Last month I had the opportunity to attend ChangeFest in Mildura, Victoria. It was such a transformative and inspiring experience that I just had to write a blog about it.
But before I get into the blog, I wish to acknowledge the Latji Latji people who are the Traditional Custodians of the land upon which Changefest was held, as well as the Barkindji people who are the Traditional Custodians of the neighbouring land across the river from Mildura and who also played a key role in ChangeFest. I also wish to acknowledge the Erawirung people who are the Traditional Custodians of the land upon which I am writing this blog. All these people have connection to the Murray River. I would also like to pay my respects to all Elders both past and present and extend that respect to all other First People who may be reading this blog.
Please read this blog in the spirit it was shared; with love, compassion and a desire to learn. I wish to state that in no way am I wanting to impose myself on others with my writing, but I feel a deep desire to share my thoughts and inspirations with whoever may be reading this, and I am very grateful that you are, I warmheartedly wish you all the very best.
So, what is ChangeFest I hear you ask? That is a question I was also asking myself back in early December 2023, when a friend of mine, Julie Ahrens, mentioned she was attending it this year. Julie has her finger on the pulse for all things community development through her involvement with the Our Town movement and in particular, Our Town Berri so that was good enough endorsement for me to consider attending. However, once I had learned that ChangeFest is a nation-wide movement for place based change, that supports us to learn and strengthen our understanding of community-led approaches while also seeking to demonstrate how initiatives are encouraging collaboration across sectors, through meaningful engagement, and elevating First Peoples and community voices as a pathway for transformative change … I was hooked, and immediately registered to attend. Besides, it was also to be held in Mildura, which is just down the road from Loxton, and is a place I always enjoy visiting.
It’s just amazing how things seem to fall in place at times. Learning about ChangeFest was quite timely as I have been considering the importance of community led change as part of the research and contents for my book and I just knew that ChangeFest was going to help me unravel some of the ideas I was grappling with as well as introduce me to new ideas and initiatives that will inspire parts of my book. My only aim from attending ChangeFest was to listen and learn.
So, ChangeFest was added to my list of events to attend in March. I always look forward to March, not only is it the start of Autumn, my favourite season, but it also contains two of my favourite annual events, Adelaide Writers’ Week and WOMADelaide. But this year the inclusion of ChangeFest has just topped off what has been an awesome month as far as events go.
But life also comes with grief, unfortunately this March also marked the sudden passing of a friend of ours, Julie Graetz. Julie was one of those people who always greeted you with a smile and a genuine interest in how you are. I wish to dedicate this blog to Julie and in doing so send all my love and sincere condolences to her family and close friends.
We attended Julie’s Funeral on the morning before I headed off to Mildura to attend ChangeFest. The funeral was held at St Alberts Catholic Church in Loxton, and this was the first time in decades that I had attended a Catholic Church service. So, the drive to Mildura was filled with a mixture of reflecting on Julie and her life, I was also inspired by her faith, and I reflected on how this was such a positive part of her life. I also found myself reflecting on the Catholic Church in particular, but religion generally and its role in the world and in our communities. I guess at this point I should say that I was brought up in the Catholic faith but its no longer a part of my life.
I mention this as these thoughts and reflections on faith, religion and church were amplified and continually revisited throughout ChangeFest and I will elaborate on how ChangeFest inspired this later in the blog.
Once I had arrived in Mildura I decided to walk to the Mildura Arts Centre (the MAC) and register. This was also a reconnaissance mission to see how long the walk took. Mildura is a very easy city to get around and the walk from my accommodation to the MAC was only about 15 minutes or so.
The night before ChangeFest was spent going over the schedule to make sure I was happy with the sessions I had picked. I also started reading Charles Eisenstein’s latest book, ‘The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible’ and I continued to read this book for the duration of ChangeFest. The themes and ideas in this book align with the principles and vision of ChangeFest. The book reminds us that we are all connected and that by embracing the principle of interconnectedness we become more effective agents of change and have a stronger positive influence on the world.
