VANDANA SHIVA

Seeds of Life

Dr Vandana Shiva is one of the world’s most fearless voices for seed sovereignty, biodiversity, and the rights of farmers and communities to determine their own food futures. A physicist by training and an ecologist by calling, she has spent four decades challenging the corporate capture of our seeds, soils, and food systems — naming biopiracy for what it is and building living alternatives in its place. Founder of Navdanya, India’s seed-saving and organic farming movement, she has helped safeguard thousands of traditional seed varieties alongside hundreds of thousands of farmers. Author of more than twenty books, including her most recent The Nature of Nature (2024), and subject of the acclaimed documentary The Seeds of Vandana Shiva, she understands that ecological regeneration and human dignity are inseparable. Her work is a reminder that another way is not only possible — it is already being grown.

NATE HAGENS

The Great Simplification

Nate Hagens is one of the clearest systems thinkers mapping the intersection of energy, ecology, economics, and human behaviour. After a decade on Wall Street, he walked away from finance to study what fossil fuels have actually done to human civilisation — and what comes next.

He is Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future (ISEOF), host of the widely respected podcast The Great Simplification, and creator of an acclaimed animated series tracing the deep history of our current predicament.

Nate brings rigorous, wide-boundary thinking to the questions permaculture has always held: how do human societies adapt to living within planetary limits, and what does a lower-throughput, more relational future actually look like? His work is essential sensemaking for anyone designing the transition — and a powerful complement to the practical, place-based responses permaculture offers. He lives in Wisconsin.

STUART COWAN

Planetary Ecodesign

Dr. Stuart Cowan is a planetary ecodesigner and one of the most intellectually generative minds working at the intersection of living systems, regenerative finance, and civilisational possibility.

Co-author with Sim Van der Ryn of the landmark Ecological Design (Island Press) — a book that seeded a generation of ecological thinkers and practitioners — he holds a doctorate in Applied Mathematics from UC Berkeley grounded in Complex Systems and Ecological Economics. Stuart doesn’t just study how the world works; he designs conditions for how it could.

As Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, he carries forward Bucky’s great question: how do we make the world work for 100% of humanity without ecological offence? As founding convener of the Regenerative Communities Network, he walked alongside fifteen bioregions awakening to their own regenerative potential. His work spans ecological design, indigenous collaboration, regenerative cities, and transdisciplinary innovation — always in service of what wants to emerge.

Stuart brings to this festival a rare and luminous synthesis: the rigour of a scientist, the imagination of a designer, and the deep ecoliteracy of someone who knows that a world that works for all life is not a dream — it is a design challenge.

PERDITA FINN

Mothers of Magic

Perdita Finn is the author of Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World and is about to release Mothers of Magic: Summoning the Wisdom of Our Ancestors, . With her husband Clark Strand she wrote, The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary. Her daughter Sophie Strand is also a writer who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. She teaches popular workshops on connecting and collaborating with both the dead and the animate everything. She lives with her family in the moss-filled shadows of the Catskill Mountains.

LOUIS DE JAEGAR

Food forests, film and festivals

Louis De Jaeger is a Belgian landscape designer, award-winning filmmaker, author, and entrepreneur who moves fluently between the soil and the boardroom — designing regenerative futures that survive economics, regulation, and reality. As founder and CEO of Commensalist, he leads large-scale regenerative land projects worldwide, from food forests and productive farms to hospitality developments where ecology and long-term value reinforce each other. His award-winning food forest documentaries have brought agroecology to mainstream audiences across Europe, and his books — including Design Your Own Food Forest and SOS: Save Our Soils — have reached readers far beyond the permaculture world. Louis speaks regularly to governments, investors, and senior decision-makers on food systems and land use, and guides school children through the Belgian King’s private garden with equal care.

He is on a mission to regenerate 550 million hectares of land — and makes the case that regeneration is not a constraint but a strategic advantage. He lives and works in Belgium.

