The RegenNarration

This is a very special episode, a live conversation event with Nyikina Warrwa elder, Dr Anne Poelina. We last spoke on the podcast for episode 84 back in May, on the launch of Regenerative Songlines Australia, and resolved to catch up on her Country here in the Kimberley later in the year. We ended up doing that at this live event I was honoured to host the Q&A for - a screening of the film we...

There has been a rush this year of landmark court decisions on climate change, ruling on duties of care, emissions reductions, and other actions for corporations and governments, in Australia and around the world. It’s another sign this generation is changing things, and fast. And some of the broader change afoot is even more powerful than what’s hitting the headlines. This is one of those rapid s...

This is a very special extra to episode 96 with Paul Hawken, the globally renowned environmentalist, author, entrepreneur and activist. I say extra, but it’s really a second part, a whole conversation in its own right. Some of the story behind the story. This is essentially the middle hour and a bit of our conversation, where we deep-dove into some of the keystone themes, if you like, of Regenerat...

This is an excerpt from episode 96 featuring the last 25 minutes or so of my conversation with the legendary environmentalist, activist, entrepreneur and author, Paul Hawken, plus a brilliant preview performance of The Regeneration Song! This really felt like a crescendo of sorts, as we neared the end of a conversation that delved deep over a few hours. The main episode that went out Monday is an...

This feels like a pivotal moment. Four years ago, legendary environmentalist, activist, entrepreneur and author, Paul Hawken, compiled the best-selling book Drawdown, a comprehensive plan for reversing global warming. That book changed the world in many ways. And his new one, the sequel to Drawdown, is creating another big wave. It’s called Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation...

Community-owned media is a vital part of regeneration, and this is all the more true for First Nations communities. It’s a well-documented leverage point for attaining massive benefits for local and regional communities - which of course, ultimately, means all of us. The award-winning Larrkardi Radio in Derby, far north Western Australia, is a brilliant and resurgent case-in-point. With a 5-pronge...

This is an excerpt from episode 94 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with award-winning Australian film-maker, Mark Jones. We pick up our conversation with perhaps the biggest question I had for Mark: on the back of his charting stories of cultural transformation and survival through enormous climactic and other shifts, can we do it again? And of course, how? The answer, inevi...

Mark Jones is a crocodile handling, campaign building, award-winning Australian film-maker. He has been living and working extensively in the Kimberley for nearly 30 years, since unexpectedly becoming a novice camera operator with revered adventure film maker Malcolm Douglas. Mark develops stories and films with deep underlying messages that reflect this very special part of the world, and its inc...

This is an excerpt from episodes 92 and 93, parts 1 and 2 of Songlines: Combining the most powerful knowledge systems ever known. We pick up the conversation with Lynne Kelly, as she shares some of the incredible stories of how schools and universities have been embedding her work (think law and medicine degrees with students memorising 88 constellations!). Then she runs us through how it works, h...

This extra to episode 93 features more of Margo Neale, co-curator of the extraordinary exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, and co-author of the best-selling book Songlines: The power and the promise. Margo and I decided to keep rolling with our conversation at some length. I found it to be profound and wonderful stuff, so I wanted to share it all with you. We start here with the tran...

Like our previous guest, Lynne Kelly, in part 1 of this series on Songlines, Margo Neale is a pioneer. Margo is of Aboriginal & Irish descent, from the Kulin nation with Gumbayngirr clan connections. And she’s the lead curator of the extraordinary exhibition Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters, that has made such an incredible mark on Australia, and is about start its high-profile world tour...

Lynne Kelly is now often referred to as The Memory Whisperer. Amidst great personal trial and self-doubt, she stumbled on a series of insights that are revolutionising Western understandings of ancient knowledge systems. And with the likewise brilliant Indigenous woman Professor Margo Neale, they are showing how the combination of Western knowledge systems with reinvigorated ancient ones, is where...

The Patreon page for The RegenNarration is now live! And from here, the podcast goes weekly, with some brewing plans that I hope you might support. It’s actually been a pretty long and deeply felt process to get to this point. So I wanted to share some of that journey with you here – some of why I’m doing this, where it’s come from, and what’s coming on next. For those who just want to cut to the...

