2022 Bush Summit
Western Riverina Arts attended the fourth annual Daily Telegraph Bush Summit held in Griffith NSW on Friday the 26th of August. Promoted as an event that is “agenda-setting and policy-shifting with the ability to change things for the better in the bush”, it pulled together politicians, leaders and business owners to discuss challenges faced by regional communities.
This event commenced and concluded with First Nations Culture and artistic talents of Zavian Williams and Dookie Thorne. It was hosted in a prominent theatre that was facilitated by arts workers and technicians in front of a beautiful photographic backdrop. Yet, this national summit did not address either First Nations nor Arts and Culture as part of its official agenda. These were touched on in only a few passing, but critical comments.
Grace Brennan Founder of Buy from the Bush spoke on how her organisation had provided a vital platform for creatives and makers to supplement household incomes during tough times: “When we talk about crisis we often talk about floods or bushfires. But in drought, what I experienced was this very long, slow, creeping in of this collective depression. I think universally we might understand that a bit more now having lived through COVID. Drought felt a bit like COVID. As a result, there are households under enormous pressure. What I saw was women, especially, getting to work, hustling, diversifying, creating alternative income streams. That participation in the economy both sustains the household, but it also did something a little less tangible in terms of lifting up the spirits of the community at a very very important time. Obviously connectivity is important from a mental health perspective in terms of getting the services you need, when you need them… but it’s also about crisis-proofing communities by having enabled and empowered people, who are already diversifying so that when the next wave of crisis comes along, and the threat of severe mental health issues comes along, there’s more to life than just farming. There’s more to life than just those traditional industries.”
Jillian Kilby CEO and Founder of The Exchange and Chair of the Rural Advisory Panel reiterated the value of exploring other industries in the communique wrap up: “I think that a diverse regional economy is a sustainable, stable regional economy… 2019 drought, I set up a co-working space in Dubbo and we ran this training program, we flew an intern out from Stanford University and she ran a training course. The first three women to walk in the door said, ‘I’m here to start a business to get an off-farm income’. In a bad year as the crops are dying off, at least her customers won’t be dying off. The more diverse regional businesses that can be set up in country towns, the more regions take on the initiative to build their own resilience, the more longer lasting that resilience will be. When we see the Buy from the Bush movement allowing someone in Trangie to sell pearl earrings to New York, we are next level resilient in that community.”
The official communique of the Bush Summit outlined social infrastructure, exports, digital connectivity, water, biosecurity and resilience, natural disaster preparedness and recovery as the main outcomes from the talks needing to be addressed for bush communities. Western Riverina Arts would like to see the 2023 Bush Summit address the challenges faced to our nation’s creative industries which are worth $115.2 billion, or 6.3% of GDP and continually contributes to and supports these other industries in Regional Australia. We would also like to see Indigenous representation on panels with a central voice particularly concerning cultural heritage, water management and land care.