NATALIE TOPA

Water Resilience Design

Natalie Topa is a regenerative designer and agroecologist whose twenty years of field work span some of the most ecologically fragile landscapes on earth. Trained as an urban planner, her path shifted in 2005 in South Sudan, where she witnessed ecological collapse — degraded soils, broken hydrology, nutrient loss — as a root driver of humanitarian crisis. That recognition became her life’s work: helping communities heal the natural systems that sustain them. She trains farmers and pastoralists in passive water harvesting, bioswales, earthen dams, and watershed restoration, while championing seed sovereignty and chemical-free soil fertility through biochar, composting, and biofertilizer. Natalie also studies traditional foodways and indigenous crops wherever she travels, believing that restoring watersheds and feeding people beautifully are the same act of love — expressions of resilience, regeneration, and cultural memory made deliciously real.

AFSHAN OMAR

Afroecological Maternity Care

HANNAH MOLONEY

Why we garden

Hannah Moloney lives in a bright pink house in a permaculture garden, on a steep slope in nipaluna/Hobart . She is the lutruwita/Tasmanian host for ABC TV’s Gardening Australia (her dream gig), a permaculture educator, community worker, designer and best-selling author. She’s spent the past two decades getting her hands dirty in the garden, with community change projects, political and front line activism.  Founder of Good Life Permaculture, she teaches, designs, and advocates for a life rooted in place, food, community, and ecological care. 

Her latest book, Why We Garden: On the Joy and Wonder of Growing Things, Even When We Don’t Have To, asks one of the most beautifully permaculture questions imaginable — and answers it through conversations with politicians, artists, activists, and thousands of ordinary gardeners. Featuring voices including Tim Winton, Bruce Pascoe, and Bob Brown, it is a joyful, life-affirming exploration of nature, humanity, and belonging.

MANISH JAIN

Deschooling the world

Manish Jain is deeply committed to regenerating our diverse local knowledge systems and cultural imaginations and is one of the strong planetary voices for de-schooling our lives. He explores learning societies, unlearning, gift culture, community media, and tools for deep dialogue. He helped launch the global Ecoversities Network and is an advisory member of the Economics of Happiness network for localization.He lives in Udaipur, Rajasthan, in North India and works with a movement called Shikshantar, ‘The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development’.  He is also co-founder of Swaraj University – India’s first university dedicated to localization and was featured in the documentary Schooling the World.

He has been trying to unlearn his master’s degree in education from Harvard University and his BA in economics, international development, and political philosophy from Brown University. Manish is passionate about urban organic farming, filmmaking and slow food cooking.

CATE MCQUILLEN

Deliberate Optimism

Cate McQuillen is an Emmy Award-winning eco-educationalist, re-imagineer, storyteller, filmmaker, and founder of mememe productions — the creative force behind dirtgirlworld and Get Grubby TV, beloved by families across the globe. Her work takes sustainability far beyond the screen: the Get Grubby Program now reaches 3,000 schools and early childhood centres across 32 local government areas nationally, growing a generation of young people who know themselves as nature. Cate champions regenerative parenting, closes the childhood gap in disaster preparedness, and leads with the conviction that courage is better than hope. Named 2024 Northern Rivers Business Leader of the Year alongside multiple sustainability and business awards, Cate is the rare kind of practivist who can change the story of a generation — and make it seriously good fun. She is passionate about creating a sustainable screen industry and growing talent in the NSW Northern Rivers where she lives, especially for women. 

SAMANTHA SWEETWATER

The Earth Misses You

Samantha Sweetwater is a master facilitator, executive coach, soul mentor, and author of True Human: Reimagining Ourselves at the End of Our World — a poetic and unflinching companion for those who sense that personal transformation and our collective future are inseparable. For over three decades she has guided individuals and organisations across five continents through journeys of personal, cultural, ecological, and spiritual regeneration. As founder of Dancing Freedom, she sparked a global movement of embodied awakening, and as a seed farmer she learned the rigours of tending the real. Samantha works at the fertile nexus where kinship, ecological wisdom, and regenerative leadership converge. Her writing weaves philosophy, indigenous wisdom, and embodied practice into a living vision of what it means to become more deeply, courageously, and luminously human — and to co-create a world that works for all of life. She lives on unceded Southern Band Miwok territory.

