After the Bloom: A Workshop for Our Grief, Love and Hope

How can we respond when tragedy literally washes up on our shores?

Adelaide's citizens and visitors have recently been forced to face something we never expected to, and that we could be forgiven for feeling wholly unprepared for. The loss not just of life, but of a certain kind of innocence, that the fate befalling nature around the state, country and globe could somehow be kept at arm's distance from our own lives.

With the algal bloom fresh in our memory, and bird flu just now arriving, grief has become a seed within many of us. Yet grief is often misunderstood as something to suppress or bypass, rather than as a source of richness and depth when held appropriately. 

Drawing on deep ecology and creative practices, this event offers a carefully held space to plumb these depths together, and to rediscover and revitalise our love, hope and wonder for the world.

With ongoing blooms expected as ocean temperatures continue to rise, the 2026 Nature Festival provides Adelaide dwellers and lovers with this timely (and double-edged) opportunity to work with and move through their emotions towards a calmer, stable and wiser sense of orientation. This relationship with the ocean will always be a core contributor to the strength and resilience of Adelaide's people, and this event - inspired by Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects, Jem Bendell's Deep Adaptation Framework, and Dougald Hine's At Work In The Ruins - offers a structured space to revitalise it.

Your hosts for this event are Dr Sam McGlennon and Ellie Domigan, two friends and founders of the Meaning+Company collective. Sam grew up in Adelaide, now lives in Aotearoa/NZ, and is a dad, musician and surfer, working with businesses and governments on climate and nature reporting. Ellie grew up and lives in Aotearoa/NZ, is also a musician and yoga teacher, and is trained in psychology, conflict transformation and law.