Eremos Inaugural 2025 gathering (Online)

Sunday 9 March 3 - 4:30 pm (AEDT) 

Building on the 2024 Listening to Country Series, our inaugural gathering for 2025 is led by elder, academic, community leader and passionate advocate Professor Anne Poelina. Her address will explore the Martuwarra (Fitzroy River) as one of Earth's last great river systems and "how from the beginning of time, Aboriginal people connected to the area now known as the West Kimberley and cared for Country."

https://livingwaterheritage.org/

"Living Waters" is a term to describe waters that are alive, water that never goes dry. Knowledge holders of Martuwarra explain that the permanent waters are inhabited by spiritual beings/serpents and are the source of energy that brings life. Living waters are cared for by Aboriginal people as a deep cultural obligation. It is repeated that these Serpents not only have a right to life but if they are disrespected, bad things will happen. In other parts of Australia people hold similar knowledge connected to, for example, the 'Rainbow Serpent'.

Ref: https://www.livingwaterheritage.org/?page=Serpent

About the speaker

Professor Anne Poelina, citizen Nyikina Warrwa (Indigenous) Nation, PhD, PhD, MEd, MPH&TM, MA. Chair & Senior Research Fellow Indigenous Knowledges Nulungu Institute Research University of Notre Dame, Adjunct Professor, College of Indigenous Education Futures, Arts & Society, Charles Darwin University, Darwin.

She is a filmmaker, poet and storyteller and gifted public speaker, incorporating the arts into knowledge brokerage and transformation. See: www.annepoelina.com.

Anne is the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) inaugural First Nations appointment to its independent Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences (2022) and a Visiting Fellow Water Justice Hub at The Australian National University, Canberra. She is the inaugural Chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council (2018). www.martuwarra.org.

 Professor Poelina has received numerous awards including:

• In 2024 she received the Bessie Award Bessie Rischbieth Conservation Award, from the Conservation Council Western Australia for demonstrating an outstanding commitment to the Western Australian environment.
• She is Co-winner of the Women Taking Climate Action Award, awarded by the Zonta Club of Melbourne on Yarra and the Zonta International District 23 Zonta Says NOW team (2023).
• Awarded Kailisa Budevi Earth and Environment Award, International Women’s Day (2022) recognition of her global standing. 
• In 2017, she was awarded a Laureate from the Women’s World Summit Foundation (Geneva).

Additional  Endeavours

• Ambassador for the Western Australian State Natural Rangelands Management (NRM) (2023). Assistant Commissioner National Water Initiative (NWI), Productivity Commission -Australia (2024). 
• 2024 Patron Sustainable Population Australia and Deputy President and founding member Australian National Peace and Security Forum (ANPSF). 
• Peter Cullen Fellow for Water Leadership (2011). 
• Founding member of the Commonwealth Department Climate Change Energy the Environment and Water, Aboriginal Water Interest Group and the Western Australian government Aboriginal Water and Environment Group (AWEG). 

Several Eremos members were inspired by Professor Poelina speaking at the recent Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) Conference and agreed she would be a fabulous choice for an Eremos event.

"When we go back to Country, it lifts our spirits. We feel alive, because the land itself is alive. It's a spiritual connection that we share with the River, the trees and the animals. It's like a healing place. We want to keep that continuing into the next generation."
      Patricia Riley, Martuwarra River Keeper & CEO of Panadanus Park Community
      https://martuwarra.org/riverkeepers

$20 or $15 early bird if booked by 20 February. 

Free for Eremos members

Registration is essential.

To register, click on 'purchase tickets'. Members will receive free registration if logged in. 

Please note: The Zoom link is in the registration reply. When you receive your confirmation email, scroll down past the 'Order summary' to the Registration message. 

If you have any difficulties registering, please contact membersupport@eremos.org.au