This is an excerpt from episode 90 featuring the Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam, Marieke van Doorninck, on how the City is working to become the world’s first ‘doughnut economy’. We pick up our conversation with 20 minutes or so to go, starting with how people are engaging with the City’s doughnut economy strategy. We go on to talk about a few ways the work is being done, including some projects and in...

Marieke van Doorninck is Deputy Mayor of the City of Amsterdam, the first city to formally adopt Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics as their compass for human progress. At this podcast's beginning, Kate Raworth talked with me about her best-selling book Doughnut Economics, proposing an economic model fit for the 21st century - one that meets the needs of all within the means of the planet. She...

This is an excerpt from episodes 88 and 89, parts 1 and 2 of A Native Grains and Native Mills Resurgence. It features around 15 minutes of each episode, patched together with Rob’s closing lines from the Extra to episode 88. So first up, you’ll hear Rob Pekin and Gaala Watson from the legendary social enterprise Food Connect. We chat about how Gaala and Rob came together here, and the connection b...

Welcome to Part 2 of A Native Grains & Native Mills Resurgence, featuring the young farmers changing the face of farming in Australia. Ian Congdon, Courtney Young and family are farmers, mill makers, artists and business people, and they’re exploring how all this connects with culture, creativity, and the regeneration of country and community. If you haven’t yet listened to last week’s episode...

This is a brief extra to episode 88 with Robert Pekin, founder of the award-winning social enterprise Food Connect. It features 10 minutes where Rob and I continued on briefly after Gaala left. It's well worth the listen for some profound reflections on Rob’s part. Title slide: Robert Pekin (supplied). Music : By Jeremiah Johnson. Find more: Tune into the main episode, ‘A Native Grains &...

You might remember Robert Pekin (with his partner Emma-Kate Rose) from episode 28. Rob’s the founder of Food Connect, the trailblazing social enterprise and legendary community food hub in Brisbane. Since then, plenty has happened at Food Connect. The $2m equity crowd-fund – an Australian first - was successful. And Gaala Watson, a Kungalu and Birri-Gubba Woman born and raised in Brisbane, came on...

This is an excerpt from episode 87 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with the CEO of Commonland, Willem Ferwerda. We pick up our conversation with a question I’ve been looking forward to delving into with Willem for a while – how do we create a regenerative economy that fosters healing of country and restoration of landscapes by its very nature, in the face of cultures and sys...

Willem Ferwerda has an extraordinary background as an ecologist and international policy leader. But a little over a decade ago, after backing over 1,000 conservation projects, he decided to face down the fact that they weren’t making a dent in our slide into mass extinction and ecosystem collapse. He turned towards business and economics, and has since dedicated himself to building practical brid...

This is an excerpt from episode 86 featuring the full gripping 13 minutes of Fate, a track from the new release album by Stephen Jenkinson and key collaborator Gregory Hoskins (with band). We pick up our conversation with 15 minutes or so to go, leading in to that piece of music. We talk Fate, our primordial starting point vs a nostalgia for secretly remaining in charge, and drinking daily from ey...

You might remember that Stephen Jenkinson was my first guest when this podcast changed name to The RegenNarration, back in episode 35. For those who are newer to the podcast, Stephen’s a special presence in the world – a wonderful lyricist and story teller, teacher and ceremonialist, author and farmer. Our last conversation delved into his new book at the time, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood...

This is an excerpt from episode 85 featuring the last 20 minutes or so of my conversation with Cathy McGowan. We pick things up with the passage that became the opener in the main episode. It heralds a powerful sequence from Cathy, and an insight into what’s bubbling up around the country in the lead up to the next federal election. We then go into how things worked for her, and other increasingly...

Cathy McGowan was the first female independent MP to sit on the Australian parliamentary cross bench. She was elected in 2013 to the federal seat of Indi, which had been an entrenched conservative party seat for 74 years. At the following election, in 2016, she increased her majority, despite the Liberal/National Party coalition going hard to reclaim it. When Cathy bowed out of parliament ahead of...