Join me and Dr Millie Rooney as we dive into her explorations of how people imagine the future in Australia, and the new stories people are dreaming of. It’s a great pleasure to share this Sense-Making in a Changing World podcast episode with you, and to catch up with my friend Millie. Click below to watch, or you can also listen to the audio version here.
Millie is the National Coordinator for Australia reMADE, a vision-based collaboration of everyday people and community leaders working to build a country where people and planet come first. As a kid she spent hours collecting toothbrushes outside supermarkets for Gulf War refugees and, although wasn’t allowed to watch movies for fear of scary themes like ‘divorce’, was aware from a young age of scarier things like ‘war’. As a result Millie’s dream was to become a butterfly dancer on stilts, catch the eye of a journalist and make it to the front page of the paper so that there could be some good news for once. Is it any surprise she ended up involved in Australia reMADE?
Millie grew up in Canberra on Ngunnawal country and although now calls Tasmania home, she misses the dry scrappy dirt, the warble of the magpies and the smooth, flat bike paths.
Millie has worked as an environment officer at both the Australian National University and the University of Tasmania. She has constantly worked off the principle of ‘delight not fright’ which has resulted in Celebrate Sustainability Days, visions for student-led campus transformation and an award winning student sustainability internship program.
Millie’s PhD was an exploration into the social norms that determine our ability as Australian’s to share, or not, with our neighbours.
Some of the programs of Australia ReMADE helping us to re-imagine the future.
Other interesting links Millie suggests you look at: