Music for a Warming World

Nivy Balachandran	10 August

Dear friends,

Check out the event below for one of our fellow CCs Greenfaith 

"Music for a Warming World", taking place on 13 August 2017 in Melbourne.

Try Booking site for this event

Thanks Jonathan and Andrea 

for sharing this with us and for inviting us along.

Do get a long and check it out, 

and please share with your networks!

(Please email me if you have events you'd like to share with the URI network).

Kind wishes

Nivy

Nivy Balachandran

Regional Coordinator,  Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands  Part time - Office days are Wednesday and Friday.

Phone: +61 433 238 406 | Skype: nivy.bala | www.uri.org 

Happy Mother's Day to all those mums in detenton - we are thinking of you on this day.

Please copy this post to 

your Facebook, your Google+, Twitter - 

everywhere you can - 

so that mothers cruelly detained will know 

that there are Australian mothers, parents, grandparents, 

thinking of them and their children on this day.

Ballarat Interfaith Network introduces The Tree of Life Project - an all-inclusive end-of-year celebration for Ballarat

The Ballarat Interfaith Network

wishes its end-of-year all inclusive celebration

to be known far and wide.

In just under six weeks time,

The Tree of Life Project will be declared open. 

A preliminary program can be read on-line below or downloaded.

This program is still being finalised.

However, readers will get an idea of the structure.

It is not too late for anyone to come to us with their own project

and to get in the program.

There is still some room for the more the merrier. Contact details are on the flyer as well as the program.

Ballarat Interfaith Network is celebrating UN World Interfaith Harmony Week 2013

United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week is an annual event observed during the first week of February each year.  Ballarat Interfaith Network is active once again in 2013 and a calendar of events has been organised in conjunction with the City of Ballarat.  Please see the flyers below for the program of events.

Can a sustainable food culture allow the non-stunning slaughter of animals?

