Saturday Plenary

This morning's plenary session will include keynote presentations by Tom Trevorrow and Alison Tickell

Tom Trevorrow -Ngarrindjeri Sea Country

Tom will speak about The Ngarrindjeri Sea Country Plan that was prepared in 2006 by Ngarrindjeri people to help government agencies, natural resource managers, researchers, industry and the wider Australian community to better understand and recognise rights and responsibilities to their Yarluwar-Ruwe (Sea Country), including the lower Murray River, Lakes, Coorong and adjacent marine and land areas.

The Ngarrindjeri vision for Sea Country is based on the relationship between the people and our Sea Country which goes back to Creation.

The river, lakes, wetlands/nurseries, Coorong estuary and sea have sustained them (and us) culturally and economically for tens of thousands of years, they now find that, as the Traditional Owners of our lands and waters and all living things, they must stand up and speak out to save their Ruwe (Country) before we reach the point of no return.

In an ever increasing globalised world where “everything is connected” Tom will focus on the very local and draw our attention to the links between the environment, culture and the arts with stories of resilience, that include tales of the beautiful Coorong environment, where the Murray Darling Basin empties into the sea.

Alison Tickell - The art of the environment: arts, culture and sustainability

With our ever-increasing knowledge of the impacts of environmental degradation and climate change on our living world, now is the time to examine all aspects of civil, industrial, political and artistic life. Focusing on what can be done to re-imagine our future.
The fact this is not happening is challenging to our perceptions of ourselves and to the problems associated with our environment.
Is it time that the issues were understood as primarily cultural, and to discuss what arts and culture are doing about it?
This presentation will look at what arts and culture have already undertaken, why they have begun the journey, what are the limits and what other possibilities exist for reinvigorating our ethical and creative relationship to our planet.

Alison Tickell is a guest of the Australia Business Arts Foundation as part of AbaF's Richard Pratt Legacy Project developing leadership in the arts and cultural sector with support from the Pratt Foundation.