Community is not a place or an organisation - it is a feeling and the relationships between a collective group of people. It is the formation of people who come together and foster a sense of trust, belonging, safety and care for one another. Through this connection, as a community, they influence their environments and one another.
This year's Candelo Village Festival is a showcase of the fabric of the special community in which we live in the Bega Valley Shire - an opportunity to share experiences in one space, cultivating community together. Wander your way around quaint Candelo Village to connect and inspire by participating in workshops and talks around Indigenous wisdom, regenerative agriculture and a circular economy.
Dust off your thinking caps and join in on talks, panel discussions and demonstrations that dive deeper into sustainable communities, connection to Place, local food, co-living, land stewardship, share economy and more.
Or perhaps you’re more of the hands on type? We’ve got a gaggle of goodies in store for you! Pack your knitting needles - maestros and amateurs alike! Wear something to move in for tai chi and circus skills (not together of course). Be guided by Sharon, a Walbunja woman of the Yuin Nation, as she delivers a workshop sharing cultural knowledge and creative skills for making craft using natural resources collected here on Yuin country. Leave your mark and join the make and mend community by crafting your own bunting flag, where conversations and laughter are the magic between the threads.
Candelo Town Hall
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Strengthening the Local Food Economy
MC – Robyn Rosenfeldt, Pip Magazine
Panel:
Thea Constantardis, Candelo Bulk Foods Co-op and local grower
Paul McMurray, SCPA South Cost Producers and Fork & Hoe Farm
Krishna, Krishna’s Basket in Bega
The panel will discuss the need for institutional support, engagement by the local consumers, paradigm shift, supply chain issues, and the triple bottom line - financial, social and environmental benefits of local food production.
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Co-Housing, Co-Living and Intentional Communities
MC- Pete Wild
“I think a huge generosity of spirit is required for harmony”. - Alexandra Seddon
Panel:
Nienke & Maike from Koorool (Tantawangalo)
Anna & Alexandra from Cowsnest (Candelo)
Jenny & Sue from Bend (Bega)
Monica from CoCo (Cobargo and surrounds)
Panelists will discuss the type of community they live in and will touch on the ideas of ownership, decision making, welcoming new people, money making, blame and responsibility; as well as bringing different personality types, income, aspirations, age, ethics and culture on the same journey.
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Ways to Participate in the Share Economy Panel
MC – Monica Considine, Co-co and Triangle Tool Library
“Reciprocity is at the heart of the ‘gift economy’ – how can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and ecological systems to reimagine currencies of exchange?” Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass
Panel:
Geoffrey Grigg, Triangle Tool Library
Dorte Planert, Boomarang Bags & The Repair Cafe
Robyn Martin, Candelo Go
The panel will discuss how to get uptake/sharing/volunteering, the cultural shift required for people to shift to the share economy and how they see the share economy evolving in the future.
Park Tent
10:30am - 11:30am
Build and Grow Your Sharing Economy
Geoffrey Grigg - Triangle Tool Library
11:30am - 12:30pm
Clean Energy for Eternity (CEFE) Home Solar-battery Case Study
David Howard
https://cleanenergyforeternity.net.au/
Clean Energy for Eternity has an impressive record of initiatives which have resulted in dozens of solar PV installations on community buildings across the South East of NSW. We have provided a focus for many many people who were not prepared to stand idly by as politicians failed to appreciate the significance of the climate crisis. We have organised town meetings, got councils to endorse our aspirational 50/50 by 2020 target, challenged skeptics in debate, been present at renewable energy expos and been successful in receiving grants from various government agencies to pioneer innovative approaches to growing the community energy sector.
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Regenerative Agriculture
Louise Rose (MEnvSt and MAgScience)
Climate change assessment and adaptation, water resources management, landscape assessment and regeneration and small mixed farming in the southern tablelands
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Yarnin
Graham Moore
https://www.facebook.com/begavalleyshirecouncil/videos/2720749618136910
Understanding Country: Roles, Responsibility and Place.
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Dan Morgan with Fire Sticks Australia
Indigenous Fire Management for Healthy Communities and Healthy Landscapes
https://www.firesticks.org.au/about/
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Circular Economy in the Bega Valley
Barry Irvin - Bega Cheese , Karin van Selm - Rabo Bank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2JV-p4ANJA
SCPA Tent
All Day
Bega Valley Seed Savers
Bega Valley Seed Savers is a volunteer group dedicated to growing and saving the seeds of non-hybrid and heirloom varieties of mostly edible plants.
We are part of the national Seed Savers network, that promotes and supports local networks to save, sort, dry, share, store, and distribute seeds. It is a living bank of plant varieties, as seeds only keep fresh if we keep growing them and eating them!
Some good reasons for us having a Local Seed Network (LSN):
Saved seeds are suited to local conditions as they are sourced and swapped locally, this also means the seed is often fresher.
By continuously selecting the best plants to save seed from we promote strains suitable to our region, and possibly even create some local varieties.
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Raw Milk - Why is the valley’s healiest food illegal?
Emily Stokes of Fermaculture Farm, Candelo
Description of what raw milk is, what pasteurised is. History of raw milk and why it’s an incredible health food. What is illegal and why. Some examples of how raw milk has healed adults and children. Then, the superior qualities of milk kefir, and how people can turn dead pasteurised milk back into a health food. Demo of how to use milk kefir and people can take a sample home (of kefir grains). How people can take action to access raw milk for themselves and their families.
12:45 pm – 1:45 pm
Blessed are the Cheesemakers
Lisa White from Niagra Lane
Cheese is one of the oldest ‘processed’ foods in the world. But what really goes into making cheese? How does one go from milk to curds and whey? In this short demonstration, we will cover the basics of making cheese, with feta as an example of the science and creativity of artisan cheese.
2:15 pm – 3:15 pm
TerraCycle®
Maree of Potoroo Palace
Community Collection Hubs are recycling stations that everyone can access to drop off items for TerraCycle’s free recycling programs.
TerraCycle® is a social enterprise Eliminating the Idea of Waste®. In 21 countries, we tackle the issue from many angles. We have found that nearly everything we touch can be recycled and collect typically non-recyclable items through national, first-of-their-kind recycling platforms.
Potoroo Palace’s aims are to educate, conserve and work together with community groups and organisations to achieve greater public awareness of the solutions to the problems facing our planet.
We have immense gratitude and respect for the First Peoples of this land and the depth of importance they placed on care for the environment. We would like to show people ways of living with native animals and valuing the big trees and wild places which are their homes.
We also aim to excite and inspire people about our native wildlife through education and by example, to show people that even as individuals we can all make a big difference by contributing to the protection of our natural world, those who inhabit and depend on it, and ultimately the quality of the world which our children will inherit.
3:15 pm – 4:15 pm
Sourcing Wild Meat
Chris Aitkin of Faraway Farm
How to procure, prepare and cook wild, foraged meat as a sustainable sources of nutrient-dense protein.