Otway Celebrations

Click here to subscribe to Falling in Love with the World on Substack Falling in Love with the World substack is an invitation to a weekly email sharing deep ecology practices to help keep us buoyant in these uncertain times.The email also includes a zoom link to join online with a small group any Sunday @5pm AEDT Deep Ecology – Falling in love with the world. Connect through interactive…

What a wonderful launch! It was standing room only at the beachside vintage hall at Blythe Heads with 5o people gathering for the celebration of Falling for Water by Francesca Cairns. Nettie Hume was the MC and there was a beautiful sharing by Cassie Smith, North West Environment Centre & Manager ecofest26: This book has reminded me that water, memory, nature, and human spirit are all bound…

Here is a beautiful offering from Ann Marie Davis who has re-imagined this mediation/ritual/practice from Joanna Macy and the Work that Reconnects.

A guided/walking, meditation on deep time. You can listen to a recording alone, or with others. If possible, being in nature adds to the potency. This practice has been re-imagined by  Ann Marie Davis: “Harvesting the Gifts of the Ancestors is a mediation or ritual that Joanna Macy wrote as part of her Work That Reconnects. I performed the ritual at one of her workshops and noticed immediately…

In 2022, I joined the WELA program and was partially supported in my application by the Dr Deb Foskey Fund, for which I am most grateful. That's why I'm now asking for your help.

Some of you know me as the former co-ordinator of Forrest Neighbourhood House, or as the editor of Otway Life Magazine, now Otway Journal – coming back to earth, others know me as a funeral & wedding celebrant or facilitator of the Work that Reconnects/Active Hope. You will also know that I am deeply committed to taking action to address the current climate crisis and environmental degradation…

Join your voice with ours:   Our Women’s Charter in the face of Climate Change and World Iniquities by Honey Nelson, founding member of Women's Climate Congress

Vivienne Briggs shares her special affinity with the platypus and her wonderful work with conserving their habitat.

1. What inspired you to begin  the ‘Friends of Fern Glade’ in Burnie Tasmania? I started the group in 2014 when I returned to live in Tasmania after a few years interstate. I have a background in wildlife management, consulting and ecotourism and had ‘worked’ in Fernglade in the past.  I could see that Fernglade was in need of some ‘ownership’ by the local community. I knew I had the skills to…

‘First with my heart & then with my eyes – once for her & then for myself” Kerry Hulm

Please enjoy these words and images from amateur photographer Kerry Hulm that will surely gladden your spirit.

If I am to answer the question – “What is your motivation?” forefront in my mind – ‘Isn’t nature wonderful!’   To speak of a defining moment, it was the passing of my dear friend from cancer. Some moments impact on you so much that they change your perception of life itself and how you view it. As I struggled to comprehend how a much-treasured life could have been cut short at such a young age,…

The first sip zings the taste buds in my mouth. This tea is freshly made from the tiny leaves of the alpine bush that grows outside my shack on the Central Plateau in Tasmania and is a citrus and pine combination that is both sweet and delicious.   Alpine Bachnea only grows above 1000 metres and I love the idea that I am drinking the land. I bathe, cook and clean with the same spring water that…

Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation – Traditional Owner Group

Today we are commemorating 5 years since Uluru Statement from the Heart – now with anew Labor Gift there will be respectful action at last!

DISGUST: WHAT IS NOT DISCUSSED IN AUSTRALIAN POLITICS by Gaele Sobott

The sky is a dark smoke cloud tinged with orange, it’s difficult to breathe outside. I assist my mother to shower, rubbing shampoo into her hair. I hand her a facecloth to wipe soap from her eyes. We’ve closed the windows and doors to stop ash from coming inside. It’s hot. I’m disabled, 63 years old and my parents are in their late 80s. My mother is ill and has been in bed for a few months. It is…

Disgust: what is not discussed in Australian politics

Disgust: what is not discussed in Australian politics

This post by Gaele Sobott was reprinted in Otway Journal – coming back to earth 2021

Entering the Bardo by Joanna Macy

In this op-ed, eco-philosopher and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy introduces us to the bardo—the Tibetan Buddhist concept of a gap between worlds where transition is possible. As the pandemic reveals ongoing collapse and holds a mirror to our collective ills, she writes, we have the opportunity to step into a space of reimagining. WE ARE IN a space without a map. With the likelihood of economic…

Tjanimaku Tjukurpa: how one young man came good – Book Review by Melissa Lindeman

Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjartjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council, Alice Springs A children’s book seems an unlikely outcome of a men’s group established to talk about violence and its impacts. Published by the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjartjara Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council in Central Australia, Tjanimaku Tjukurpa: how one young man came good[1], tells the story of Tjanima, a boy who grows…