Anyways, that’s about enough of the introduction, here are my reflections from ChangeFest ’24.
DAY 1 – Wednesday 20th March 2024
I woke up early, excited to get down to Rio Vista Park where the Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country was to be held to kick off proceedings for ChangeFest. In typical fashion, I was amongst the first to arrive at the park, so I took the opportunity to find a seat off to the side to read my book.
Between paragraphs I also appreciated the ambience of the park while watching as the crowd grew. I was also appreciating that I had decided to bring a hoody with me as it was a bit chilly this morning. Whilst I welcomed the change in weather as it’s been very hot lately it was nice to be warm in my hoody.
It’s a privilege to be welcomed to country by local elders and I was moved by today’s welcome and smoking ceremony. It seems that the more times I am privileged to experience a welcome to country the more I appreciate the significance of the country I am visiting but also the importance of recognising the land I was born, as well as the land I am currently living on.
The other significant event at this morning’s ceremony was the handing over of the ChangeFest Statement from the local elders to the MC’s for this event, Mark Yettica-Paulson and Shanesha Togo, who will be the custodians of the statement for the duration of the event.
Following the Welcome to Country we had a break for morning tea, and this was our first experience of the awesome catering for the event. The food at all our meal breaks was excellent and provided a daily challenge not to eat too much.
Following morning tea, we had the privilege to listen to Stan Grant, our keynote speaker. In addition to seeing Stan in action as a journalist and presenter on TV, I have also thoroughly enjoyed reading two of his books, Australia Day and The Queen Is Dead as well as watched many of his speeches that can be found on YouTube. Hence, I am a bit of a fan so had been looking forward to seeing Stan ever since it was first announced that he was going to be at ChangeFest. And he did not disappoint.
Stan is a brilliant orator and storyteller, and I was in awe at how he wove several themes and aspects of his story together, circling back and forth as well as his ability to hold the attention of everyone in the room, we were all entranced as he shared his story.
There is so much that I could write about in response to Stans story, but the overwhelming thought that I took from the speech is that we have never embraced the story of Easter and that it is imperative that we do so. Stan highlighted that Jesus’ last words were of forgiveness to those responsible for his crucifixion, he also noted that forgiveness is not absolution but to forgive you must see yourself in others. We also have to love those that hate us as only love can conquer hate. There is much hate in our world, and it can only be overcome with our love, grace and kindness.
Stan also emphasised the importance of considering where we put ourselves as changemakers when we make decisions. We need to ask ourselves, are we filling space (with ego, self-importance) or opening space (with love, grace and kindness). This became a question that we returned to and reflected upon throughout ChangeFest.
Stan’s speech was one of those moments during ChangeFest when I reflected back on all thing’s faith, religion and Christianity. Whilst I can see the hypocrisy of church as an institution and can point to many heinous acts conducted in its and Gods name, I cannot deny the positive influence faith has in peoples lives as well as the community building aspect of religion, building social capital through trust, respect and reciprocity which is the key to its success and why it is so appealing for so many of us in the world.
If only we truly did live in the example of Jesus, for me, Kev Carmody’s poem/song, ‘Comrade Jesus Christ’ says it all.
Lunch was served at the Powerhouse which is a 5-minute walk from the MAC. This provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on Stan’s words and proved to be another great aspect of this event. All the venues were a 5-to-10-minute walk from each other providing an opportunity to walk on country and reflect on the day’s proceedings with other attendees between sessions. The awesome Mildura weather also contributed to these opportunities. Of course, for those of us less agile or those that just wanted a ride there was bus transport available between all sessions and locations.
Today’s lunch break also included a drumming circle and as I’ve always fancied myself playing the bongos it was an opportunity not to be missed. This was good fun and it felt like a blessing to be sitting by the river, in full sunshine, enjoying the rhythm and camaraderie of the circle.