Should non-stunning slaughter of animals be part of a sustainable food culture in Australia - or, for that matter, the world.  Please give serious consideration to Lyn White's message below.

~~~~~~~~

 

As you know, a big decision will be made this week when primary industries ministers from around the country meet in Melbourne to decide whether to close the loophole on non-stunned slaughter in Australia.

I'm writing to invite you to an important rallyorganised by Animals Australia on Thursday evening at the MCG, where the ministers are due to discuss their decision on this issue. Already 14,000 Animals Australia supporters have written to these ministers imploring them to show mercy and remove the exemptions that are allowing some abattoirs in Victoria and South Australia to cut the throats of fully conscious sheep. We need your help to send one last and all-important reminder as the ministers arrive for their dinner meeting, that caring Australians are depending on them to make the right decision.

• Where: Gate 2, Melbourne Cricket Ground
• When: 5:45pm, Thursday, 27th October (finishing 7pm)
• What to bring: Just yourself, we will have plenty of posters for people to hold
• More information: Call the Animals Australia office on 1800 888 584

Miss, of all the cruelty I have seen inside abattoirs, non-stunned slaughter of animals represents the single greatest cause of distress, pain and suffering I have born witness to.

Fortunately we understand that several ministers are already of the opinion that non-stunned slaughter is unacceptable, which means there is real hope to end this brutal practice in Australia. This rally may be the tipping point that gets the others over the line.

Please join our experienced campaigners for a peaceful gathering on Thursday evening and help us ensure that all animals in this country are extended this most basic legal protection.

I hope you can join us, Lyn White Campaign Director

P.S. You may be aware that the official meeting of the primary industries ministers will be held on Friday morning. We are rallying at their Thursday evening dinner meeting as it is expected that their position will be determined at this time. I hope you can attend, but even if you can't, you can have your say on our website right now.

World Matters 2011 Writers - Missing Peace @ Montsalvat - 14, 15, 16 October 2011

Diamond Valley Oxfam, Montsalvat, ELTHAMbookshop

Present

The 7^th Annual

World Matters 2010 Writers - Missing Peace

14, 15, 16 October

Venue: The Barn, Montsalvat, Hillcrest Avenue , Eltham   

 The Great Hall, Montsalvat

Session 1 - Friday 14 October 7.00-8.30pm

Superb storyteller Elliot Perlman is known for Three Dollars, The Reasons I Won’t Be Coming, Seven Types of Ambiguity. He discusses his epic new novel The Street Sweeper dealing with memory, love, guilt, heroism, the extremes of racism and unexpected kindness.

Chair: Sally Warhaft, Journalist and Commentator

Session 2 - Saturday 15th October
10.00am: Registration and Morning Tea
10.15am: Welcome: Stephen Lavender, Diamond Valley Oxfam
10. 30am: A Noongar Voice

Miles Franklin, Commonwealth Literature Award and Premier’s Literary Award winning author, Kim Scott, shares his colourful, warm optimistic view of the indigenous heart of our country and the need to honour the languages in which we first learn to speak. Kim will discuss his recent novel, That Deadman Dance, and children’s picture books Noongar Mambara Bakitj and Mamang.

Chair: Morag Fraser
This session is supported by Nillumbik Reconciliation Group

12. 00pm: Lunch Time Launch:
The Boy and the Crocodile

Teaming up with artists from Arte Moris, a not-for-profit art school in Dili, East Timorese children have painted scenes from the Legend of East Timor, a parable about the kindness of strangers narrated in Tetum and English. Proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Familia Hope Orphanage.

 

This session, which includes lunch, will be held in the Great Hall and costs $15.00
Supported by East Timor Women Australia who will run 

a fund raising handicrafts stall at World Matters

Session 3 - Saturday 15 October
1.15pm: Growing Up

Listen to unexpected stories that emerge when cultures clash and the mix of identities that make up a life. Elaine Kennedy’s Waiting for a Wide Horse Sky details the plight of migrant factory workers in South Korea. Tanveer Ahmed’s Exotic Rissole is an irreverent, funny memoir spanning rural Bangladesh through to western Sydney, looking at the complexities of managing tradition with modernity.

Chair: Jane Sullivan, Literary columnist, The Age.

Session 4 - Saturday 15 October

2.30pm: Futility of war

‘The war’, wrote one of its fiercest opponents and 19th century diarist Charles Gerville, ‘was founded in delusion and error.’ Chief political correspondent for SBS, Karen Middleton, An Unwinnable War, philosopher-historian Ian Bickerton, An Illusion of Victory, academics Fay Anderson and Richard Trembath, Witnesses to War, present their views and research on the mythmaking, propaganda and the tensions between political and military decision .

