Jenny Webber
Workshops, speakers and networking – “Despair and Empowerment”, “Living in the Age of Global Warming” and “Southern Forests Convergence” this January 16-20
Despair & Empowerment All Day Workshop
with Ruth Rosenhek, Director of the Rainforest Information Centre, January 16th, 10am start, Lucaston, Southern Tasmania
Through Joanna Macy’s body of work known as “Despair and Empowerment”, we allow ourselves to recognise our feelings about what is happening to our world.
By acknowledging this level of our being rather than just our thoughts on the subject, people around the world have found that feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, “what can one person do
anyway?”, “It’s all to late” etc are transformed into inspired and empowered positive action.
Through processes which nourish our vast ecological identity, we expand from the narrow confines of our social identity to experience our ancient ecological heritage, that every cell in our body is descended in an unbroken chain from the first cell of life.
Then our kinship with all of life shines through the fog of civilisation and rooted in the history of Earth and in the living Earth itself, we seek wisdom and clear thinking on our role as we and our fellow beings face the crisis of global warming.
For information and bookings please get in touch with Jenny Weber
[email protected] or 0427 366 929
Living in The Age of Global Warming – Climate Change Roadshow
17th January, Hobart (venue TBA), 7pm start
In its first phase, December 2006 through to November 2007 (Australian Federal elections), the Climate Change Despair & Empowerment Roadshow travelled from town to town in Australia and North America with the aim to catalyse, invigorate and support grassroots climate action groups.
In its second phase, beginning January 2008, the Roadshow broadens its scope to address Living in the Age of Global Warming. We now face the unknowns of climate change and the challenges of leading low carbon lifestyles.
The Climate Change Roadshow continues to provide a ‘Despair & Empowerment’ perspective based on the work developed by Joanna Macy to contextualise the fears and hopelessness that many people feel at times and highlights the potential for transformation into empowerment and effective action.
The Roadshow also offers an opportunity to discuss the issues from a personal perspective, ie. what sort of changes are we making in our own lives, what challenges and gifts arise from making a transition to ustainable Living.
There will be an opportunity to hear stories of the changes that are taking place both in our personal lives and worldwide.
We will also look at our Ecological Identity through a short deep ecology exercise and then go on to re-member who we really are within the context of the 13 billion year Story of the Universe within the
context of the work of Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry.
After we acknowledge that what is required is vast political and social change, ie. it is not enough that individuals change the lightbulbs they are using, we will network with each other about how participants might get involved on a regional, national and global level through GetUp, local climate action groups, etc.
The 2 hour sessions will include brief video clips and poetry to help stimulate discussion and bring a creative framework into the room.
Time will be spent in small group discussions, short sound bites from the presenter and large group dialogue as well.
The presenter is Ruth Rosenhek, Director of the Rainforest Information Centre (Lismore, NSW). Ruth has been offering deep ecology workshops and presentations for over 10 years now and is an environmental justice activist. See http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/deep-eco/ruth_photos.html
The project is developed by and supported by the Rainforest Information Centre, an all volunteer non-political environmental organisation.
For more information, see www.climate.net.au and www.rainforestinfo.org.au
For bookings please contact Jenny Weber on
0427 366 929 or [email protected]
Southern Forests Convergence
January 18th – 20th, Burton’s Reserve, Cygnet
Skillshare. Learn about the southern forest campaigns, forests and climate change and how you can help.
Speakers, workshops (Sunday 2 hour deep ecology with Ruth Rosenhek), films, music. Camping. No Dogs.
For more info please contact Jenny Weber on 0427 366 929 or
[email protected]