MAZIN QUMSIYEH

Permaculture in Palestine

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh is a Palestinian scientist, author, and biodiversity educator whose life’s work demonstrates what it looks like to tend the land — and defend it — under the most difficult conditions on earth. A geneticist trained at Duke and Yale, he returned to his homeland in 2008 to found the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, donating his own award money to seed the work. His programs weave permaculture, ecotourism, and ecological education with women’s empowerment, youth leadership, and cultural heritage — growing biodiversity and community resilience together.

With over 150 scientific papers and multiple books on Palestinian natural history, human rights, and popular resistance, Mazin embodies the permaculture understanding that caring for people and caring for the earth are inseparable acts. Laureate of the Paul K. Feyerabend Award for solidarity and the Takreem Foundation Award for Environmental Sustainability, he offers a profound and living example of what it means to practise ecology as an act of love, belonging, and resistance.

BOULOS SAAD

Permaculture in Lebanon

Boulos Saad is a political ecologist and map-maker from the foothills of Mount Hermon. As his master’s thesis, he initiated Coalitions of Belonging, a project of collectively-sewing counter maps in tapestry form. Boulos helps run the Beirut Art Center, and previously co-directed Tariq El Nahl (Way of the Bees) Collective, working on participatory approaches to conservation through the cultivation of regional native botanical gardens, integrating traditional craft, herbalism, and the stories that bind us.

YARA WARD

Permaculture in Lebanon

Yara Ward is an agroecology practitioner, seed saver, and food sovereignty worker from Lebanon. She works on various projects through Jibal, a local organization for environmental and social justice, and is a part of the seed network HOBOB to support and advance the food sovereignty movement in Lebanon.

ANDREW MILLISON

Rehydrating the World

We’ll be watching and discussing his film, Fixing watersheds is how we fix the world

Andrew Millison is an agent for change who shares permaculture wisdom through expressions of art, design and multimedia storytelling. He creates films of epic permaculture projects across the planet and shares them on his wildly popular youtube channel. Some highlights are his series, “India’s Water Revolution”, featuring some of the most impactful large scale permaculture projects on the planet. Andrew is a speaker, designer and educator and as a member of the Horticulture Department, developed the permaculture program at Oregon State University (OSU).

TYSON YUNKAPORTA

How ancient stories guides us

Tyson Yunkaporta is an Indigenous skolar (Apalech clan (Wik) Lostmob Nungar) working with Indigenous Systems Knowledge and collective Indigenous inquiry methods inflected with complexity science to resolve global existential threats and issues in regenerative design responses to crises. Works across disciplines in literature/creative writing, sociology of religion (disinformation/conspirituality/IO’s), history, Indigenous Knowledges, psychology, environmental studies, architecture/engineering/Indigenous design and technology. Founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab. Author of Sand Talk, Right Story Wrong Story, Snake Talk.

He collaborated with Bundjalung man Jack Manning Bancroft to create a feature animation, Imagine, offering sage lessons for a generation seeking clarity in the chaos. The film features an impressive voice cast including Tyson, Yael Stone, Wayne Blair and guest performers Ian Thorpe and Taika Waititi – and even a cameo from Fritjof Capra.

Join our special post-festival screening of Imagine – register here.

MICHELLE MALONEY

Bioregions and Rights of Nature

Michelle Maloney (PhD) is an Australian Earth lawyer and advocate for bioregional and Earth-centred governance. She is the Co-Founder and National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Co-Founder and Director of Future Dreaming Australia, an Indigenous and non-Indigenous partnerships initiative; a UN Harmony with Nature Expert; a member of the Advisory Council of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and an Adjunct Fellow at UTS and Griffith University.

