The School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle is delighted to be hosting Professor Anne Poelina through our Open Architecture Talk series. These talks are free and open for students, practitioners, and the broader community to come together and ‘open up’ our shared places, practices and projects. This public programming is part of our Visiting Architects and Experts project, that draws in a diversity of voices and perspectives to discuss, workshop and critique the built environment.

Title | EveryOne, EveryWhere, EveryWhen: Water Futures for Living Rivers

This talk will centre around the film, titled “EveryOne, EveryWhere, EveryWhen”, as told by Baaka, River + Roper, River + Martuwarra, River of Life, Quentin Grafton and Anne Poelina. The collective voices connect Indigenous and Western knowledge around three Living Rivers in Australia: Baaka (New South Wales), Roper (Northern Territory) and Martuwarra (Western Australia) respected as living ancestors. Drawing on film interviews in 2024 with Indigenous Elders who belong to one of the three rivers, and scientists, the narrative gives a holistic understanding of place, story, importance, and the threats to these rivers. The narrative is developed from ‘In-place Dialogues’ with local knowledge holders captured on film, transcribed and then contextualised. The dialogues provide a unique and transformative sense of ‘Conceptualisation, Contextualisation and Consideration’ (Three C’s) of multiple injustices; epistemic, procedural, distributive, inter-generational, inter-species and environmental. Collectively, the dialogues challenge the status quo of ‘Extraction, Exploitation and Exclusivism’ (Three E’s) and show how Indigenous Peoples, communities and scientists are ‘pushing back’ to promote Just Water Futures.

Professor Anne Poelina citizen Nyikina Warrwa (Indigenous Australian) Nation, PhD, PhD, MEd, MPH&TM, MA. Chair & Senior Research Fellow Indigenous Knowledges Nulungu Institute Research University of Notre Dame, Adjunct Professor, College of Indigenous Education Futures, Arts & Society, Charles Darwin University, Darwin. Anne was the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) inaugural First Nations appointment to its independent Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences (2022). Visiting Fellow Water Justice Hub at The Australian National University, Canberra. Inaugural Chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council (2018). Co-winner of the Women Taking Climate Action Award, awarded by the Zonta Club of Melbourne on Yarra and the Zonta International District 23 Zonta Says NOW team (2023). Awarded Kailisa Budevi Earth and Environment Award, International Women’s Day (2022) recognition of her global standing.

Ambassador for the Western Australian State Natural Rangelands Management (NRM) (2023). Assistant Commissioner National Water Initiative (NWI), Productivity Commission -Australia (2024). Member of the Commonwealth Department Climate Change Energy the Environment and Water, Indigenous Advisory Committee (2024).

Founding member of the Commonwealth Department Climate Change Energy the Environment and Water, Aboriginal Water Interest Group and the Western Australian government Aboriginal Water and Environment Group (AWEG). In 2017, she was awarded a Laureate from the Women’s World Summit Foundation (Geneva). Anne is a Peter Cullen Fellow for Water Leadership (2011).

https://annepoelina.com/

https://www.notredame.edu.au/research/institutes-and-initiatives/nulungu/people/Anne-Poelina

Venue| Room X803 Nuspace, Hunter St &, Auckland St, Newcastle NSW 2300

Time| 6pm

We look forward to seeing you there!