For the better part of a week in early November 2025, 9 guests and 2 locals spent time on Anaiwan Country (Armidale) together reading, debating, reflecting and wrestling with some questions about how we can individually and collectively work towards building the worlds we seek.
The six day program was developed by Canada Research Chair Astrida Neimanis, USYD Horizon Fellow Blanche Verlie and myself. initiated and Funded by Blanche as part of her fellowship.
In the early conversations we three realised that though what we each do is different, we all overlap in our committment to applied Feminist environmental humanities research: To doing the work we write about, and write about the work we are doing in world-building. And so “Theory of (Climate) Change <-> Practice of (Climate) Change” retreat program ensued.
It was a participatory residential retreat with a handful of academics, artists and activists. It included our participation in a regional Art and Environment festivaL, a local art exhibit, visits on Country, a visit to a community garden, a film screening, as well as cooking, eating, making art, writing, an open mic, and talking, walking, sitting, planning and processing, and talking!
Here is a potted photo blog of the whole time!
On the first night that everyone arrived We visited Dumaresq Dam and read together on the doc in the evening and waited, patiently and endlessly for the full beaver moon to rise. We left before it peeped over the Mt Duval too tired and cold to spend more time on the doc. But we collectively agreed that the time we’d spent waiting without the moon reward was perfect in itself. This “being ok with whatever happened” kind of acceptance became a mantra for the retreat.
On the First full day we visited the anaiwan bush block led by local elder uncle Steve Widders for insights into the landback campaign and for a fullsome welcome to country:
The next day was Black gully festival was also part of the retreat But there’s a separate post on that!!
We then visited wollomombi gorge and also walked and talked about The questions that were most pressing for us:
Later that evening we held a screening of Juan Salazar’s epic speculative documentary film Cosmographies and were fortunate that Juan was able to come up for the evening and talk about the film to the crowd and join in one of our shared dinners:
We Then spent the day at gara gorge reading, Walking, swimming and talking about more of our questions (so many questions!!):
The retreat ended with a variety show, dinner and speed zining session. Which was deeply reflective and gathering all the experiences of the retreat, but also hilarious, tasty and energetic.
here for posterity is the bus. I spent a lot of the time driving the UNE Coaster bus we named “Beeps” for its tendency to beep a lot. It was a nice logistics role to have which gave my brain a break from the big ideas and energetic creativity that thrummed through everyone for the week.
There was no pressure to have a specific outcome from this retreat. A wild and incredibly privilege in the current world. But experiences like this are transformative on many fronts. we all remain connected in new and altered ways on account of the experience. There are plans afoot for publications, merch, new kinds of creations and collaborations. Who knows how the energy of our time together will reverberate across time and space. Watch this space!
Thank you to Uncle Steve and all custodians of Anaiwan Country. Always was and Always will be Aboriginal Land. Huge thank you especially to Blanche Verlie and Astrida Neimanis for making it all happen. Thanks to Carrie Terbasket, Susie Pratt, Laura McLauchlan, Miri Raven, Ju Bavyka, Juan Salazar, Nina Vroemen, Tessa Zettel and Christina (MK) Kenny for the generosity with your time, joy, ideas, questions, and desires for different ways of doing things.
Community Weathering Station (Cows) 