Michelle won an International Peace Women’s Award in 2024 and is widely recognised for her three decades of advocacy for climate action, Rights of Nature and First Laws, bioregioning and Earth-centred initiatives.

KATHARINE BURKE

Learning as Seed

DHEEPA JEYAPALAN

Transforming the public plate

Dheepa believes food is one of our most powerful tools for nourishing people, places, and the living systems we’re all part of. She recently led Regen Melbourne’s Nourished Neighbourhoods Earthshot and now co-leads Good Food Purchasing Australia, a new initiative pushing for food in our hospitals, aged care and other public settings to be nourishing, healing and joyful. A dietitian and public health practitioner by training, she’s also a yoga teacher with a soft spot for the slow, still depth of Yin practice.

MANDA SCOTT

Thrutopian Storytelling

Based in the borderlands between England and Wales—but a Scot at heart — Manda has been, variously, a veterinary surgeon, podcaster, acupuncturist, regenerative smallholder, columnist, homoeopath,  blogger, life coach, renegade economist, contemporary shamanic teacher  – and author of 16 novels, several screenplays and one non-fiction book. 

Her 2024 novel, Any Human Power, is a thrutopian thriller that explodes out of the old paradigm and into the new, blending page-turning thriller action with a new mythology, but updated for a contemporary world hovering on the brink of the meta-crisis.  The novel is a powerful call to action, offering hope for a different, generative, equitable and just way forward.

Thrutopia explores how, as the old story crumbles under the weight of its own contradictions, we can build something grounded in the raw material of the human spirit — real enough to be obvious, brilliant enough to be worthwhile, courageous enough to work.

Manda is working on a new book and is the host of the wonderful podcast, Accidental Gods

https://mandascott.co.uk/

https://thrutopia.life/

PELLA THIEL

Creating a bioregional embassy 

Pella Thiel is a Swedish ecologist, educator, and advocate for the rights of nature. She co-founded End Ecocide Sweden and Transition Sweden, working to integrate ecological perspectives into legal and societal frameworks. As a UN Harmony with Nature expert and author of Naturlagen, Pella promotes Earth-centered governance and has been instrumental in advancing the recognition of ecocide as an international crime. Her efforts have earned her accolades, including the 2023 Martin Luther King Prize and WWF Sweden’s Environmental Hero of the Year in 2019. Through her work, Pella inspires a shift towards a more harmonious relationship between humanity and the natural world.

She is creating the bioregional Embassy of the Baltic Sea focussing on interconnected wellbeing of human society and nature in the Baltic Sea watershed, through recognition of the rights of the sea to flourish, and representation of its more-than-human voices in decision-making.

https://embassybalticsea.com/

https://pellathiel.se/

MARY REYNOLDS

Acts of Restorative Kindness to the Earth

Mary Reynolds is an reformed Irish landscape designer turned nature activist, renowned for her transformative approach to gardening and land stewardship. In 2002, she became the youngest contestant to win a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show with her Celtic Sanctuary garden, a journey later depicted in the 2016 film Dare to Be Wild. 

As the founder of the global movement “We Are the ARK” (Acts of Restorative Kindness), Mary advocates for returning gardens and public spaces to nature, promoting biodiversity and ecological restoration. Her philosophy encourages individuals to become guardians of their land, fostering habitats where native flora and fauna can thrive. ​

Mary is also the author of The Garden Awakening and We Are the ARK, where she shares insights on rewilding and sustainable gardening practices. Through her writings and activism, she inspires a harmonious relationship with the natural world, emphasizing the importance of co-creating with nature to heal the planet.

MEGAN BANDA

Afroecology: Healing the Land, Healing Ourselves via Creativity 

This talk explores Afroecology as a living practice that reconnects land, culture, and community through ancestral knowledge systems. Grounded in work in Malawi, including healing gardens and regenerative design, it reflects on how restoring ecosystems is inseparable from restoring ourselves. Centering the principle that healing the land and healing ourselves are intertwined processes, the presentation invites a reimagining of permaculture through an African lens, where food systems, medicine, and art emerge from a deep relationship with place, memory, and identity.

