Fostering EfS Connections for Community Wellbeing …
445
EfSTas afforded the research partnership opportunities for the SR to extend such
leadership opportunities outlined above to the cultural arts educators and students.
The cultural arts program was designed to enhance Aboriginal students’ pride in
their culture and their social and emotional wellbeing. Opportunities to present their
culture to audiences for occasions including the EfS Tasmania professional forum
provided authentic occasions for the cultural arts students to share their achievements
and the skills they had developed.
The SR’s entanglement with EfSTas afforded the opportunity to invite students
from the cultural arts class to teach teachers about their aboriginal culture, on their
terms, in a statewide professional learning forum. This opportunity for school students to share the experiences and skills they had developed in the cultural arts class
was one which the SR could not have created on her own. It came about through
the SR’s entanglement with EfSTas and was brought into being through the opening made available through EfSTas for the SR to share her research into cultural
wellbeing in the EfS Tasmania professional forum.
One aspect of this entangled relation of EfSTas which made this possible was
the geographically distributed nature of the statewide forums. The forums travelled
around to three main cities/towns in Tasmania. If the EfSTas professional forum
occurred only in the capital city (as often tends to happen), the access to local
knowledges would have been more restricted. The cultural arts group could travel
to Launceston to share their learning, but logistically and financially, it would have
been prohibitive for the group to travel to Hobart. The distribution of events across
the state embodies de Sousa Santos’ (2007) call for ecologies of knowledges that
value the local.
In a similar way, the DMWB event was made possible through the relations within
the EfSTas network of people. One SR is an active committee member which puts
her in contact with key stakeholders delivering sustainability education in Tasmania.
It was only through conversation with the Department of Education representative
that the idea of having the event was formed. In addition, the network of EfSTas
people acted as a perceived safety-net for the SRs during the organisation of the
event. The relationships and combined knowledges of the network made planning
the event (including who would be involved in delivering workshops) an easy process.
Without this network of support, the SRs would not have taken on lead organising
or facilitating roles.
A common feature in both case studies is that local people, local values and local
needs were at the centre of the initiatives. We argue that not only does the local
matter, but that the locals who make up ‘the local’ matter.
7 Conclusion
EfSTas promotes itself as a living laboratory, building upon Tasmania’s distinction
as an island state that is a part of Australia, yet set apart from Australia. As a living
laboratory, EfSTas is crafting an approach to sustainability education in Tasmania
445
EfSTas afforded the research partnership opportunities for the SR to extend such
leadership opportunities outlined above to the cultural arts educators and students.
The cultural arts program was designed to enhance Aboriginal students’ pride in
their culture and their social and emotional wellbeing. Opportunities to present their
culture to audiences for occasions including the EfS Tasmania professional forum
provided authentic occasions for the cultural arts students to share their achievements
and the skills they had developed.
The SR’s entanglement with EfSTas afforded the opportunity to invite students
from the cultural arts class to teach teachers about their aboriginal culture, on their
terms, in a statewide professional learning forum. This opportunity for school students to share the experiences and skills they had developed in the cultural arts class
was one which the SR could not have created on her own. It came about through
the SR’s entanglement with EfSTas and was brought into being through the opening made available through EfSTas for the SR to share her research into cultural
wellbeing in the EfS Tasmania professional forum.
One aspect of this entangled relation of EfSTas which made this possible was
the geographically distributed nature of the statewide forums. The forums travelled
around to three main cities/towns in Tasmania. If the EfSTas professional forum
occurred only in the capital city (as often tends to happen), the access to local
knowledges would have been more restricted. The cultural arts group could travel
to Launceston to share their learning, but logistically and financially, it would have
been prohibitive for the group to travel to Hobart. The distribution of events across
the state embodies de Sousa Santos’ (2007) call for ecologies of knowledges that
value the local.
In a similar way, the DMWB event was made possible through the relations within
the EfSTas network of people. One SR is an active committee member which puts
her in contact with key stakeholders delivering sustainability education in Tasmania.
It was only through conversation with the Department of Education representative
that the idea of having the event was formed. In addition, the network of EfSTas
people acted as a perceived safety-net for the SRs during the organisation of the
event. The relationships and combined knowledges of the network made planning
the event (including who would be involved in delivering workshops) an easy process.
Without this network of support, the SRs would not have taken on lead organising
or facilitating roles.
A common feature in both case studies is that local people, local values and local
needs were at the centre of the initiatives. We argue that not only does the local
matter, but that the locals who make up ‘the local’ matter.
7 Conclusion
EfSTas promotes itself as a living laboratory, building upon Tasmania’s distinction
as an island state that is a part of Australia, yet set apart from Australia. As a living
laboratory, EfSTas is crafting an approach to sustainability education in Tasmania