we are all contributing meaningfully by managing to live with enough, and to right-size (term well used by Prof. Anne Poelina) our consumption. Take some time this week to pay attention and take some action – check an app about your local species, engage in acts of kindness in caring for and with Country… maybe by planting some plant species for our local pollinators, or putting out a new insect hotel… or signing up to volunteer your time to a local network. You can also read some good news items about some species at the end of the newsletter. 

Peta and Jo have been networking in Denmark Europe – following our connections to CUHRE – the Centre for Understanding Human Relations with the Environment attending the International Eco-Literacy Research Festival. In response to our commitment to attending the Festival and curating connections for the CRF we are offering a different, visually reflective, community sharing newsletter this fortnight.  You can expect a return to the usually informative community building newsletter on the 9th September.

What a busy few weeks we have had enjoying our colleagues and considering our practices… See the links below to Bronwyn Sutton’s Futures Forum and our 2 Regenerators: creating impact through LinkedIn with our Faculty marketing team and Exploring Cat 2 – 4 grants with Andy Brader.

Thanks to all colleagues who ventured out in the wet stormy weather this week to meet us at the Waterfront campus for our 3rd On Country Day. See below for images of the day. The Artefacts of the Future team shared our research with those present and we invited you to be involved – then we made artefacts.  As you can see (below) they are incredible and we really advanced our thinking through this process.

This week the CRF Artefacts of the Future Project has been in full swing. Primary students have been considering sustainable living and possible futures through art and design, culminating in an exhibition of over 100 primary students’ artefacts at the Gordon Gallery in Geelong as part of Nature Week. This has coincided with the school holidays and a chance for families and community members to engage in creating and making while envisioning possible futures. Next, we bring part of this exhibition and creativity to our CRF members and friends as part of On Country Day #3 on Wednesday 23 July at the Waterfront campus A+B spaces. See below for the details, and the invitation in your calendar. Come along and add a creative spark to your week.

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.