May 2025 Newsletter - Don't miss 'Country as Teacher' Learning Circle

Welcome to Autumn 2025 with so many environmetnal events to celebrate.

Dear Environmental Educators

Welcome to the May edition of the Australian Association for Environmental Education ACT branch newsletter

As Term 2 begins and Canberra wraps us in cool nights and vibrant autumn colours, it's a perfect time to reconnect with nature and reflect on the links between our environment and key global events including 

• Compost week (5011 May)
• World Bee Day (20th May)
• International Day for Biological Diversity (22 May) 

We encourage you to engage in these events- both locally and globally - to inspire meaningful learning experiences and deepen our collective connection with the natural world. 

May Learning Circle (online) 

13th May 2025 5-6.30pm AEST/3-4.30pm AWST 

Reinvigorating Country as Teacher in Outdoor and Environmental Education 

Join Monty Nixon, PhD student at the University of Canberra and member of the AAEE ACT Chapter Executive Committee. 

More details here. 

‘All we are is a story, and a good story is one of obligation and connection’ – Damu Paul Gordon.

For over 60,000 years, Indigenous people in Australia lived a good story, one bound in relational reciprocity. At the heart of this story, for many Indigenous cultures across Australia, was the knowledge that Country is and always was the central knowledge holder. Subsequently Australia’s first Outdoor and Environmental Education was primarily about young people sharing direct experiences with, and learning from Country and Earth-Kin, largely facilitated by their grandparents and grounded in cross-kinship systems. In this workshop participants will be invited to reflect on the current socio-ecological narrative and how education might open-up new possibilities by taking lead from from Australia’s first environmental educators. To this end, this workshop introduces Country as Teacher, as a pedagogy for Country-and-student led-inquiry, a teaching and learning approach that maintained socio-ecological well-being for millennia. We will explore the foundational understanding of a modern approach to Country as Teacher, based on Senior Custodian for Karulkiyalu Country Damu Paul Gordon’s re-interpretation of this old way of teaching and learning, the 6Ls. As Milroy and Milroy (2010) write the birthright of all children to connect with and learn from Country, coming to know, love, and understand how to care for her through relational reciprocity. Subsequently, this workshop invites participants to consider the pedagogic opportunities to honour this old way of teaching and learning and, in doing so, to help us all live our birthright, a good story of connection and obligation.

Please join Monty Nixon to hear more about this project.

AAEE ACT 2024 Award celebration andAGM

Karon Campbell 2024 AAEE ACT and Julie Armstrong AAEE ACT President

Indigenous Plant Use walk at the Australian National Botanic Gardens

A huge thank you to Monty Nixon and Viv Pearce—Education Rangers at the Australian National Botanic Gardens and Executive Members of AAEE ACT—for leading a truly inspiring ANBG school’s program-Indigenous Plant Use on a beautiful Thursday afternoon. Monty began with a heartfelt Acknowledgement of Country, speaking not only to the importance of honouring the Traditional Custodians and caretakers of the land, but also to the deep, personal connection we feel to the places we love. Educators appreciated the hard work, as they ground wattle seeds, to produce a very small quantity of flour! Their spirits were uplifted as they smelt mint bush and lemon myrtle leaves which traditionally had many uses. As we gathered near the Rock Pool waterfall, a large water dragon lingered close by—almost as if it, too, was listening in. We passed around a beautifully crafted twined basket used for catching fish, connecting us to traditional practices and stories of the land. A quietness fell on the group as we listened and learned from Country traversing the dark and green rainforest. Thank you to everyone who joined us and shared their reflections—particularly around the Queensland bottle tree and the significance of tree hollows. We hope this experience inspires you to return with your school groups and explore the richness of this program with your students. Welcome also the new faces joining us for the first time at AAEE event..

AAEE Indigenous Knowledge events

Please join us for our AAEE March Learning Circle: Welcome to Country as relations.

