Milestones
La Digna Rabia – Dignified Anger – Stories for a Perilous Now
We live in perilous times. Maybe we always have, but not on such a grand scale as now. So, what stories got us here? Stories of survival of the fittest, and that we should subjugate nature as we chant the neo-liberal mantra of never-ending growth? Are such beliefs bullshit?
Dignified Anger: Stories for a Perilous Now is the premiere collaboration of Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky and Penny Glass, performers and musicians who bring a wealth of personal and professional experience to this dramatic, moving and comical piece of storytelling theatre.
Growing and Learning in Rural Communities - revised edition
The revised edition of ‘Growing and Learning in Rural Communities‘ was published in July 2024 – available in paperback and e-book format.
Stories of Influence @ Lake Tyers & Swifts Creek
Shared memories and memorabilia of Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust & Nowa Nowa football/netball legendary players, games and history
Stories of Influence
Stories started with a walk and talk at Onenta (place of peace) then moved to Lake Tyers Beach Hall with conversations that reshaped how we experience our lives as Australians.
Stories of influence @ Lake Tyers Beach Hall
Offered seemingly diverse stories from writers, storytellers and artists to find your own connections with these stories that fill in gaps in our public knowing. When storytellers craft stories from hidden histories it can reshape our understanding of the world. This is a weekend for listeners and thinkers, writers, word weavers and walkers.
Stories on the Lake
This year Stories meandered along, from the tip of Lake Tyers, toward the coast @ Lake Tyers Beach. It shared the emerging stories that change the way we see the past and the shape our idea of the future, an immersion in hidden stories now told by writers, performers, poets and musicians.
Stories on the Hill
Hidden histories shared – continuing conversations with local writers and thinkers, histories stored in letters, diaries, oral histories or silently in hearts and memories
This year Stories on the hill linked with FLOAT the Regional Arts Victoria Small Towns Transition project focusing on Lake Tyers (Bung Yarnda): its unique environment, its culture, the people past and present and of course the future.
Stories on the Hill
Old stories known only to a few were shared on Saturday, October 22nd 2016 by Wayne Thorpe, Bruce Pascoe, Graham Sheil and in the evening by Jan Wositzky –leading to new insights as their contribution to Stories on the hill @ Nowa Nowa Hall.
Fire Awareness Award
The East Gippsland Building Community Resilience project was a winner of the Fire Awareness Award in the Community-led Prevention and Preparedness section along with Indigenous Fire Knowledge Partnership on December 2nd, 2015 at the RACV Club in Melbourne.
This was a partnership between the Centre for Rural Communities and the East Gippsland Network of Neighbourhood Houses to invest in local knowledge through the creation of hubs in Buchan, Bruthen, Nowa Nowa, Orbost, Goongerah and Tubbut using the study circle kit ‘Building community futures through co-operation’.
Partnering and Study Kit
Partnership with East Gippsland Network of Neighbourhood Houses funded by Regional Development Victoria – East Gippsland Building Community Resilience Project.
Second study circle kit: Building Community Futures through Co-operation (2015) builds on past successful approaches to locating ownership within communities with an awareness of the contribution this makes to enhancing community resilience in preparation for emergencies as well as during crisis and recovery.
Spreading the story
Presented at British Red Cross Resilience conference in London.
Presented at International Association of Community Development conference in Glasgow, on “Community is the answer’.
East Gippsland Environmental Sustainability Toolkit
The East Gippsland Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2008–2013 outlines East Gippsland Shire’s position on issues relating to the protection, preservation and enhancement of the environment and consolidates the Shire’s existing achievements, policies and plans about environmental sustainability.
The Strategy highlights Council’s progress on major considerations for environmental sustainability – including biodiversity, water quality and consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and waste management, among others and identifies key actions to support a movement toward more sustainable operations.
Study Circle Kit developed
Building Rural Communities through Co-operation (Sheil 1997) study circle kit.
The kit was created from the shared concern for rural communities and the challenges of discovery to unknown outcomes.
The contribution this kit makes to the development and support of Australian rural communities will depend on the learning that study circles share. The use and function of this kit in your study circle is commended and encouraged.
Professor Norman Creighton.
Centre for Rural Communities commences
The Centre for Rural Communities was formed in 1995 to work towards the development of rural communities that are socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.
The dream was to have a centre where the views of rural people would be welcomed and given credibility.