Healthy Habitats: Imagining Regenerative Futures

What might a regenerative, safe and adaptive future look like within the lifetime of a child born today?

And what would it take to get there?

Join us on World Habitat Day for the opening session of NENA’s Healthy Humane Habitats Month, as we explore what becomes possible when communities are given the space to collectively imagine the futures they actually want.

Imagine Northern Rivers has been exploring what a safer, regenerative and adaptive future could look like within the lifetime of a child born today. Through 30 community workshops involving more than 450 people, the project has gathered over 25,000 pieces of data capturing what people value, what they want to retain and let go of, and the actions they believe could move their communities towards preferable futures.

In this case study and project showcase, Carmen Stewart will share what is emerging from this collective imagining — not simply as a collection of data or predictions, but as a window into our shared values, how people are experiencing the present, and what becomes possible when we create space to imagine beyond it.

We’ll explore the idea of “thrutopia”: how we might move through the complex challenges and uncertainty of the present towards futures that are genuinely worth living in. Carmen will also consider the conditions needed for shared visions of regenerative futures to take root — beginning with acknowledging where we are, imagining where we want to go, and recognising that many of the alternatives sitting in the recesses of our hearts and minds may be more achievable than we think.

This session is part of Healthy Humane Habitats Month: Reimagining how we live, together.

Carmen Stewart leads Imagine Northern Rivers, a community-led exploration of what safer, regenerative and adaptive futures could look like within the lifetime of a child born today.

Through 30 workshops involving more than 450 people across the Northern Rivers, Imagine Northern Rivers has gathered more than 25,000 pieces of data to build a shared picture of the futures communities want to create — including what people value, what they want to retain and let go of, and the actions they believe can move us in preferred directions.

Carmen describes the emerging vision as “thrutopia” — an exploration of how we might move through the challenges and uncertainty of the present towards futures that are worth living in. Her work creates spaces for communities to imagine what is possible and explore the conditions needed for shared visions of regenerative and adaptive futures to take root.