Megan Banda is a visual artist who explores ancestral pathways that keep us connected to the Earth and to each other. As an Afrofuturist thinker she is a strong believer that we must re-Indigenize those parts of our lives and communities that were erased by colonialism. 

Currently, she is discovering alternative philosophies for environmental art practices by focusing on regenerative agriculture. This intersection of art and ecology pours different techniques into her creative practice, such as textile and garden pattern design, poetry, collage, street art etc. 

Her childhood experience was shaped by the rich natural environment of her home country, Malawi also known as, the Warm Heart of Africa. Malawi’s landscapes ranging from rivers and lakes to forests and mountains, have nurtured her artistic exploration by providing endless inspiration and fueling her curiosity for understanding how to preserve/regenerate the natural forces that nourish us.

ROSEMARY MORROW

Permaculture as radical care

Rosemary Morrow is a leader and elder in the permaculture movement, with decades of experience in sustainable land management and community development.

For almost 40 years Rowe has worked extensively with farmers and villagers in Africa, Central and South East Asia and Eastern Europe, especially dedicating the last few years to refugees in camps – the people of war-torn nations such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Uganda, Syria Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Kurdistan and East Timor, and to communities experiencing the serious effects of climate change like the Solomon Islands, and the effects of the GFC, like Spain, Greece and Portugal. 

Rosemary is the founder of Permaculture for Refugees, author of Earth Restorer’s Guide to Permaculture (formerly Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture), a comprehensive manual that offers practical solutions for land restoration and self-reliance. She also co-founded the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute in Australia, fostering environmental and social resilience through education.

A passionate advocate for permaculture in refugee camps, Rosemary has demonstrated the power of regenerative practices in challenging environments. Her life’s work continues to inspire communities worldwide to live more harmoniously with nature, making her a beloved figure in the permaculture community.

ALFRED DECKER

Permaculture in times of war – stories from Lebanon and Palestine

RUPERT READ

Thrutopian Stories & Climate Majority Project

Rupert Read is an environmental philosopher, public intellectual, and author deeply engaged in addressing the challenges of climate change.

Rupert is founder and co-director of the Climate Majority Project which is where he dedicates his focus now. The Climate Majority Project, he says, is for anyone and everyone who is serious about taking action on this existential threat that now faces us, but doesn’t want to glue themselves to anything.

He has been a Professor of Philosophy, an XR spokesperson playing a major role in the 2019 London campaign, a Green Party councillor, has regular appearances on BBC, and central to the UK parliament to be the first in the world to declare a climate emergency.

Rupert has also contributed to various publications, including The Guardian and The Ecologist.

His work emphasizes the urgency of reimagining societal structures to foster resilience and healing in the face of environmental crises.

In November 2024, he co-wrote Transformative Adaptation: Another World Is Still Just Possible published by Permanent Publications .This book introduces the concept of Transformative Adaptation (TrAd), advocating for systemic societal changes to better navigate and mitigate the impacts of climate breakdown.

MADDY HARLAND

Wilding Permaculture & Publishing

Maddy Harland is a passionate permaculture teacher, author, and advocate for sustainable living. In 1990, she co-founded Permanent Publications with her late husband, Tim, a venture that has been dedicated to sharing permaculture wisdom with the world – well over 100 permaculture books published.

A couple of years later, they launched Permaculture Magazine, which has become a cherished resource for so many in the global permaculture community. 

Maddy’s deep connection to the land shines through her work in rewilding and woodland care. Together with Tim, she designed and planted one of the UK’s oldest forest gardens, transforming a bare field into a thriving, edible landscape. In her new home in North Devon, she is caring for a beautiful woodland and focussing on supporting biodiversity and rewilding.

