Nature Freaks and Ecojams - A new relationship to the natural world

Westernised humans tend to believe they are separate from nature. This belief shapes environmental thinking and actions. But seeing the world this way, with humans at the centre, has massive ramifications – from climate crisis to mass extinction. A popularised protest sign in the climate movement advocates for ‘systems change not climate change.’ Often, we think about systems change in economic and political terms, but there is a cultural dynamic as well. Our notions of who we are must also change. What stands in the way of remembering that we are embedded in the natural world and its intricate networks? What steps can we take to override anthropocentrism and start to see ourselves as part of something greater?

In this event, kindly hosted by Councillor HY William Chan of City of Sydney, UNSW Professor of Environment & Society Tema Milstein and team will take participants on a journey to unlock new and vitally ancient ways of seeing ourselves and nature.

This event will run in two parts. In the first part, Professor Milstein will give a talk on what it takes interpersonally to reimagine and resituate our relationship as part of the natural world, followed by Q&A. In the second, the Daily Delight~Disrupt project, a just emerging culture-change movement sparked by Milstein and Dr. John Carr and their team out of UNSW, will be introduced. Participants can join engaged "tours" of ecoculture jams (or ‘ecojams’): collective playful public delights that promote and experientially manifest creative and restorative ways of being while disrupting the alienating status quo. Activities will include a range of creative actions that ignite our own agency to connect with and care for each other, place, ecosystems, and species, such as tree hugging, making seed bombs, or walking barefoot through the grass.