One Climate, Many Stories Perth - Citizen COP 2026

You're invited!

One Climate, Many Stories

Join us at the Canning River Eco Education Centre for a community panel discussion and climate networking session bringing together diverse perspectives on climate action, resilience and sustainability during COP31.

The event will create a welcoming space for community leaders to connect, share perspectives and explore opportunities for local action.

Join us to learn together and share diverse stories for climate teamwork in Western Australia.

Light vegetarian morning tea will be provided.

We are honoured to announce the Team for ‘One Climate, Many Stories’!

Keynote Speaker:

Jawaria Mahmood is an Award Winning Online Safety Specialist and founder of Tech Aware. A 2025 WA Women's Hall of Fame inductee, she is a respected community leader recognised for advancing digital inclusion, online safety, and community empowerment in Australia. She works at the intersection of community and technology. Shee simplifies technology for at-risk communities and supports migrants integration into tech heavy Australian society. Through her work, Jawaria champions equitable access to technology and helps build safer and more connected communities.

Panellists:

• Tyler Deakin-Thomas is a writer that works in the environmental field. He is of Ballardong Noongar and English descent.His writing and storytelling explore his connection to Country across Noongar lands as well as his identity as a queer person. Tyler's work in bushlands across the Metropolitan area of Boorloo (Perth) influences his perspectives on conservation and land management.He hopes to continuously expand his knowledge by starting conversations.

• Professor Jaya Dantas is Dean International in Health Sciences and Professor of International Health in the School of Population Health at Curtin University. She has 39 years’ experience working in India, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, East Timor and Australia and has undertaken research in several other countries. An award winning academic, she has recently been awarded the prestigious Stan Perron fellowship for five years, to examine the complex issues of modern slavery in Australia. Jaya has been a delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN and is on the Committee of Women in Global Health, Australia and Australian Graduate Women. Alongside all of this, Jaya is also adaughter, sister, mother and community mentor and a passionate advocate of gender equality.

• Tanya Gawthorne is the founder and facilitator of Balanced Consulting, offering speaking, workshops and facilitation for people and organisations working through demanding times. Drawing on more than 20 years of management experience across health, government, environmental and community settings, she helps groups clarify their direction, strengthen working relationships and agree on practical next steps. Her services include strategic planning, workplace governance, and facilitation for meetings, forums and conferences. Tanya also delivers talks and workshops exploring burnout and resilience, leading change, the cost of caring, and wellbeing at work. She provides tailored programs and retreats that combine practical learning, reflection, coaching and peer connection, including her key offering - Sustainable Leadership for leaders under sustained demand. Her approach creates space for conversations that bring clarity and support sustainable ways forward.

• Shenali Perera is an artist and visual scribe - she draws while people talk to deepen awareness, and activate creativity and engagement during a live event. She approaches art as a beautiful tool for seeing and sensing the world around us, and within us, more clearly. As a visual scribe, she brings art into spaces where people are seeking to understand systems, complex issues, each other and themselves more deeply. When she is not scribing, she dabbles in illustrating, making paper and zines!

• Lakshmi Kanchi is an Indian-Australian poet on a mission to make poetry accessible. She is the Chair of WA Poets Inc. Her writing anatomises the complex links between language, culture, history and perception. She is the author of Lakesong (Centre for Stories, 2023) and winner of the 2023 Ros Spencer Poetry Prize and the 2021 Pocketry Prize for Unpublished Poets. Her work has been shortlisted for the Heroine’s Prize, Grieve Project and SCWC Poetry Prize. Lakshmi was Poet-in-Residence at The Wetlands Centre (2022–23) and Writer-in-Residence at Midland Courthouse (2024). She co-presented LAND (WORD) JOURNEY, a visual poetry exhibition at Midland Junction Arts Centre (2025), and her poetry suite Wayfinding was featured at Fremantle Biennale in November 2025.

• Heather Johnstone is an urban greening practitioner and community advocate whose work has grown from grassroots campaigns for urban trees into projects with communities, local governments, environmental organisations and young people. She is interested in how local action can create greener, healthier and more resilient places, and how those experiences connect to bigger systems of change. Heather is a Director of the Australian Green Infrastructure Network (AGIN) and Founder & Principal Consultant of She Plants Cities.

Please Note the event will take place at the Canning River Eco Education Centre (Corner of Kent Street and Queens Park Road, Wilson) Photo below.

THIS is the COP31 event you don't want to miss! Tickets Free. Places Limited. Share with your networks!

Don't miss out.

Book your ticket today!

This event is part of People For Nature's Citizen COP Australia connecting local communities to COP31 Türkiye.

For any questions, disability access requirements or support, please email wildaliz@treecharge.com.au

Book HERE or scan QR Code Below:

About Citizen COP Australia

Citizen COP Australia is a decentralised, people-powered movement running alongside the global COPs in 2026. Enabled by People For Nature, but intentionally independent and distributed, Citizen COP invites communities, organisations, schools, businesses, artists, and local groups across Australia to host their own events during the COP period. Rather than a single central event, Citizen COP is a nationwide network of conversations, workshops, and actions that bring global climate and nature discussions into local communities. It connects people to science, solutions, and each other, strengthening civic engagement and ensuring citizen voices contribute to Australia’s climate and nature conversations.

https://www.peoplefornature.org.au/citizen-cop

About People For Nature

People For Nature is a volunteer-powered environmental charity empowering communities through climate and biodiversity education, citizen conservation, and science. We believe that when Australians understand and connect with nature, they’re more likely to protect it — safeguarding our climate, ecosystems, and well-being.

Your tax-deductible donation helps us bring initiatives like Citizen COP Australia to life and inspire real change for the planet. https://www.peoplefornature.org.au/donate