Maddy’s book, Fertile Edges—Regenerating Land, Culture, and Hope, reflects her life’s work in land regeneration. Through her writing, teaching, and conservation efforts, Maddy continues to inspire others to live more harmoniously with the Earth.

ROB HOPKINS

How to Fall in Love with the Future

Rob Hopkins is a creative visionary and a driving force behind the global transition movement. As the co-founder of Transition Towns, he has inspired communities around the world to reimagine a more resilient, localized, and regenerative future.

A passionate storyteller and changemaker, Rob believes in the power of imagination to spark real-world solutions to the climate crisis. His latest book, How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World explores how rekindling our collective imagination can help us shape a better tomorrow. With his infectious enthusiasm and deep commitment to community-led change, Rob brings hope, creativity, and action to every conversation.

He is an Ashoka Fellow, a TED Global and TEDx speaker and appeared in the French film phenomenon, Demain. He holds a PhD from Uiversity of Plymouth, hosts the podcast, From What is to What Next His collaborative music project with artist Mr Kit, Field Recordings from the Future is now available

robhopkins.net

MATTIAS OLSSON

Radical kindness in film

Mattias Olsson, is the creator of Campfire Stories – a platform for film, sort of in the same way that Netflix is. But, if you imagine Netflix to be the supermarket on the edge of town, Campfire Stories is more like a veggie stand by a country road.

Before Mattias founded Campfire Stories, he was a documentary filmmaker with Swedish National Television and worked as a photographer in New York.

The films and podcast episodes presented at Campfire Stories focus on solutions and on the root cause of the troubles of our times. They aim to challenge the general feeling of “I’m just one person, what does it matter what I do?”

Mattias shares films and podcast episodes to inspire change towards ecological balance, human sanity and an alive future. He lives in Sweden with his family, on a little farm, and makes films about his local area.

We will be sharing 3 of Mattias’ films during the Festival.

EMMA-KATE ROSE

Transforming the public plate

Emma-Kate (or EK for short) is currently the Executive Director of the Food Connect Foundation drawing on over 30 years’ experience working in community, business, social enterprise, climate change activism, food justice and bottom-up economic development.

She joined Food Connect in 2009 as General Manager, and co-founded Food Connect Foundation and Food Connect Shed – a community-owned local food hub.

EK holds a Bachelor of Justice Studies, is a Fellow of the Yunus Centre for Social Business at Griffith University, and past-President of the Queensland Social Enterprise Council.

She is currnently collaborating on the Transforming the Plate project in Australia.

FRITJOF CAPRA

The Principles of Life

Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., is an acclaimed scientist, educator, activist, and author of many international bestsellers (The Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, Th Web of Life, The Hidden Connections, The Science of Leonardo) , that connect conceptual changes in science with broader changes in worldview and values in society. 

Fritjof is also the co-author of Systems View of Life: A unifying vision published by Cambridge University Press and teaches an online course based on this book, Capra Course.

He’s a Schumacher College Fellow and a council member of Earth Charter International, and a deep ecologist. Fritjof recognises the importance of systemic permaculture responses to address the multiple crises humanity faces. He lives in Berkeley California with his wife and daughter.

In this session, Fritjof Capra shares his systemic principles of life which he developed over the last few years. Fritjof found this new language summarizing his synthesis of the systems view of life in conversations with the students of his online Capra Course.

DANIEL CHRISTIAN WAHL

Bioregioning

Daniel Christian Wahl – international educator, consultant, speaker, activist, advisor, author, podcaster, grower based on Majorca with his family – spending much of his time establishing his food forest – a demonstration site for the bioregion.

He is the author of Designing Regenerative Cultures – so far translated into eight languages.

He has been linked with the Global Ecovillage Network for 20 years and has worked closely with Gaia Education since 2007.

Daniel is one of the catalysts of the Coming Home to Life podcast supported by the Arne Naess Foundation, and previously the ReGeneration Rising Podcast .

