Localising Leanganook, established as a community initiative in 2016, emerged out of the Local Lives Global Matters conference held in Castlemaine in October 2015. Centred in Mt Alexander shire, Localising Leanganook brings community members together to further explore themes central to the conference: sustaining viable local economies; acting on social and ecological justice; reclaiming democracy; and revitalising spirituality.
 
Community conversations are held every six weeks. These include presentations which challenge existing paradigms, which showcase creative and sustainable local initiatives, and which incubate ideas and strategies to strengthen community connection and resilience.
 
 

October 2024 Newsletter

The thing that we did differently was to set out a way of working and ethos. We said, this is how we, as a group of individuals, will work together. The key element of which is: we won’t be confrontational. We can disagree with each other, but we won’t turn that into Westminster-style conflict....

September 2024 e-news

We live in capitalism.  Its power seems inescapable – but then so did the divine right of kings.  Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.  Resistance and change often begins in art.  Very often in our art, the art of words.  Ursula K Le Guin, speech to the National Book...

August 2024 e-news

‘The equal right of all people to the use of land is as clear as their equal right to breathe the air: it is a right proclaimed by the fact of their existence. For we cannot suppose that some people have a right to be in this world, and others no right.’ Henry George,...

July 2024 Newsletter

Degrowth aims to reframe economies away from socially and ecologically destructive growth. Sustainability means that everyone’s needs and Earth’s ecological needs must be met, neither more nor less. This means transforming everyday practices and cultures to restore and preserve the regenerative capacities of Earth and of our collective selves. (from Degrowth Central Victoria  – ...

June 2024 newsletter

What is clear is that the Earth is mandating that the human community assume a responsibility never assigned to any previous generation… Our task at this critical moment is to awaken the energies needed to create the new world and to evoke the universal communion of all parts of life. (Thomas Berry, priest and...

May 2024 newsletter

“Our consciousness , rising above the growing (but still much too limited) circles of family, country and race, shall finally discover that the only truly natural and real human unity is the spirit of the earth” (Teilhard de Chardin). All humans are born from the earth , are nurtured from it, and are destined...

April 2024 Newsletter

Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone. It has to be made like bread. Remade all the time. Made new.  (Ursula LeGuin, cited in Milkwood Newsletter,  March 2024) Welcome to the April edition of Localising Leanganook’s e-newsletter. There’s lots of local news and events as well as a thought-provoking feature article, in podcast...

Special Bulletin- Palm Sunday Peace Walk in Castlemaine

Dear Localising Leanganook e-newsletter subscribers, Please find below a special e-news bulletin about next Sunday’s Palm Sunday Peace Walk in Castlemaine. Localising Leanganook wishes to support this important local initiative. Please Note: Our usual monthly e-news will be published at the end of March. Palm Sunday Peace Walk- Castlemaine When: Sunday March 24, 2024,...

February/March 2024 newsletter

I think the task before us is to re-learn what it means to walk as if everywhere is a temple. To approach how we are in relationship to the Living Earth as if it were a temple. Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee- Emergence Magazine Welcome to the February/March edition of Localising Leanganook’s e-newsletter. There’s lots of local...

January/February 2024 newsletter

I will train myself to look deeply to see your true nature: you are my loving mother, a living being, a great being—an immense, beautiful, and precious wonder. (From Ten Love Letters to the Earth, Vietnamese Buddhist monk and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh- cited in Emergence Magazine 24/12/23) Welcome to the January/ February...