This afternoon was the first of the breakout sessions. I chose to attend the ‘Hearing from Diverse Voices’ session that was held at the Mildura Tennis Club. This session was facilitated by the Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council (SMECC), the Victorian Council of Social Services (VCOSS) and One Red Step with several presenters from Mildura representing its multicultural community.
We learned about the co-design process and how this has been implemented through the Multicultural Resilience Project. To learn more about this project I recommend you go to this link, Communities at the Centre – Insights from the Multicultural Resilience Project.
The principles behind the approach, include honouring cultures and recognising the strength of multicultural communities, putting relationships with community partners and communities at the centre of the work, and ensuring a curious, empathetic and adaptive approach. For me, it is all about trust and bringing all our love, grace and kindness that Stan was talking about this morning. It is about creating space for others and listening to understand instead of filling space with our own self-importance, hierarchies and/or preconceived notions.
The poignant part of this session was learning about some of the challenges faced by members of the multicultural community in the Sunraysia. These challenges were made evident through a journey map process we undertook trying to understand all the barriers that may be present when trying to navigate access to health care in Australia. One of the real examples that stuck with me was that of Fijian man experiencing chest pain, who after much encouragement from friends finally presented to a hospital only to be told that without Medicare it would cost money for him to be attended to, so he left and went home, dying the next day. The local Fijian community rallied together and fundraised $15,000 to send his body home (during the peak of Covid). This story was told to us by Theresa Ah Koy-Ketting and I am grateful to her as well as the other presenters for sharing their stories at this session.
At the end of this session we did a check out, trying to express how we feel about the session in one word. This was difficult as I both inspired as well as heart broken from the stories we heard. But I guess the word that best encapsulated how I felt was ‘challenged’.
It was great to debrief this session with Bill whom I met earlier in the day on the walk back up to the MAC lawns where afternoon tea and the closing session awaited.
The closing session was a reflecting session which I was able to share with Vera and Kate. Kate is from Lismore and Vera is a local from Mildura. I actually met Vera earlier in the day at the drumming circle. We are kindred spirits in that we share a similar fashion sense, band t-shirts. Vera was sporting a Tupac t-shirt today and wore a Bob Marley t-shirt on Thursday. My t-shirts for ChangeFest represented The Herd, L-FRESH The LION and Archie Roach with an Elefant Traks Hoody for good measure. Anyway, I digress.
Vera, Kate and I had a great conversation where we reflected on the following questions.
- What was the number 1 thing we learned today?
- What connections have you made (be it ideas or people)?
- What questions do you have going into tomorrow?
Here are my responses …
I have learned a lot today and its hard to say what the number 1 thing is. But the ideas or pictures in my mind that have been etched there since I heard Stan talk (apart from the thoughts around religion and faith) is his reference to Simone Weil and her quote “… What man needs is silence and warmth; what he is given is an icy pandemonium” in the context that our western industrial consumer society is the source of much of our ‘icy pandemonium’ and this is evident on a myriad of levels.
The other thing from Stans address that has kept coming back during the day is his questions around authenticity and that to be authentic is just to be human. Vera was also talking about this when she made the point that identity was not important, we are all human. To be human is to be loving, kind and generous.
As far as connections are concerned, I’ve made a few today. I met up with Julie during morning tea (that doesn’t count as I already knew her), anyway she soon introduced me to Bill from the Paul Ramsey Foundation. I chatted with Bill at lunch as well as following the breakout session this arvo. I met Christina at the breakout session, and we chatted during afternoon tea. I was fascinated by her work as a researcher in the food industry, I also met Vera and Kate at the closing session. I don’t remember any of the names of the people in the drumming circle (apart from Vera) but Jenni (who I know from Loxton) was there and we caught up during the day as well.