He lives on Majorca with his wife and daughter,  He has been linked with the Global Ecovillage Nework for 20 years and has worked closely with Gaia Education.

Daniel was awarded the RSA Bicentenary Medal for “an outstanding and demonstrable contribution, through … design practice, towards an equitable and regenerative world. He taught regularly at Schumacher College and collaborated to host the Designing Resilient Regenerative Systems MOOC 4 times.

SATISH KUMAR

Peace is Possible

Satish Kumar (now almost 90) is a world-renown author and international speaker, peace-pilgrim, life-long activist, and former monk. He is recognised for his lifelong commitment to peace, ecology, and social justice – with a strong focus on our relationship with food and farming. Satish is a great advocate for permaculture.

He became a Jain monk at the age of nine, dedicating his early life to spiritual pursuits. At eighteen, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings on non-violence and land reform, he left the monastic life to join Vinoba Bhave’s movement advocating for social change in India.

In 1962, he undertook a pilgrimage for peace, walking for two years without money from India to America for the cause of nuclear disarmament. He is founder of The Resurgence Trust and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist – a beautiful magazine he edited for over 40 years. He is also the co-founder of the iconic ecological education centre in Dartington, Schumacher College – currently raising funds for a new home.

HELENA NORBERG-HODGE

Localisation

Helena Norberg-Hodge, linguist, author, and filmmaker, is a visionary leader and pioneer in the new economy movement. Founder of Local Futures and convener of World Localisation Day, she champions community resilience and the revitalisation of traditional wisdom.

Her seminal work, Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh and award-winning documentary, The Economics of Happiness, have inspired global localisation movements. Ancient Futures was translated into 40 languages. Her team also created the Localization Action Guide. Visit Local Futures for all the films and publications available.

Helena co-founded both the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Right Livelihood Award (aka the “Alternative Nobel Prize”), the Arthur Morgan Award and the Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”

BRENNA QUINLAN

Permaculture Artivism

Brenna Quinlan is an illustrator, educator, and climate communicator whose vibrant, accessible artwork brings permaculture, sustainability, and climate justice to life. Based in an intentional community in Denmark, Western Australia, she and her partner, musician and storyteller Charlie Mgee (of Formidable Vegetable), live what they teach—growing food, making music, and co-creating solutions.

Together, Brenna and Charlie hand-built their strawbale home using reclaimed materials and co-founded Grow Do It Permaculture Education, a joyful, creative initiative sharing practical tools for regeneration through art, music, and storytelling.

Brenna’s illustrations have featured in books, classrooms, and campaigns globally, translating complex issues into clear, empowering visuals. She illustrated Retrosuburbia and has collaborated with the UN, the Red Cross, and Costa Georgiadis, and is the artist behind the Permaculture Action Cards and Costa’s World children’s books. Her work invites people of all ages to engage with climate solutions through creativity, care, and connection.

ANSIIMA CASINGA ROLANDE

Creating permaculture learning centres

Ansiima Casinga Rolande is a Congolese award-winning permaculture trainer living in Uganda and founder of FOLONA (For the Love of Nature), dedicated to empowering refugees, particularly women, youths and children, in the Nakivale camp . She promotes community resilience through permaculture design and education, and is involved in international knowledge-sharing networks. With her team Rolande dreams of achieving self-reliance for all the refugees to live with dignity.

She is a graduate of the Permaculture Education Institute and lead member of the Permayouth team in East Africa supported by the Ethos Foundation. She presented at the International Permaculture Convergence in Taiwan, works with Re-Alliance and is an Ethos Fellow, BeVisioneers Fellow and AMAHOHO Fellow

MAIA RAYMOND

Festival Co-host

From an ecovillage in Australia, Maia Raymond (Morag’s daughter) is a 19 year old graduate of Australian National University’s Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics degree with linguistics major. She first completed a permaculture course in Uganda when she was 12, and at 13 studied Warm Data with Nora Bateson and became  the youngest ever Warm Data host offering programs for youth.