Chair: Carole Wigg, Medical Association for Prevention of War

3.45pm: Afternoon TeaSession 5  - Saturday 15 October

4. 00pm: Family Disturbances

Novelists Tony Birch, Blood, and Francesca Rendle-Short, Bite Your Tongue, discuss the worlds without sanctuary where characters find the strength of innocence amidst violence and genuine evil. Presented within a world of obsession and trauma the writers ask whether any of us is immune to the forces of destruction.

Chair: Morag Fraser

 Session 6  - Saturday 15 October

5.15pm: Poetry for Humanity

This perennial and highly popular session at all World Matters presented by Adelaide based Friendly Street Poets Elaine Barker, Ros Schulz and Serbian born Jelena Dinic. These empathetic poets couple their concerns for humanity with great poetic skill and strong personal voices in their profoundly moving, sometimes dark, writing that quietly and at a deep level open up their subjects for reflection and contemplation.

Participating chair: Elaine Barker

6.15pm:Twilight refreshments

Session 7  - Saturday 15 October

6.30-7.30pm: Singing History

John Lander, former Australian Ambassador to Iran and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, sings songs
that are personal musical reflections in situations of conflict and disaster including the Song of the Children of Chernobyl which world premiered in Minsk. John will be accompanied by one of Australia’s finest pianists
Matthew Field.

Session 8  - Sunday 16 October

6.15pm: Morning tea and Registrations

10.15am: Welcome

Stephen Lavender, Oxfam and Helen Coleman, Mayor, Shire of Nillumbik

10.30am: The Voice of Reason

Professor Ian Lowe, The Big Fix, Living in the Hothouse, pre-eminent scientist, environmentalist, cultural commentator and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, thinks we have a chance, but we have to act now. Ian’s new book is an environmental and community call to arms – through logic rather than fear-mongering.

Chair:Morag Fraser
Supported by the Victorian Climate Action Calendar

Session 9  - Sunday 16 October

11.45am: Missing Peace-Spotlight on Sri Lanka

“We all have to take positions when the temple bells ring.”

A child soldier with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Niromi De Soyza, Tamil Tigress, activist Jeremy Liyanage and photographer Michael Baranovic share their insights and the compelling need for freedom amidst oppression.

Chair: David Feith , Teacher,Globalisation, Monash University

1.00pm:Lunch $15.00

Session 10  - Sunday 16 October
1.45pm: Singing For All He’s Worth

Essayists Raimond Gaita, Arnold Zable and Morag Fraser pay warm and thoughtful homage to an extraordinary life and a late-blooming creativity that was as heroic as it was humble. Melbourne citizen Jacob Rosenberg, liberated from the Lodz ghetto lived to become a unique poet and writer of novels and memoir.

Session 11  - Sunday 16 October

3.00pm: Our World in Poetry

A good poem is one that the world can’t forget or is delighted to rediscover. Australian Poetry from 1788, is a landmark anthology of Australian poetry with over 1000 poems from 170 Australian poets, including translations of Aboriginal song poems, as well as short critical biographies. This afternoon we hear poets Geoffrey Lehmann, Ian McBryde, Emma Lew and Craig Sherborne.

4.00pm: Afternoon Tea

Session 12  - Sunday 16 October

4.15pm: Digging up a Past

Whereas it was once assumed that Australia was settled by humans only in the past few thousand or even hundred years, research dramatically proclaimed that in fact Aborigines had been living here before the human race inhabited the Americas. Among the individuals who proved that Australia did have an ancient history, Emeritus Professor John Mulvaney, AO, CMG has been the most persistent and successful. Digging up a Past is a lucid engaging story of Australian history coming of age.

Session 13  - Sunday 16 October

5.20pm: Banning Islamic Books

In 2005, a few days after al-Qaeda terrorists killed many people in the London tube, newspapers in Sydney began a campaign against what they said were terrorist books on sale in a bookshop in Lakemba. Shortly afterwards Attorney-General Philip Ruddock, attempted to get eight books banned by the Film and Literature Classification board. Richard Pennell, Pam Pryde and Emmett Stinson discuss the dire consequences of knee jerk reactions and laws that attempt to muffle dissonant voices.

6.00pm:Twilight refreshments

6.15-7.15pm: Raga Dolls Cost: $15.00
“ it’s good to be reminded of a mythical world of honour,beauty, optimism and even a little wit.”

The Raga Dolls Quartet, co-founded in 2000 by composer and violinist David Osborne and piano
accordionist George Butrumlis, has long championed such a world. Come and listen to their vibrant original new Australian music and retrospective reflections on an age where domestic music-making and small scale ensembles abounded.

Festival Pass: 

$60 includes 13 sessions, morning and