I didn’t really have any questions going into day 2 other than to ask what new things will I learn tomorrow? My overwhelming feeling at the end of Day 1 that I will take into day 2 is a feeling of gratefulness. I was grateful to have had the experience of ChangeFest today and that there are still 2 more days of this to come.
That was the end of the official events for the day. I was keen to attend the Mildura Corroboree, which is a biannual event being held at the Rio Vista Park where we were this morning, but Julie had also invited me to tea with her and the Our Town crew. I decided to head down to the Corroboree for a short while and then head up for dinner a bit late. As it was I only saw one of the dance groups perform at the Corroboree but I did have an awesome meal at Andy’s Kitchen, I can recommend their Sang Choi Bow and Crispy Roasted Pork Belly. The company was great too and it was a pleasure to share a meal with Julie, Jenni and the Our Town team who had come from as far as Ceduna, Cummins, Kimba and Kangaroo Island, I think there were 14 of us in total.
So that was Day 1 of ChangeFest. It was an amazing day with the highlight being Stan Grant, although that pork belly was pretty special too… 😊
DAY 2 – Thursday 21st March 2024
I was early again this morning arriving at the MAC at around 8.30am. This gave me around an hour to stick my nose in my book while occasionally watching my fellow attendees as they arrive.
The first session today was in the MAC where we had the opportunity to hear from Kate ten Buuren and Maya Hodge the curators for the art exhibition, Collective Movements which is also at the MAC.
After this we headed out to the lawns to learn some dances. I’ve forgotten the name of the fellow who led this, but he was great, and this was an enjoyable start to the day and highlighted again to me that we have always danced, and we have kept cultural knowledge in dance. Dance is part of our rituals and connects us to spirituality. I love how Auntie June Mills described dance at ChangeFestNT21, here is a link, she said “When we dance, we are massaging our Mother Earth.” I recommend checking out the link, Auntie June shares much wisdom in the 2-minute clip.
The breakout sessions this morning provided a quandary. I could very easily have attended the session, ‘The economy is broken, how can local economies build healthy and equitable communities?’ held at the Ballroom at the Mildura Grand, as this is a subject I devote much time to in my book. But instead, the breakout session I attended this morning was ‘Storytelling for Systems Change: Listening to Understand’ held at the Powerhouse. This session was facilitated by representatives from the Dusseldorp Forum, Centre For Public Impact (CPI) and Just Reinvest NSW.
The need for systems change is what drew me to this session as I believe it is our systems that we have put in place that are the root cause for most of our issues in society.
“Systems change aims to bring about lasting change by altering underlying structures and supporting mechanisms which make the system operate in a particular way. These can include policies, routines, relationships, resources, power structures and values.”[1]
There is no ‘right’ way of doing systems change and the appropriate method will depend on the situation however it is fair to say that systems change requires a holistic approach that encourages an appreciation of the complex dynamics of societies and/or communities. According to Abercrombie, Harries and Wharton (2015:20), “Learning is a central concern of systems change—partly due to the complexity and unpredictability of social systems, and partly because implicit assumptions and world views can contribute to dysfunctional systems. An ongoing process of reflection and learning is an obvious response to these challenges. Learning is, however, only useful for systems change when it includes adaptation to take advantage of the opportunities it reveals.”[2]
We learned in this session that the best way to teach people is by telling a story, but we should tell our stories from scars, not wounds.
We also learned that the best way to learn from others is to listen. In this session we talked about listening to understand which requires us to bring humility, empathy and love, grace and kindness. Others may refer to this as listening to learn, or deep listening, but a description that I came across several years ago that I love is to refer to good listening as ‘spiritual hospitality’, with the key to hospitality being to ‘pay attention’ and by paying attention we divest ourselves of self-preoccupation.
