New Friendships, New Experiences and Lots of Climate Action! The People Came Together to Make Climate Action Week to Learn, Connect and to Act!
Climate Action Week grew out of a response to the Emissions Reduction Plan released earlier this year. One of our members had an idea to flood parliament with postcards urging MP’s to get behind the plan and act. Another member had a bigger vision and floated the idea of holding an entire week of climate related actions and activities. We put the idea to various groups within the Forum to see if there was any interest. There was. Lots of interest. The projects and events started coming and Climate Action Week was born.
We held twenty events with over 500 active participants and forged many new alliances with various community groups, realising our mission of weaving the people together. Climate Action Week was defined by the call to action of ‘Learn, Connect, Act’ which was realised by people coming together from all over the top of the south for workshops, webinars, and to take part in climate related activities.
Together We Grow
Attended by somewhere in the region of 100 people, we’re delighted that our flagship event Together We Grow, was such a success. Held in the beautiful Pastorius Waller Auditorium of The Suter gallery, the documentary was followed by a Q&A session with the producers Jordan Osmond and Antoinette Wilson. Julia Milne, the founder of The Common Unity Project (the subject of the documentary) also joined the panel sharing with us her experience and wisdom. We shared some kai, enjoyed a drink and the opportunity to see each other face to face. The film is available to view for a small fee at this link
How Dare You! 2
The second ever How Dare You! Student Arts Expo was held at The Refinery gallery this year. It was all a bit of a blur with kids and adults milling about all over the place, but we think we had around 60 people come to the launch. Although the subject matter was sombre, we had a giggle, gave out some great spot prizes from local businesses and enjoyed some extremely gooey chocolate cake!
The breadth of artistic talent was truly inspiring and once again we learned a great deal about what our tamariki think about climate change and what they feel we should do about it. Very compelling food for thought and a reminder to us that we should all aspire to become good ancestors. If you didn’t get a chance to view the exhibition, you can see the slideshow HERE
Local Council Q&A
Thank you to Nelson City Council and Tasman District Council for the online Q&A session about our local councils’ responses to the climate emergency. Representing TDC was Mayor Tim King and Anna Gerraty and Nelson City Council was represented by Rachel Pemberton and Kate Fulton. There was a good deal of interest in this event with around 40 people in attendance. The video of the session is available to view HERE
Professor Tim Naish Sea Level Rise Webinar
Professor Tim Naish of Victoria University led us in a one hour webinar that dealt with the issue of sea level rise and what it means specifically for our region’s low lying areas. The webinar was well attended with over 70 people joining in to hear Professor Naish. You can watch the full video HERE
Beach Clean Up
We had a great turnout of almost 30 people to our beach clean up. The event was supposed to be during Climate Action Week but was postponed due to bad weather. After cleaning the beach, we enjoyed some ice cream from Gelato Roma and some lucky kids got to take home two passes generously donated by Natureland.
Electric Vehicle and E-Bike Trade Show
Climate Action Week ended on a high note with the Electric Vehicle and E-Bike Trade Show and Test Drive.
We estimate that we had around 100 visitors which speaks to the appetite in the community for a switch to clean, sustainable transport.
Other events included an urban farm workshop with Julia Milne, a tour of Nelson’s only Myawaki forest and a demonstration on how to make biochar, a composting workshop at the Waimarama Community Gardens and a special edition Repair Cafe
We also had our first ever stall at the Saturday market. It was a great way to kick off the week, meet the locals and introduce them to the Forum.
We owe the success of Climate Action Week to our dedicated and passionate volunteers … we couldn’t have done it without all your hard work.
And a special thanks to Nelson City Council who supported us every step of the way.
