NED-SDN Newsletter April 2025

2025 annual SDN workshop

This year’s annual workshop was held in January at the Tiobunga Ski Lodge at Guthega in the Snowy Mountains of NSW. It’s a striking place and an excellent venue for an SDN workshop. There were fourteen participants - six men and eight women. See the report and photos.

Aboriginal men’s workshop

A workshop involving Aboriginal men from the mid north coast and Canberra was held in September. The venue was between Port Macquarie and Taree in a beautiful valley on Birpai country. This was the first Aboriginal men’s workshop under the SDN banner for 50 years. NED Foundation founder Ned Iceton held workshops with Aboriginal men after he arrived in Armidale in the early 1970s. See the report and photos.

SDN women’s workshop

A women’s workshop was held at Beechworth in Victoria over four days in August 2024, inspired by Kath McLachlan, Lesley Shuttleworth, Roberta Baker and Sarah Houseman. There were 13 participants, half of whom had never attended an SDN workshop. Three elders joined the circle - Aunty Jenny Crew, Mary Stringer and veteran SDN member Joan McCarthy. During the workshop Joan shared her decision to seek Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) in Switzerland a week later. She explained that attending this workshop was an important part of her earthly completion. Vale Joan.

Topics for discussion were varied and included a philosophical presentation about how the world had arrived at the point at which we find ourselves. Aunty Jenny held a weaving workshop and bursts of song and an evening of poetry and port were enjoyed by all. The meals and clean-ups were joyful co-creations. The photo shows Joan McCarthy and Sarah Houseman at the women’s workshop.

Activism 101

Is the Social Developers’ Network an activist organisation? No, but we are an organisation of activists. Everyone in the Network works to address current challenges and create a better world, starting in our own communities, noting that ‘community’ is, ideally, ‘common unity’.

Ned Iceton was an activist. You could tell by the way he signed off his emails:

• Globalise goodwill, not greed; cooperation, not coercion.
• Vote to take back control from the ‘big end’: adopt the Simultaneous Policy!
• We can have jobs and energy without coal, but we cannot have coal without climate change, and we cannot have nuclear power without taking risks we don’t have to.
• “Nothing changes conventional wisdom except the relentless march of circumstance.” J.K. Galbraith.

Ned’s activist orientation led to the primary goal of his Foundation being, ‘To advance the well‐being of Australians and the nation through activities that benefit the community and are practical, inspirational and ethical’. With an election looming, we can also note that Ned always supported community-based independent politicians - Ted Mack at state level and Tony Windsor at federal. Ned was a friend and supporter of Rob Taber who is now an independent councillor on Armidale Regional Council.

Ned was a true activist – ‘a person who campaigns to bring about political or social change’. And, we can add, personal change. This plaque is at the Pensioners Hill Lookout, Gunnedah -

Introducing NED’s Transitions Program

Affordable food and shelter are the foundations of a liveable community. With 2024 recorded as the hottest year on Earth and 2025 set to be worse, communities are recognising the urgent need to transition from fossil fuels to renewables. The NED Foundation’s Transitions Program is creating an evidence base of innovative community-led responses to energy transitions with the intention of sharing stories of ‘doing transition better’.

NED’s remit supports community-based research in social development. The Transitions program began by seeking ways that NED might contribute to the collective work of adapting people and communities to the increasingly erratic climatic conditions on Earth. Dr Sarah Houseman leads this initiative with extensive expertise in sustainability leadership, education and governance. NED has found many regional communities have discovered that energy autonomy is the key to a truly resilient community. For more information about this initiative and the Yackandandah case study, go to https://ned.org.au/transitions (link is external)

You can also email Sarah: Transitionsnedfoundation.org.au

What actions do we take in a chaotic world?