I was really moved when the discussion during this session highlighted the Mounty Yarns initiative from Mount Druitt. I was horrified to learn that Mount Druitt is the most fined location in Australia with residents of this area owing some $20 million in fines. I was also horrified to learn about the behaviour of police in this area, but I have previously gained an appreciation of this from the Netflix documentary, ONEFOUR: Against All Odds about the band OneFour who are also from Mount Druitt. One of the outcomes from Mounty Yarns is a book as well as a documentary video, here is a link. Its moving and tears at your heart but also highlights the benefits of Mounty Yarns for these young people.
Some of you know how much I enjoy a quote, and there were a couple on our tables at this session that caught my eye:
“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
Margaret Wheatley[3]
“All social change comes from the passion of individuals.”
Selecting a preferred session from this afternoon’s breakout sessions was also a difficult choice. I was tempted to go to ‘Small Communities, Big Impact’ at the Ballroom to support Julie, Oliver and the Our Town team but I can learn about that anytime from Julie. I was going to attend the ‘Accountability to Young People, with Young People’ session at the Mildura Rowing Club but at the last moment decided to attend the ‘Which Way, Same Way or Other Way: working in Deep Collaboration’ session at the MAC. This session was facilitated by Mark Yettica-Paulson from Collaboration for Impact, he is also one of our MC’s at ChangeFest.
This session was about how we have discussions now that the referendum is over and drew on some of the ideas Stan Grant had talked about, including the reference to the quote by Tertullian[4] that “Hope is patience with the lamp lit”. This quote emphasises the interconnection of hope and patience with hope acting as a catalyst for patience enabling us to persevere in the face of adversity.
We also revisited the question of whether we are taking up space or are we creating space. In order to stop taking up space we need to hold our ego in check.
Mark identified to us how when we are divided we start to become competitive, and that division is a key aspect of our modern society. We saw that division during the referendum, where we ended up spitting at each other as we couldn’t speak to one another.
First Peoples found a way to mitigate the urge to create us versus them scenarios through their kinship laws based on key kinship concepts of Entitlement, Responsibility and Obligation ensuring everyone is bound together.
By adopting First Peoples kinship laws and concepts we may be able to break up our current epidemic of binary polarization across society and acknowledge that the ‘other side’ has truths, fears and loves so we can hold steady in a relationship with each other that is interconnected and interdependent.
As Mark said, ‘The walls around the world are just battles of different truths’. If we can reframe our conversations away from binaries such as yes versus no, and practice reframing to embrace entitlement, responsibility and obligation, we may go some way to finding the love, grace and kindness that we need in the world.
As I mentioned earlier, I am currently reading ‘The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible’ by Charles Eisenstein. He says that ‘… we should continue to expose the truths of history and the workings of the world, but if we want those truths to be heard we must not wrap those exposes in the usual penumbra of blame’[5]. He goes on to say that we will find the right words and strategies through compassion and that compassion arises from a deeply felt realisation of our common humanity.
I thoroughly enjoyed this challenging and thought-provoking session. Mark took us on quite a momentous journey which was both difficult and rewarding and I was thankful for the way he facilitated this conversation. His approach was all about respect and healing and not about getting straight to finding a solution or answer and I think this is central to the whole ethos of ChangeFest.
The last session of the day was the closing session of reflection and sharing similar to yesterday. Today I shared my reflections with Jenny and three others, but unfortunately I didn’t get their names. Anyway, below are my reflections from Day 2.
- What was the number 1 thing we learned today?
Following the session with Mark, a thought I have had for some time kept reverberating around my head, that is that we need to hate in order to deal with our shame. For Australians, we have had to construct a hatred for the First People of this land as without that hate, we could not justify the massacre, rape, torture and misery we have imposed on these people while we stole their land and decimated their livelihoods and culture over the last 230 or so years. We need to forget the hate and deal with the shame. This is an idea I explore in my book as I think our inability to confront this is the source of many of our issues today. The only way to confront this is with the sort of love, grace and kindness that gave us the Uluru Statement.
- What connections have you made (be it ideas or people)?
