23 June 2009 Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Community engagement is a tricky matter. We need to be flexible and still keep our eyes on the ball. It’s a changing landscape. A bit like navigating white water rapids in a small canoe. When we add the issues of “sustainability” to… Continue reading Community Engagement: 18 Considerations
Author: Wendy
Appreciating a Mentor: Clare Cooper Marcus
22 June 2009, 8:06 am I met my mentor, Clare Cooper Marcus in 1973. So we’ve been friends and colleagues for over 35 years. She and her husband, Stephen, were visiting Australia from California. “You’d like my wife,” Stephen remarked. Stephen was right: I liked his wife. Finding a shared interest… Continue reading Appreciating a Mentor: Clare Cooper Marcus
Smoke on the Horizon
21 June 2009, 8:12 am We’ve had the man from the Country Fire Service around to look over the property. “Don’t plant any more trees,” he said. “Don’t you know how dangerous it is to live uphill from a gully?” No more trees. A hard ask when it’s so hot in… Continue reading Smoke on the Horizon
Remembering Mary Ann Hiserman
20 June, 2009 at 8:08 pm My friend, Peter, the local real estate agent, came over the other day to see how the building was coming along. He’s been cheering us on, especially during the storms and floods. I found a plan and we walked around the building site. All on one level… Continue reading Remembering Mary Ann Hiserman
Community engagement with children and young people
Secret Kids’ Business, Eagleby, Gold Coast, 1999 Photograph by Kelvin Walsh, 1999 A few weeks ago the communications officer of a local council responded to my plea to include children and young people in their community engagement strategy. Chidren and young people are not our customers “Children and young people are… Continue reading Community engagement with children and young people
Fog in the Valley
19 June 2009 at 9:09 am When there’s morning fog in our valley – as there is today – I go inside. I can no longer see the sacred mountains my activist neighbours saved from logging with fierce campaigns in the seventies and eighties. My daily glimpse of a politicised landscape… Continue reading Fog in the Valley
Peggy’s Salon
18 June 2009 4:38 pm Living in the bush has its limitations, to be certain. We have most things in my village of 350, largely due to our hectic tourist trade: a pharmacy, a hospital, doctors, a post office, a hardware store, a garage, great organic food, fine coffee and an excellent hairdresser. … Continue reading Peggy’s Salon
Knispering: Are Rats Smarter than Humans?
Jarlanbah Eco-village, Nimbin, NSW, 17 June 2009 Karl in the Shed The Introduction to Kitchen Table Sustainability starts the book off on a bucolic, if pessimistic, note. Three of the authors are sitting around the tables on the porch of our shed here in Nimbin and speculating about the future and the… Continue reading Knispering: Are Rats Smarter than Humans?
Kitchen Table Sustainability launched at Bond University
9 December 2008 Successful book launch at Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, 3 December 2008 I love the new building of the Mirvac School of Sustainable Development at Bond University. It reminds me of the concept of “eco-revelatory design” made popular by a great new book by Randy Hester, Design for Ecological Democracy (2006).… Continue reading Kitchen Table Sustainability launched at Bond University
Rapturous reception at Avid Reader book launch for KTS
After years of drought, Brisbane was treated to a sparkling evening shower on Friday night, December 5th and a rapturous reception for Kitchen Table Sustainability. Four of our book’s five authors were present at the book launch at popular West End bookstore, Avid Reader. Cathy Wilkinson flew in from Swedish Lappland, Steph Vajda… Continue reading Rapturous reception at Avid Reader book launch for KTS