Changemakers - Exploring the world of social change

Jean Hinchliffe – ChangeMaker Chat

March 2, 2021 Zander Czerwaniw

What does it take for a teenager to turn into a planet defender? Jean Hinchliffe is a climate campaigner and a new author of activist handbook Lead the Way. Today she talks about her activist journey and the lessons she has learnt about making powerful change. Jean actively campaigns for legislative action against the sourcing and usage of fossil fuels in the fight for Australia to become fully carbon neutral. Jean is passionate about social, political, and environmental issues and…

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ChangeMakers’ Essential Listens

February 24, 2021 Amanda Tattersall

It’s February and the year has properly started. We know you are probably thinking – ‘gosh I really wish I could get some more inspiration for these tricky times.’ Don’t worry, we have you covered! We would like to present the 2021 ChangeMakers Listening Guide. Five top episodes (or series) to lift your spirits and remind you about how change is possible. The Battle for Standing Rock that stopped the Keystone Pipeline (this month!) Here Indigenous leaders from across the…

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Michelle Meagher Change Maker Chat

November 30, 2020 Ben Keating

The power of our largest corporations is all around, but what happens if a corporate foot soldier decides – “enough.” Then uses her inside knowledge to teach people like you and me how to level the playing field? Michelle Meagher is a corporate lawyer and now whistleblower on the system ready to share lessons and insights about how to dramatically change market power. Join our weekly email list to hear our latest musings, podcasts and training. Click on this button…

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Adam Barbanel-Fried Change Maker Chat

November 23, 2020 Ben Keating

Can we use old social change strategies like one to one relationships to make electoral politics different? Adam Barbanel-Fried and his organisation Changing the Conversation Together did exactly this in the 2020 US Election. As a long time community organiser he used Deep Canvassing – door to door conversations that could help voters interpret the election through the eyes of those who they love. The strategy proved to be a powerful antidote to Trump’s Presidency. Adam shares his journey that…

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#30 Kabul Peace House

November 16, 2020 Ben Keating

During the 2000s, in the mountains of central Afghanistan, a remarkable but unlikely peace movement began. How did they even define peace in a place beset by war, and how did they organise themselves to work towards this audacious goal? Listen to the episode on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify or most podcast apps. ChangeMakers Podcast · #30 Kabul Peace House Short video clip about Afghanistan and book: Hardie Grant: https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/the-kabul-peace-house-by-mark-isaacs/9781743793152 Reviews: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/non-fiction-reviews-the-kabul-peace-house-and-three-other-books-20190627-p521xl.html Donations: https://www.erc.org.au/afghan_project Join our weekly email list to hear…

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How the US Election is all about Community Organising

October 14, 2020 Ben Keating

While the drama of the President’s coronavirus diagnosis, “Red Mirages and Blue Shifts” and stolen postboxes are catching the headlines in the US Elections, it is community organising that is likely to make or break the result for the Democrats (and let’s face it – for democracy). Even before COVID-19, two new (old) approaches to social change were adapted to electoral politics. One is called Deep Canvassing and the other Relational Organising. COVID-19 created barriers to door-to-door outreach that saw…

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Steve Killelea Change Maker Chat

October 12, 2020 Ben Keating

ChangeMakers Podcast · Steve Killelea – ChangeMaker Chat Steve Killelea is one of Australia’s most successful businessmen and a self-described peace maker! In this Chat we talk about why he combined these two passions. We explore how his peace work developed from an idea hatched while working in Africa, to creating the largest index for peace in the world! Join our weekly email list to hear our latest musings, podcasts and training. Click on this button to subscribe:

We need a Real Deal from the Australian Budget

October 6, 2020 Ben Keating

It’s budget day. While traditionally a nerd’s holiday – this budget matters. Globally nations are slipping into depression. In Australia unemployment is as high as it’s been since the Great Depression. This year’s budget is a reckoning. In my work outside of ChangeMakers, I’ve been part of an extraordinary coalition of organisations asking this exact question. In May 2019 in the weeks after the last Federal Election a group of organisations led by the University of Sydney’s Policy Lab (where…

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We’ve all been in this together. Now let’s get out of it together.

September 28, 2020 Amanda Tattersall

As the pandemic descended on Australia we were told that we were ‘all in this together.’ For a time, politicians lived up to that. Political leaders reached across partisan divides on policy. In March, there was even unity between Gladys Berijiklian and Daniel Andrews. The new National Cabinet process emphasised consensus over division. Old ideological habits dropped away too, with the parties cohering around a plan to protect lives and livelihoods and then to build back better after the pandemic….

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Mike Gecan – Change Maker Chat

September 20, 2020 Ben Keating

Mike Gecan is a 45 year veteran organiser based in the United States. He is the former National Co-Director of the first, largest and oldest community organising network in the world – the Industrial Areas Foundation. He talks to us about what organising is, and what it is not. He shares stories about how he learnt about power, and explores some of the differences between social change traditions like mobilising and organising. He also gives us a fresh take on…

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