40 amazing community leaders joined us on beautiful Woi-Wurrung Wurundjeri Country for a weekend of training and connection.
This year’s Autumn Action Network Summit was attended by people from across Victoria – from Traralgon, Ballarat and Shepparton, as well as throughout Greater Melbourne. The summit aimed to build relationships and had a focus on growing our collective skills in cross-cultural organising and campaigns.
Together we also developed submissions for the Victorian Government’s climate resilience inquiry, sharing powerful stories about how climate impacts like heatwaves, bushfires and floods were impacting us in our homes and communities.
We were also joined by incredible guest speakers, including Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung elder Uncle Andrew Gardiner from the First Peoples’ Assembly, Marcella Brassett from Market Forces and Jacynta Fa’amau from 350 Pacific Climate Warriors. They generously shared their deep knowledge and experience of social change and environmental justice with the group.
Additionally, Sawsan Alfayadh from Plan International Australia (formerly an Environment Victoria staff member!) shared her expertise on cross cultural organising and highlighted four key lessons around trust building, sharing power, building capacity and making our actions accessible. These are all excellent lessons that we’ve been using in practice through the Table Talks project.
This summit was the first time we offered an on-site child-minding service so parents can participate more easily in our events. It was a great success and something we will strive to offer in the future.
Shout out to the awesome Local Organisers and core volunteers who were an integral part in pulling off the summit: Margie, Bruce, Steph, Josie, Chris, Robyn and Susie. They were pivotal in developing and delivering the workshop content and created a welcoming space for new participants.
It really highlighted the growing strength and capacity of the Action Network – and shows how far we have come since our first online workshop in 2021. The Autumn Summit is set to become a permanent feature of the Action Network’s calendar.