afternoon tea and twilight refreshments

 
Daily Pass: 

15th, 16th October: $30.00
Each Session: $7 unless otherwise stated
 

Students: 

$40 Festival Pass; $5.00 per session.
Lunch $15
Prepaid, early bookings are essential:
ELTHAMbookshop@bigpond.com
970 Main Road, Eltham 9439 8700

PLEASE NOTE:

Meera of the Eltham Bookshop has written to me saying: 

Please let fans of your site know 

that if anyone quotes your blog the cost for each session will be $5.00.

With regards,

Meera

Miss Eagle says:

Don't stand upon the order of thy booking

but get thee to thy booking now.

This program is tremendous.

If you don't believe me,

then you haven't delved into the links I've provided! 

elthambookshop@bigpond.com

970 Main Road Eltham

9439 8700

High Tea at St Stephen's

 Last Sunday afternoon, a gracious friend of mine took me to a High Tea 

at

 St Stephen's Bayswater.

 The afternoon was organised by an NGO called

Australia Aids South Africa.

As the name implies, the organisation works to assist

AIDS victims in South Africa.

 The hall at Stephen's was packed.

There was wonderful music from talented local people.

As well as my friend and her lovely family,

I also enjoyed the presence at our table of

St Stephen's vicar, Father David.

Each table had its own host.

The host (or hostess if you prefer) provided all the beautiful

napery and tableware.

I thought this was a great idea -

since it split so much of the organisation, responsibility and work.

Beverages, it should be noted, were not limited to coffee and tea!

I did enjoy the champers in beautiful fluted glasses -

and the flowers and chocolates, too.

I think the afternoon was a marvellous social success.

I am sure the hard work was rewarded, as well, with financial success.

Thank you, Australia Aids South Africa.

World Matters 2010 Writers - Disturbing the Peace @ Montsalvat -Oct 27 and 30 -31

Diamond Valley Oxfam, Montsalvat, ELTHAMbookshop

Present

The 6^th Annual

World Matters 2010 Writers - Disturbing the Peace

Oct 27  and 30 -31

Venue: The Barn, Montsalvat, Hillcrest Avenue , Eltham

Melways Ref: 22 A8

 The Great Hall, Montsalvat

Official World Matters Literary Festival Website

elthambookshop@bigpond.com

970 Main Road Eltham

9439 8700

THE TREE: A FILM FUNDRAISER FOR PEACE BRIGADES INTERNATIONAL

Picture from here

THE TREE

A great film for a great cause! 

Peace Brigades International.

All funds to help us protect human rights defenders 

in Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Guatemala and Nepal.

6.30pm - Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon Street, Carlton, Victoria 

Thursday 7 October 2010.  

Tickets: $18 full / $15 Concession

Festival De Cannes, Official Selection Closing Night Film
Director Julie Bertuccelli’s adaptation of

Judy Pascoe’s bestseller Our Father Who Art In The Tree.

Filmed in the open Australian bushland,The Tree will open your mind. Alternating skilfully between the supernatural and down-to-earth reality, the filmmaker immerses us in the lives of a devastated family, with grace and a delicacy that is illuminated by the presence of Charlotte Gainsbourg. - Marine Cluet, La Tribune

Join us for drinks and refreshments at the Back Bar at the Cinema Nova before the film starts.

Bookings essential!  

Pre order your tickets at fundraising@pbi-australia.org or 9016 3769 





Our Father Who Art in the Tree

The Wheeler Centre: literary and functional

On Thursday and Friday, I was at the Public Interest Journalism and New Media Conference held as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival. It is otherwise known as New News 2010 and is sponsored by the Public Interest Journalism Foundation at Swinburne University.

The Conference was held at The Wheeler Centre which is in the precinct of the State Library of Victoria.  The establishment of The Wheeler Centre is in response to Melbourne's status as a UNESCO City of Literature.  Melbourne was the second city in the world - and the first in the southern hemisphere - to be honoured by UNESCO.  The first was Edinburgh. 

So for those of you who may not have visited Wheeler, I took some pictures... just to give you a feel of the place.

External signage above Little Lonsdale Street

The Foyer

 

 Copper door with copper architrave

 

 The Auditorium

The Green Room was used by the conference for informal conversations with guest speakers and "Unconferences" - you could put your unprogrammed offering on a white-board.

Green Room - Southern end

Green Room - Northern end

Green Room - Kitchen doors

and, finally, I thought this banquette was designer cute and smart

You sit carefully in/on this banquette - because it has no back support.  When you sit on the one or two upper curves (depending on size) the curves either side become arm rests.  So as well as eye-catching, it is quite functional.  I was able to sit quite comfortably (and I am a larger size) and have a conversation with the person sitting next to me. 

All in all, the Wheeler Centre provides

functional spaces for the City of Melbourne.