Event description

Join us for our May “Kinship” Webinar, when we are joined by Andrew Skeoch, Professor Benny Wilson and Monty Nixon, to explore what it means to listen deeply to nature – and to let the living world inspire, teach and guide us.

Our Webinar Series: “Kinship: exploring human-nature connections” features speakers from around Australia and around the world, who share their insights into how they connect with and celebrate ‘nature’. Human beings are (of course) part of nature, but by reflecting on the cultural, bioregional, linguistic and practical ways that humans engage with, celebrate and care for ‘nature’, we can enrich our understanding of what it means to be part of the Earth community.

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS - 21 MAY

ANDREW SKEOCH

Andrew Skeoch is one of Australia’s best known nature sound recordists, is an acoustic ecologist and author of ‘Deep Listening to Nature’, a truly inspirational book, based on his decades of connecting with and listening to the living world. . In 1993, he established the independent label Listening Earth to publish immersive nature soundscape recordings, work which has since taken him around the world documenting the sounds of threatened ecosystems. Andrew is a gifted educator and his presentations seek to address the fundamental questions of our human relationship with the living biosphere. He gives presentations to audiences as diverse as TedX, ABC Radio’s ‘Big Ideas’, and to academic and community audiences.

PROFESSOR BENNY WILSON

Professor Benny Wilson is a Jagera man who has worked in the tertiary sector since 2015. His expertise includes Indigenising the curriculum, assisting non-Indigenous academic colleagues to embed Indigenous ways of knowing into their units, and the intersection between narrative and place-based education systems. He has worked as a coach, teacher, facilitator, and consultant across a range of institutions and schools since 2007. Throughout his academic career, he has worked on ARC projects connected to both Indigenous education and Indigenous health. His current research explores place-based narrative as an Aboriginal epistemology and its application for modern education systems.

In 2022, Benny was named ACT Scholar of the Year in 2022 at the ACT NAIDOC Awards. In 2023, he was awarded the Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Education at the Australian Awards for University Teaching for his significant contribution to higher education

MONTY NIXON

Monty Nixon is a PhD student exploring how Indigenous ways of being, knowing and doing can lead education systems to help people come to know, understand and care for the places they live. Growing up walking through the mountain ranges of Arrente Country in the Central Deserts of Australia ignited Monty's passion for the outdoors, inspiring him to study Outdoor and Environmental Education. After graduating, Monty completed an Honours thesis, critically reflecting on relationships between rock climbers, Traditional Custodians and place meaning at Dyurrite Mount Arapiles. Monty has spent the previous four years as a research assistant on the Country as Teacher project in the Centre for Sustainable Communities at the University of Canberra. Drawing on his experiences on the Country as Teacher Project at the University of Canberra and his background in Outdoor Education, Monty's PhD aims to help develop Outdoor and Environmental Educators to embedded their practice in Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing.

WEBINAR HOST
DR MICHELLE MALONEY

Dr Michelle Maloney is an Earth lawyer and advocate for ecocentric governance. She is recognised for her work advocating for Earth centred law and governance, including First Laws and the Rights of Nature. Michelle is Co-Founder and Director of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), and Co-Founder and Director of Future Dreaming and the New Economy Network Australia. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science and History) and Laws (Honours) from the Australian National University and a PhD in Law from Griffith University.

ABOUT THE AUSTRALIAN EARTH LAWS ALLIANCE (AELA)
AELA is a not-for-profit organisation working to increase the understanding and practical implementation of Earth-centred (ecocentric) governance, with a focus on systems change across law, economics, education, ethics and community participation in Australia. AELA's work includes education programs and project support for people, communities and organisations working to create ecocentric systems change.

For more information, visit our website: www.earthlaws.org.au or email us anytime: aela@earthlaws.org.au

ABOUT THE UTS TRANSDISCIPLINARY SCHOOL

Transdisciplinary School is a world-leading pan-university unit at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Transdisciplinary thinking seeks to build bridges between fields of study and expertise, so diverse perspectives can intersect, ideas can be shared more fluidly between industries, and people can thrive through exposure to new ways of thinking in order to find novel approaches to the challenges of our time.

For more information: https://www.uts.edu.au/about/t...

ABOUT FUTURE DREAMING

Future Dreaming Australia is a not-for-profit, Indigenous and non-Indigenous partnership organisation that works to share cross cultural ecological knowledge to build a better future for all of us.

For more information: www.futuredreaming.org.au

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE KINSHIP SERIES

If you have questions, or would like to suggest future topics or speakers for the kinship series, please email us anytime: aela@earthlaws.org.au-
Updates about the kinship series will be shared on AELA's website - https://www.earthlaws.org.au/o...