Today I chatted with Matt Dunne (the Program Manager) from the Wattle Fellowship at morning tea and followed with a conversation at lunch with Tim (one of the fellows) also from the Wattle Fellowship. Through his work, Tim hopes to redefine the social and economic paradigm to place the environment at the centre of our culture.
I was inspired by the Wattle Fellowship as it brings together students from a range of disciplines all with the aim to foster leadership in global sustainability with a mission to unlock the leadership our planet needs. I wish them all the very best and hope they fulfill their mission.
One thing I have noticed about ChangeFest is that many churches are represented amongst the attendees, and I have learned that many of these people do tremendous work trying to assist the disadvantaged and marginalised in our community. It’s easy to get caught up in my cynicism of all thing’s religion but ChangeFest has reinforced my realisation that there are many people in our communities that are the epitome of the example of Jesus. These people are those working with youth in Mount Druitt, or helping people transition from prison back into the community or assisting people to navigate our health system. When I think of faith and religion in the future, I should focus on the impact that these people are making and recognise the example they are setting for the rest of us.
- What questions do you have going into tomorrow?
I am really curious to see how ChangeFest will wrap up as it has been such a rewarding experience thus far.
But first tonight we had the campfire down at Rio Vista Park. The campfire was my highlight of the day. There is something special about sitting around a fire and tonight was no exception. The night started with some of the local elders telling their stories before we adjourned to enjoy a delicious meal. Following that we all shared our own story. I could have stayed by that campfire and enjoyed the company of all the people around that fire all night, but all good things must come to an end, but it was not until about 9.30/10pm that we called stumps on the night.
DAY 3 – Friday 22nd March 2024
I was early again on this the last day of ChangeFest, arriving around 8.30am to again read some more of my book whilst also indulging in a bit of people watching. I must say that sitting on the lawns outside the MAC is a beautiful place to be and for the last couple of days I couldn’t have thought of a better place I could have been.
Today we had our final session in the MAC, called ‘Equitable and Connected Communities: Community-led systems change from the Local to the National’. This included a speech from Dr Jim Chalmers MP, Treasurer. I have always been impressed by Jim and today’s speech has again made me think he would make a good Prime Minister one day. One of things he said that stuck with me was when he said that all kids need to be proud of where they are born, not be held back, or disadvantaged due to the suburb they live in or what their postcode may be.
I had never experienced how a place’s reputation can affect how we see ourselves and our home until I moved to Murray Bridge. For some people in the community the label of ‘being from Murray Bridge’ was something to be ashamed of and many people didn’t have anything good to say about their hometown. For me, I thought Murray Bridge was a good-sized country town providing most services, it’s in a perfect location on the Murray River just an hour from Adelaide and the beach at Middleton and I found it full of wonderful people some of which are now lifelong friends, many of which I met through the Wanderers Cricket Club. I have since moved from Murray Bridge just over 10 years ago but over that time there has been a focus in Murray Bridge to improve the town’s amenity as well as improving services and opportunities to encourage community and economic development. Actually, thinking about it, Murray Bridge could be a good candidate for a future ChangeFest … anyway, I digress, but to get back to Jim’s point, I think it’s vitally important that every kid is proud of where they come from, wherever that may be. There is much we can do to make this happen.
After another thought-provoking session, we had our final morning tea before the closing ceremony on the lawns of the MAC. This ceremony included the MC’s concluding their roles and handing the ChangeFest Statement back to the local elders. The ceremony ended with a smoking ceremony to send us all on our way.
As I was sitting on the lawns outside the MAC with my fellow attendees as the closing ceremony was wrapping up it just felt like we had been part of something special, no feelings of sadness that it had ended, just gratefulness that we shared this experience. Its now almost a couple of weeks since the event and that feeling is still there.
Here are my final reflections from ChangeFest …
- What was the number 1 thing I learned?
I have learned so much over the last 2 ½ days, I have so much more food for thought for my book … I just hope I can do justice to some of the ideas and initiatives I have learned about.
