NENA Healthy Humane Habitats Month (All Sessions)

This October, the New Economy Network Australia (NENA) invites you to join us for Healthy Humane Habitats Month — a month-long online program exploring how we can create places and communities where people and the living world can thrive.

What makes somewhere a good place to live? How might we rethink our homes, neighbourhoods, food systems, schools and cities to better support human and ecological wellbeing? And how can we build communities that are not only sustainable, but regenerative, resilient, connected and humane?

Throughout October, we’ll bring together practitioners, researchers, community leaders, educators and changemakers for a diverse program of presentations, workshops, facilitated conversations, panels and community-led sessions exploring these questions from different perspectives.

Topics will span regenerative futures, community and belonging, food systems, alternative ways of living, biodiversity, education, urban environments and our relationships with the more-than-human world.

One registration, a whole month of events

By registering for Healthy Humane Habitats Month, you are registering for the entire program.

You don’t need to attend every session. Register once and you’ll receive information about the sessions taking place throughout October, allowing you to join the conversations that interest you most.

All sessions will be held online, making it possible to participate from wherever you are.

Please note that this is a draft program. Additional sessions, speakers and event details will be announced as Healthy Humane Habitats Month approaches. Dates and times are subject to confirmation.

Monday 5 October – World Habitat Day

What Might a Regenerative, Safe and Adaptive Future Look Like Within the Lifetime of a Child Born Today?
Case Study / Project Showcase with Carmen Stewart, Imagine Northern Rivers

Imagine Northern Rivers has gathered more than 25,000 pieces of data through 30 community workshops exploring the futures people want to create. Carmen Stewart will share what this collective imagining reveals about our shared values, what communities want to retain and let go of, and the conditions needed to move towards regenerative, safe and adaptive futures.

Wednesday 7 October

People Need People: Warm Conversations in Community
Participatory Warm Data Conversation

Inspired by Nora Bateson’s Warm Data Labs, People Need People creates a gentle, spacious environment for exploring how we live, learn and care together. Through small-group conversations, stories and multiple perspectives, participants will experience a relational approach to collective sense-making grounded in curiosity, listening and connection.

Wednesday 14 October

Your Habitat Is Already Alive: A Shared Conversation on Land, Community, Belonging and Life’s Intelligences
Facilitated Conversation with Cari Taylor, One Living System

What if habitat is not simply the land, buildings or environments around us, but a living field of relationships between people, place and the more-than-human world? Cari Taylor invites us to notice what is already alive within our places and explore regeneration as a process of listening, relationship and participation.

Friday 16 October – World Food Day

The Power of Food Choices for the Future of Humanity
Presentation and Discussion with Dr Peter Johnston

Explore the connections between food, agriculture, human health and ecological sustainability. Peter will examine the impacts of our current food system and consider practical pathways towards living more lightly on the Earth, including plant-based diets, reducing food waste, growing food and relocalising food systems.

Monday 19 October

Sharing Where We Live: Exploring More Affordable, Sustainable and Communal Ways of Living
Booklet Launch, Panel and Discussion with the Degrowth Network and NENA

As housing becomes increasingly expensive and the ecological impacts of how we live become harder to ignore, what might we gain by sharing more? Join the launch of the new Sharing Where We Live booklet and hear from people exploring shared housing, co-housing, ecovillages and other ways of living more affordably, sustainably and communally.

Wednesday 21 October

Citizen COP: Biodiversity Collage – Nature in Our Cities
Participatory Workshop with Dr Fanny de Busserolles, People For Nature

Connect the dots between biodiversity, ecosystems and human activity through an interactive, science-based Biodiversity Collage. Explore the drivers of biodiversity loss, how decisions about housing, transport, food and urban design affect the living world, and what we can do locally to restore nature in our cities and communities.

Thursday 29 October

Seeding Tomorrow: Schools as Urban Origins
Facilitated Discussion with Tijana Ilic

What if schools were not simply institutions located within communities, but places from which healthier, more connected and ecologically aware communities could grow? Drawing on Australian and international examples, this session will explore schools as part of the social and ecological fabric of our cities and consider the role children and education can play in creating the habitats of tomorrow.

Saturday 31 October – World Cities Day

The Future of Cities
Healthy Humane Habitats Month Closing Event

We’ll bring Healthy Humane Habitats Month to a close on World Cities Day by turning our attention to the future of the places where an increasing proportion of humanity lives. Together, we’ll explore what healthier, more humane, resilient and regenerative cities might look like — and draw together some of the ideas and questions that have emerged throughout the month.

More speakers and sessions to be announced.

Who is Healthy Humane Habitats Month for?

Everyone is welcome. Whether you’re a community organiser, researcher, practitioner, policymaker, planner, educator, grower, designer, activist, student or simply someone curious about how we might live differently, we invite you to join the conversation.

Healthy Humane Habitats Month is an opportunity to learn, connect, imagine and explore practical alternatives together — recognising that creating healthier habitats isn't only about changing our buildings or infrastructure. It is also about transforming our relationships with one another, our communities, the places we inhabit and the living world of which we are part.

Register once to join us throughout October. Attend one session, several, or come along for the whole journey.