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Across rural NSW, people are adapting to our changing environment and climate. They are regenerating landscapes, reshaping the food system, and using ingenious methods – old and new – to harness natural resources and protect vulnerable ecosystems.

Since early 2018, the nine artists of the AFS Project have been engaging with this world of creativity and resourcefulness that exists beyond the horizon of the city. Their collaborations bridge different perspectives on agriculture, soil, Aboriginal country, carbon, solar energy and wild foods. Groundswell invites the public to engage with the artists, collaborators and some incredible speakers who will expand on the ideas explored in the projects. The program will feature talks, walks, food, film, demonstrations, performances and installations. A ‘forum in the field’, it will occupy several acres of land at The Living Classroom, a site for land-based learning on Bingara’s reclaimed town commons. Bingara is in the New England region of NSW.

In addition to the artists, the following speakers and participants are confirmed, with more to be announced:

• Keynote: Charles Massy (farmer, educator, author of Call of the Reed Warbler)

• Erika Watson and Hayden Druce (Epicurean Harvest farmers)

• Rachel Lawrence (University of New England scientist and potter)

• Sarah Burrows & Anita Taylor (founders of Red 8 Produce, a mobile ethical abattoir start-up)

• Ian Milliss (KSCA artist and Cultural Adaptation muse)

• Ananth Gopal (actor and Director of Polykala, facilitator of individual, community, organisational adaptation)

• Sharon Windsor (entrepreneur, founder of Indigiearth)

• Bjorn Sturmberg (solar scientist and renewable energy entrepreneur)

• New England Landcare (Sara Schmude, Karen Zirkler and others)

• Glenn Morris (organic farmer, climate change activist)

and Adam Blakester as our MC (sustainability facilitator, founder Starfish Initiatives)

Groundswell is being staged in conjunction with Pulse of the Earth: a Festival of Regeneration, a free event with music, theatre, food, children’s activities and other festivities hosted by the Bingara community. The festival will open on Friday 6th September, with a performance by the folk-rock band Things of Stone and Wood.

We will post updates here on speakers, program and logistics in the coming months!