She is a podcaster and [pr]activist exploring the interdependencies between climate action, linguistics, artivism and philosophy. One of the co-founders of Permayouth, she experiments with what it means to create a space for young people to explore permaculture in meaningful and practical ways. 

 MORAG GAMBLE

Myceliating humanKINDness

Morag Gamble is the host and curator of this annual Festival of Wild and Kind Ideas, founder of the Permaculture Education Institute – mentoring permaculture designers, educators and leaders around the word, and leads the Ethos Foundation supporting youth and women in the fair share ethic of permaculture.

Morag is anan international permaculture educator, presenter, humanitarian, writer, podcaster, blogger, filmmaker, designer and gardener. In all of her work, Morag explores how we can live more peacefully and simply, and with kindness so that we may thrive together on this beautiful planet – as humanKIND. She has led programs on 5 continents, over a span of 35 years. She has collaborated with incredible thinkers and activists across the planet, taught in communities and universities worldwide, and reached millions through her youtube Our Permaculture Life, courses and podcast Sense-Making in a Changing World – enacouraging people to join the practical permaculture [re]volution.

She was a student and teacher at Schumacher College, collaborates with Helena Norberg-Hodge, Jeremy Lent and Fritjof Capra – co-ordinating the international Capra Course alumni network and annual World Localization Day events. She is an advisory member of the Institute for Deep Ecology, and active in the Ecocivilization Coalition, Re-Alliance, Permaculture for Refugees, Permaculture Australia and Permaculture UK.

NORA BATESON

Who can I be when I am with you?

Nora Bateson is an eminent multi-generational systems thinker, award-winning filmmaker, research designer, educator, international speaker and writer – creator founder of Warm Data theory and practices- describing information that is alive.

Her work asks the question “How we can improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?” and “Who can I be when I am with you, and who can you be when you’re with me?“

Her books include Small Arcs, Combining and soon to be released, Belly. She navigates the complexities of our interconnected world with intergenerational insight and clarity.

As the President of the International Bateson Institute based in Sweden, she tends dialogue on ecology, culture, and education. Nora’s father, Gregory Bateson, considered a leading figure of ecological thinking of the past century,  is the subject of her award-winning documentary, “An Ecology of Mind,”. 

JEREMY LENT

Ecological Civilization

Jeremy Lent, described by Guardian journalist George Monbiot as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age,” is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. His new book, Ecocivilzation: Making a World that Works for All is coming out on May 26th!

His ealier award-winning book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, examines the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day. His more recent award-winning The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe offers a solid foundation for an integrative worldview that could lead humanity to a sustainable, flourishing future.

Lent is the founder and host of the Deep Transformation Network, an online global community of over 5,000 members exploring pathways toward a life-affirming future on a regenerated Earth. Lent has written extensively about the vision and specifics of an ecological civilization, and is a founding member of the Ecocivilization Coalition, a worldwide alliance of changemakers coming together to act as a transformation catalyst in service of this potential future. 

CHARLIE MGEE

Permaculture Artivism

Charlie Mgee is an extraordinary musician – Glastonbury performer, educator, and eco-troubadour best known as the frontman of the regenerative funk-swing band Formidable Vegetable and the creator of our theme song, Get Together. With infectious songs rooted in permaculture principles, Charlie has brought climate solutions to global audiences at festivals like Glastonbury, BOOM, and Woodford Folk Festival—sharing stages with acts like Radiohead and The Rolling Stones.

In his TEDx talk, More than a tune: Make music with purpose, change your world, Charlie explored how music can simplify complex ideas and spark collective action. His lyrics are both playful and profound, offering a soundtrack for the regenerative movement.

Together with his partner, illustrator Brenna Quinlan, Charlie co-founded Grow Do It Permaculture Education, and hand-built their strawbale home from reclaimed materials. Whether on stage or in the garden, Charlie uses rhythm and rhyme to spark curiosity and connection—reminding us that climate action can be creative, joyful, and rooted in community.