"Through Creative Resilience Lab, palavers, events, workshops and projects the C∞R aims to bolster inclusive collaboration and creative leadership in climate emergency response and action including prioritising the mainstream integration of arts and culture in national climate emergency discourses, policy frameworks and tertiary education. Our work focuses on having hard conversations, communal intergenerational learning, relationship building and cultivating deep collaborations."

CLIMATE CHANGE is a COLONIAL CRISIS.

• It is the end of the world as we know it. Every beginning is an ending with a backstory, a right now, the unimaginable, the inevitable and the beyond of what might be possible. The ending teaches us where to start. Reworlding imagines a world that could have been -- before colonial disruption -- as our beginning -- to decouple from maladaptive ways of engaging/disengaging with the climate emergency context. - Jen Ray

Participants range in age from 4 to over 70 years old. A core aspect of C∞R' work is creating inclusive, culturally-affirmative spaces for intergenerational and cross-cultural learning together. Their ways of working, grounded in Indigenous forms of knowledge sharing, disrupts dominant Western forms of peer-to-peer orientation and education, so children and seniors are active participants in the projects.

For example, a few weeks ago, we invited a 5-year-old to give a talk to a group of people between the ages of 18-75 at one of our gatherings.

In the climate context, we need to be listening to our children and elders more than ever - they are our past and future. We are responsible for the knowledge sharing between. This is one of the reasons Indigenous people have sustained culture since time immemorial - through intergenerational learning and storytelling. By making the gathering inclusive of children, it means that parents can come and participate with their children welcomed to join.

Many are unaccustomed to this form of learning having been raised in Western educational systems where children are grouped by age in classrooms. At our gathering, this child told his story for 10-15 minutes, showing a picture and playing a ukulele. His soft voice meant the others had to lean in to listen. The story told through the child directly related to the content of the gathering. It was a mic-drop moment. Examples like this are part of rethinking who gets to speak and be heard. This initiative took place in Madison as part of Joy Work in Desperate Times.

Protest Methods & Banner-Making Workshops

The first workshop that worked with youth was held in Melbourne and is now organized on an ad hoc basis, where large textiles and activist banners are created and where protest methods are shared between long-term social activists and young people. This work is done to support young people in activism by situating them within a lineage and community of activism to support the next generation and build depth. A lot of labour and knowledge is lost in many activist movements as people move on, energy is used up in the start-up phase and often aligned groups don't share resources and collaboration to amplify each other's work. In many cases, there are community folk who stay up all night painting banners and are not the ones carrying them at the rally.

How to connect younger activists with experienced ones?

Participants learn banner-making techniques using fabric or upcycling fast fashion waste to create reusable protest signs, rather than disposable ones. Banners have been created for protests and parades for Aboriginal rights, climate change, affordable abortion and trans rights. In 2025, the latest banner 'Ungovernable' is for an action in the USA and will be gifted to a social justice organisation. The workshop included people from 5-60 years of age.

What is Creative Resilience Lab ?

Creative resilience lab explores connections to different activist groups as well as ancestors and the relation to current situations. The work is focused on creating stories that are linked to activism and partnerships and engaging with youth through partner organization.

It is a two-day immersive and collaborative lab to foster collective knowledge exchange on the climate emergency and disasters, involving Indigenous custodians, local artists, scientists, community organizations, emergency services, local government representatives, and philanthropists. Through experiential scenarios, expert panels, exercises and dialogue the lab is designed to amplify sustainable cross-sectoral relationships and capacity for collaboration in community-based creative resilience approaches in the immediate now but also considering how this work now will impact future generations.

The work is intergenerational and focused organisations to invite young people to participate in different ways in the labs. It is a belief that everyone is an expert at something. Everyone should have their legs under the same table when we are working on complex problems such as disaster preparedness and climate adaptation. Young people bring perspectives and experiences that we frequently overlook and undervalue.

"come as you are" philosophy, removing obligations and focusing on personal invitations. The more diverse the space, the better the outcomes.

Breaking Inertia & Activating Knowledge

Climate change related disasters impact equity-denied people and communities more. Equity benefits everyone, yet it is frequently used to deepen divides between the powerful and the vulnerable, hence the reason why we frame our communities as 'equity-denied' instead of marginalised or vulnerable. Conflict resolution, speaking to people that disagree with you, problem solving issues that affect others, etc. is critical work now - actions that help build resilience and halt survivalist instincts.

Many communities involved have lived experiences of disasters and displacement and know how to build and work with communities in crisis. Care, uncertainty, discomfort, dignity reinforcing ways and humility are often 'givens". The approach of Creative Resilience focuses on abundance rather than scarcity - how do we pool knowledge, skills, tools, etc. instead of stockpiling? How do we prioritise waves of care instead of reactive modes of charity? How do we do this work with joy for the long term? How do we imagine new futures and build the scaffolding to get there?

The Centre for Reworlding protocols were co-created with a group of Indigenous Aunties and collaborators that we share in all of our events. It helps guide people less familiar with Indigenous ways of problem-solving, stewardship, knowledge sharing and being.