What is a Transition initiative? It's a grassroots process that helps a community become more resilient, more sustainable, more diverse, stronger, and happier.
Global Transition initiatives have created projects around food, energy, biodiversity, education, housing, waste, arts, and more - local responses to the global challenges of climate change, food sovereignty, biodiversity loss, economic hardship, etc. These small, local responses help show the way forward for governments, big business, and the rest of us.
And what is an Australian Transition initiative? Well, that is what we are about to discover....
Transition Oz is a blog for, by, and about those idealistic and passionate souls who are working to transition Australia to a brighter, more resilient, more sustainable future. It is mainly about sharing our stories, with the hope that together we can create a new "planetary story" for our communities, this unique land, and the planet.

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Welcome to the Transition Oz blog!

Welcome to the Transition Oz blog! Lisa from Transition Bellingen (NSW) here. First up, a little background:

What is a Transition initiative? It's a grassroots process that helps that community become more resilient, more sustainable, more diverse, stronger, and happier.
It's happening in over a thousand communities across the world - from towns in Australia to neighbourhoods in Portugal, from cities in Brazil to rural communities in Slovenia, from urban locations in Britain to islands off the coast of Canada. These communities have started up projects in areas of food, transport, energy, biodiversity, education, housing, waste, arts, etc. as small-scale local responses to the global challenges of climate change, economic hardship, biodiversity loss and shrinking supplies of cheap energy. Together, these small-scale responses make up something much bigger, and help show the way forward for governments, business and the rest of us. Check out the Transition Network website www.transitionnetwork.org to learn more (and with thanks to that website for the above description….)

And what is an Australian Transition initiative? Well, that is what we are about to discover….

I receive the Transition Network newsletter, with all the amazing things that are happening all over the world, but especially in the UK. To be honest, I always get a bit jealous that they are all so close to each other and can pop off to gatherings and conferences etc!  Australia is a bit big for that, eh. But reading the last newsletter, I got inspired by their "Social Reporters: Transition Stories from around the UK" blog. And thought - why can't we do a "Transition Stories from around Australia" blog?! We may be far apart geographically, but how great it would be if we could take advantage of technology to get closer in spirit!

So I sent out an email asking if anyone out there was interested in being part of an Australian-wide Transition blog. I thought I would get 5-10 responses - hopefully enough to get started.

How thrilled I was to receive 22 responses within two weeks - from all 6 states! (does anyone have Transition contacts in the NT or ACT?) Almost everyone said they would like to contribute somehow....many said they had never blogged before but were willing to give it a go....and most said they were short on that precious resource - time. Some of the groups were just starting out, some people were on their own trying to get something started up, and a few of the groups sent website links that showed all the amazing things they are getting up to.

In short (and as we probably expected) - there are many faces of Transition Oz. It will be great to start to get to know each other and share our stories.

This will be a "Team Blog" - which means that anyone who wants to can receive an “invitation” to be on the team, and blog anytime they want to. Send an email to transitionoz@gmail.com if you would like to receive an invitation.

The "Social Reporters" blog on the Transition Network site in the UK is extremely organised - with 12 social reporters, trainings, weekly guest editors, themes, and daily blogs. I am not sure that this reflects our Australian mentality or reality! But I would like to suggest that perhaps we do start off with a theme - and let it run for about two weeks (that seemed to be the time it took for people to respond to my initial email) before heading off into another topic. Of course, any suggestions/feedback welcome!

So, off we go to the wonderful world of blogging.....and here's to creating Transition connections all around this big wide land of ours!
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2 comments:

  1. Unknown21 November 2012 at 23:53

    I am trying to explain a post-modern approach to intentional groups - less about control and more about co-creation, bottom-up support for individual and small group initiative - as a way to 'structure' local transition networks in a new paradigm. Anyone got any material they have or can point to... Transition kwoorabup Denmark WA

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  2. Unknown23 November 2012 at 03:29

    hi Donald and Transition Kwoorabup!
    I have just recently read the latest book by the legendary Starhawk: "The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups". It is written from a US perspective but she does a good job of making it universally applicable. It is awesome! She weaves the story of a fictional community throughout the book, which has chapters about power, and communication, and leadership, and.....Plus there are group exercises and activities you can do. You can check out her website http://www.starhawk.org/writings/empowerment_manual.html
    I sound a bit like a cheerleader but I reckon it would be a great tool for you. Keep us posted!! Cheers Lisa (Transition Bellingen)

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