At the Guthega workshop participants shared the actions they take in this chaotic world, led by Mark Spain of Canberra. These were collated into a collective statement using the participants' own words. A selection is listed below to give readers an idea:

• I continue to take care of myself... (I) keep fit and eat well. I practice mindfulness.
• I am working to create hopeful futures for the next generations. I foster social contacts. (I am) a role model for kids, grandkids.
• I invest in local economies. (I) show gratitude.
• I live sustainably. I’ve created an energy efficient house. I have an EV (electric vehicle).
• (I am) getting RP (Restorative Practice) training. (I am practicing) wholeheartedness → love as action.
• I stay active. I sing in a choir. (I) sign petitions to Parliament. (I) support (my) local independent candidate.
• (My) happy place is in my garden.

One of the guiding principles of the NED Foundation states:

Citizen involvement as expressed in the (principles of) democracy and co‐operation, must be the primary impulse for our next evolutionary step. This needs to guide all areas of group and social activity ‐ political, commercial and cultural.

International Conference on Restorative Practice

NED Program Coordinator for Restorative Practice, Richard De Martin, reflects on the conference held in November in Canberra:

This was an immense experience for me. I was on the organising group where I worked with the community of practitioners, nationally and internationally, and this was an intense in-person experience the like of which I have never experienced at a conference.

It was if the door to a restorative lab was opened and out poured a collective energy and wisdom that could change the world, one relationship at a time. The energy was rich with the spirit of collaboration as conference delegates soaked up the learning and witnessed the power of positive responses when harm is done.

Although many practical approaches to dealing with the negative aspects of human behaviour were explored, the conference mostly transcended the downside and restored hope that we were part of the solution, showing the way to practicing safe and relational ways of being, rather than adversarial approaches in responding to harm.

Watch a short video from the conference

Photo below taken at the conference.

NED Projects

NED Program Coordinator for Projects, Lesley Shuttleworth, is supported by a working group consisting of David Crew, Roberta Baker and Kath McLachlan. The four recently went on retreat to Warburton in Victoria’s Yarra Valley for two days to reflect on our work in supporting projects which contribute to NED’s purpose. We explored what values and selection criteria should underpin our approach. This year we will spend our entire project funding budget, so these aspects are increasingly important.

A broad range of projects are being supported through funding and a form of mentoring which we refer to as ‘walking alongside’. Current NED Foundation projects include:

• Prison Fellowship – The Forgiveness Project is working with people who are incarcerated to explore the concept of forgiveness and who they would like to forgive.
• Transforming Justice – working with men who have caused and/or may be at risk of sexual harm.
• Citizens Assemblies SA – A conference on the practice of citizens assemblies.
• Community Development Structural Committee – to establish a Community Development Institute.
• Coranderrk Aboriginal Station – a play commemorating when people were moved off their land 25 years after it had been given to them by the Victorian government.
• Family Inclusion Strategies in the Hunter – to assist development of a strategic plan.
• Indigo Regen – a project to process waste food from food outlets in Beechworth and to work with Lesley on a broader community plan.
• Kubirriwarra Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation. Matching finance to run a project in partnership with the local school aimed at strengthening relationships within families and between the school and families.
• Moora Moora – workshops on deep ecology with John Seed and an Earth/Heart workshop centred on community, eco psychology and eco spirituality.
• Storytelling in the Snowy Valleys - to create 6 digitally based nature connection activities that can be used as a cultural/social prescription that is co-created in a way that works for local First Nations people.
• The Story of Jimmy Jacko –Based in the mid-1900’s the story draws on the involvement of First Peoples rights organisations, the Communist Party, the Labor movement, and an Underground Railroad. Kubirriwarra is in Far North Queensland.

For more information on NED projects contact Lesley at - projectsnedfoundation.org.au

 

Wise words to end

Native American politician and civil rights leader, Chief White Eagle (1825- 1914):

This moment humanity is experiencing can be seen as a door or a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or walk through the door is up to you. If you consume information 24 hours a day, with negative energy, constantly nervous, with pessimism, then you will fall into that hole. But if you take the opportunity to look at yourself, think about life and death, care for yourself and others, then you will walk through the door. When you take care of yourself, you are taking care of everyone.

If you’ve got any feedback, ideas or want to contribute articles or photos, please get in touch with the newsletter editor, Harry Creamer: harrynedfoundation.org.au or 0431 158 252