Presented by Whadjuk Nyungar Elder Len Collard, with Sandra Wooltorton (also from Noongar Country) and special guest, Yuin woman and environmental educator Sue Price. 

When: Tuesday, 18 March - 7-8pm AEDT/4-5pm WST.

Where: Online via Zoom.

BOOK HERE

Cost: Free to all. Donations to the AAEE Public Fund will be gratefully accepted and are tax-deductible (donations over $2). 

We will launch our AAEE 2025 Learning Circle program with this very special Learning Circle. In this conversation with Len Collard and Sandra Wooltorton, we will discuss Welcome to Country ceremonies, before talking about Acknowledgement of Country protocols and the Noongar idea of home-place: karlaboodja. In Noongar language, boodjar means Country, karl means both fire, and home - as in, 'home is where the hearth is'.  These concepts are tied in with the idea of bidi (trail) and bidiyer (leader - person who intimately knows the trails across their Country.) 

Yuin woman and environmental educator Sue Price will contribute original songs and poems to enrich the conversation.

We will also discuss koordaboodja which in Noongar language, means love of Country - and what that might mean - which leads to a conversation about how we see Boodjar and moort (people) as relations. The trilogy of boodjar (Country), moort (people) and kaartdijin (knowledge) are inseparable in Noongar ways of knowing, being and doing. Perhaps people who think they can separate the trilogy at the core of Noongar wellbeing, see strangers in their own backyards? in this conversation, we hope you will see how everything is very deeply related and intertwined! In Noongar Boodjar, Noongar place names describe the vitality - the precolonial enterprising lifeblood - of places. The vitality we refer to is often continuing - we simply need to attune to and reinvigorate it. 

Please join us! All welcome. This session will be recorded and will be available afterwards to AAEE members only, via our Learning Circle library on our website.
BOOK HERE

Discover the Depth of Knowledge of Indigenous Plant Use

Join AAEE ACT (Australian Association for Environmental Education) for an enriching and interactive exploration of the ANBG (Australian National Botanic Gardens) Indigenous Plant Use Schools program.

 Where: ANBG, Banksia Education Building & Gardens
 When: Thursday, April 3, 2025
 Time: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM 
BOOK HERE

Why Attend?
 Experience a guided walk through the stunning Botanic Gardens.
 Learn how Australia’s First Nations people have used native plants for food, medicine, and tools for thousands of years.
 Discover exclusive educational programs and resources available through ANBG and AAEE.
 Network with fellow educators and environmental enthusiasts.
 Enjoy a complimentary afternoon tea!
Event Schedule
 4:00 - 4:15 PM | Welcome & Afternoon Tea
 4:15 - 5:15 PM | Indigenous Plant Use walk
 5:15 - 5:30 PM | Closing & Networking

This FREE event is perfect for educators, schoolteachers, and AAEE members looking to incorporate Indigenous knowledge into their teaching and professional development.

 Limited spots available! Register now through Humanitix to secure your place.
BOOK HERE

Science Teachers ACT (SEAACT) Conference

When: Saturday 22nd March 2025
Where: Robertson Building, Research School of Biology Australian National University (ANU) campus ACTON
A action packed full day conference for science educators to showcase and share resources, teaching strategies and educational research. 
Book HERE

Australian Association for Environmental Education

                              National Conference!!!

We are very excited to invite you to SAVE THE DATES for our national BIENNIAL CONFERENCE - which for the first time ever, will be held virtually over three days, on consecutive weeks in August: TUESDAY 5 AUGUST WEDNESDAY 13 AUGUST THURSDAY 21 AUGUST We will be gathering on each of those days, online via Zoom, from 11am-5pm AEST to connect, share our good work, and get inspired. We have some creative and collaborative plans afoot - and will be sharing more information and a call for presentation EOIs very soon.   Please join us to help us STRENGTHEN...COLLABORATE... and ADVOCATE for Environmental Education!   Contact us via president@aaee.org.au for more information or to get involved.