In 1938, zoologist Ellis Le Geyt Troughton lamented that Australia’s “gentle and specialized creatures” were “unable to cope with changed conditions and introduced enemies.”
It’s a line that’s been repeated—almost ritualistically—ever since. The “enemies,” of course, are foxes and feral cats. Their arrival has been widely accepted as the key driver behind the extinction or decline of dozens of Australian native mammals. It’s a tidy explanation, and one that has justified widescale eradication efforts—poisoning, trapping, shooting—all in the name of protecting biodiversity.
But a recent study suggests the story might not be as clear-cut as we’ve believed. Read More…

Tags: environmental connection

Some legacies don’t stay buried.
They linger in the soil, in memory, in the way power moves and how stories are told — or not told.

I grew up under Joh Bjelke-Petersen.
Authoritarian. Deeply religious. Unyielding.
He ran Queensland like a private estate from 1968 to 1987, silencing opposition, rewarding loyalty, and ruling with a style that was equal parts paternal and punitive.

Years later, watching Donald Trump rise in the U.S., I felt a strange familiarity.
Not in the details — the hair, the tweets, the celebrity bravado — but in the deeper structure.
The instinct to divide.
The disdain for democratic norms.
And the calculated use of chaos to consolidate power.

Different men.
Different contexts.
But something in the pattern rhymed.

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Tags: indigenous rights

If you ask around, a lot of people will say the Australian dream started slipping away sometime in the 1970s. Before then, there was a broad sense that if you worked hard, you could get ahead. Wages rose in line with productivity, housing was within reach, jobs were mostly secure, and government investment in health, education, and infrastructure was seen as a public good.

But something shifted around 1973. And we’ve been living with the consequences ever since.
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Tags: cultural heritage, economic reciprocity, environmental connection, governance innovation, community collaboration

Governance Innovation: Rethinking Leadership for the Future 🌍💡

As the world grapples with complex, interconnected challenges—from climate change and inequality to social fragmentation—it’s becoming evident that traditional models of governance are no longer sufficient. In response, we must innovate our approaches to leadership. The Pathmakers Framework introduces a forward-thinking solution: relational governance. This approach offers a transformative way to rethink leadership, one that emphasises collaboration, ecological stewardship, and mutual responsibility over control and hierarchy. Read More…

Tags: governance innovation, sustainability, relational leadership

In the context of the Pathmakers Framework (PF), community collaboration is not just a strategic approach—it’s the foundation upon which sustainable systems and transformative change are built. Rooted in the idea that collective action, mutual support, and shared wisdom lead to greater outcomes than individual efforts, community collaboration offers a model for inclusive and responsive progress.

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Tags: community collaboration

🌱 More Than Just ‘Nature’ In the dominant Western mindset, the environment is often seen as something separate from humans—out there, waiting to be managed, exploited, or occasionally ‘saved.’ But Indigenous knowledge systems have long understood what Western science is only now catching up to: we are part of Country, and Country is part of us.

For First Nations people, a healthy landscape isn’t one that’s been left untouched—it’s one that has been actively cared for. The land needs people just as much as people need the land. Traditional fire management, seasonal knowledge, and active custodianship all shape the health of Country. It’s not about ‘preserving’ nature in some pristine, untouchable state; it’s about maintaining a reciprocal relationship where both land and people thrive together.

The Environmental Connection landmark in the Pathmakers Framework reminds us that sustainability isn’t just about reducing harm—it’s about actively restoring and strengthening our relationship with the land, waters, and all living things. This isn’t just ‘environmentalism’; it’s about kinship, responsibility, and recognising that a thriving landscape and a thriving community are one and the same. Read More…

Tags: environmental connection, sustainability, caring for country, relational ecology

Introduction: Rethinking Economy Through Reciprocity

💰🔄🌿
Economy isn’t just about money changing hands, it’s about relationships, obligations, and the flow of resources in ways that sustain communities and landscapes. The Pathmakers Framework offers a model for understanding relationships between people, land, and systems of exchange. It recognises Economic Reciprocity as a fundamental principle, one that has long existed in Indigenous economies and traditional trade systems. This concept challenges the modern economic model of extraction and accumulation, emphasising balance, responsibility, and mutual benefit.

Growing up in a family of German immigrants, I witnessed firsthand the values of hard work, thrift, and community. My ancestors were favoured by the government for their self-sufficiency and religious worldview, which kept them politically neutral. These qualities shaped their interactions with the land and their neighbours, prioritising relationships, practical help, and shared responsibilities. In many ways, it mirrored the reciprocal systems of the past, though the framework for understanding it was different. Read More…

Tags: economic reciprocity

Introduction: Understanding the Pathmakers Framework 🌏📜✨

Cultural heritage isn’t just about old sites and artifacts—it’s about the deep, ongoing relationship between people and place. The Pathmakers Framework recognizes that connection, mapping out the movement, knowledge, and stories that have shaped landscapes over millennia. These pathways aren’t just historical remnants; they’re living threads that still weave through the land and our understanding of it today.

As we face the ongoing challenges of climate change, Aboriginal peoples’ deep and ongoing claims for their cultural rights and their essential knowledge for caring for country are more important than ever. These connections are integral, not just for understanding history, but for shaping the future. Read More…

Tags: cultural heritage, country, storytelling, living land, connections to place, indigenous rights

Opening Reflection

At first, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I was feeling. Watching that White House meeting, Trump, Vance, Zelenskyy, something had shifted, but it took a while to work out what it was. It wasn’t just shock or disgust. It was grief. The world I had grown up in, imperfect, complete with struggles, but with certain shared understandings, was gone. Not eroded bit by bit as it had been for years, but torn away in a moment. The assumptions about how friends and allies behave towards each other no longer held. And with that sense of profound and sudden change came vulnerability. Memories of childhood trauma returned, if this could happen to friends, then we may be in for some pretty poor treatment as well. Read More…

Tags: cultural heritage, environmental connection, economic reciprocity, grief, relational governance