If I could distil my learnings down to one thing, I would say we just need to bring all our love, grace and kindness to everything we do.
On that note, I’d just like to acknowledge the role of the two MC’s for ChangeFest, Mark Yettica-Paulson and Shanesha Togo, whom I believe brought all their love, grace and kindness to their roles as MC’s. I thought Mark and Shanesha were instrumental in ensuring the event occurred with the right vibe and energy. They were just awesome, were funny and also shared parts of themselves and their own vulnerabilities. They expressed their humanity through their love, kindness, respect and humour and brought all of us together over the last 2 ½ days.
It’s funny, initially I had to do a double take when I first saw Shanesha, she looks very similar to a friend of mine, Sharon, they even share some of the same mannerisms, stance and sense of humour. I guess we all have a doppelganger somewhere in the world and perhaps Shanesha and Sharon are each other’s.
Thanks again to Mark and Shanesha, you were both awesome.
- What connections have you made (be it ideas or people)?
In 2018 I had the opportunity to attend the Executive Leaders Program (XLP), a new leadership experience provided through Local Government Professionals SA. XLP was facilitated by Andrew Stevens and his colleagues from Uncharted Leadership and it was a completely transformative experience for me which ultimately led to me deciding to write a book. I keep seeing similarities and synergies between what they were sharing and what I am learning about First People cultures, thinking and approaches. And this was another recurrent thought I had during the 3 days of ChangeFest. My apologies in advance for using some ‘jargon’ but through the XLP I learned about tools and concepts such as Appreciative Inquiry, Beginners Mind, Listening to Learn, Psychological Safety and Systems Thinking and the importance to learn to pause, step outside the square and create opportunities to stop and reflect. These are all tools and concepts that have been discussed at ChangeFest, just using different terminology at times and in the context of place-based community led change instead of leadership and organisational culture.
But I think the essence of why both these experiences have been transformative is they’ve both challenged us to think with our heart instead of our heads. And to think with one’s heart is to love. My experience at Changefest has reminded me of the importance of this and also reinforced my belief in the following quote from Bruce Lipton …
Survival of the most loving is the only ethic that will ensure not only a healthy personal life but also a healthy planet.
- What questions do you have leaving ChangeFest.
When and where is the next one?
In conclusion, I’d like to express my thanks to Julie Ahrens who put me onto this event. I also wish to share my heartfelt thanks and gratitude to everyone associated with putting Changefest on, in particular the Latji Latji and Barkindji elders, the people from Hands Up Mallee, Connected Beginnings Mildura and Collaboration for Impact as well as another special thanks to the MC’s Mark and Shanesha for creating such an awesome vibe and making us feel so welcome. I am so grateful for all the work you all did to ensure the event was such a success and I wish you all the very best for the future.
For everyone else, if you get an opportunity to attend ChangeFest in the future, grab it!
I will finish this blog with a quote from Barack Obama that I found in Becky Hirst’s book, ‘For the Love of Community Engagement’, he says …
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.[6]
If you enjoyed this blog, you may be interested in reading some of my others, here are some links …
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
#BlackLivesMatter … do they really?
Consciousness – the path to our new ‘ism’?
Some reflections on Afghanistan
The Importance of our Indigenous Heritage
My Plotted History of Humanity – Part 1 – The Pleistocene
Reflections of 20 odd years in Local Government
[1] Rob Abercrombie, Ellen Harries and Rachel Wharton, June 2015, page 20 Systems Change – A Guide to What it is and How to do it
[2] Rob Abercrombie, Ellen Harries and Rachel Wharton, June 2015, page 20 Systems Change – A Guide to What it is and How to do it
[3] Becky Hirst also included this quote in her book, For the Love of Community Engagement
[5] Eisenstein, C., 2023, ‘The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible’, page 170
[6] Hirst, B., 2021, ‘For the Love of Community Engagement’, page 5