‘Caring for Country and Community: from regulatory to restorative planning and environmental governance’

Monday 14th October

As part of the USYD Festival of Urbanism, I attended the ‘Caring for Community and Country’ panel discussion this week. It was great to finally meet Dr. Shannon Foster, who is involved with our wetlands project, as well as Dr. Terri Janke whose work I have been reading this week. Sam Alderton-Johnson, of Impact Policy AU, was great to listen to talk about co-design. I admit, I wish the talk had gone on longer as each speaker only had about 15 minutes.

Afterwards a question was asked about how educators might be able to encourage young First Nations people to engage with urban planning and design. Aside from encouraging deeper listening, following in the footsteps of other successful schemes, and more outreach, the panel reflected on how non-Indigenous persons might consider reframing their understanding of Country, viewing themselves as part of it rather than separate from it.