On Country in Katalayna/Jordan River was the standout for me over the three days. This session shared the importance of the site to Aboriginal people and their struggle to protect the site from construction works to build a bypass. Understanding and learning how tools were sourced and their purpose, that message sticks were made and crafted from wood with carvings, painted symbols and decorative designs conveying messages and information between different Aboriginal groups across Tasmania. It was interesting to learn that the weather seasons influenced where Aboriginal people lived and how the environment, such as plants flowering or fruiting and animal behaviour patterns determined when to hunt or collect foods.

I was delighted to hear from community members, living in and contributing to their community of Kutalayna and Clarence Plains. Those members talked with passion about their communities, and how being involved in decision-making has had a profound effect on the individual, their neighbourhoods and their futures. These communities are achieving great things and were more than welcoming in sharing their learnings so that many communities across Australia can implement and grow place-based work.

Thank you so much to you- Shandel and Burnie Works! I guess that is my feedback - being a new recruit to Burnie Works through the Community Knowledge Project. I was super proud and excited to witness Burnie Works in action, and hearing feedback of your team's reputation from your network across the Nation. Best example was witnessing many examples of great leadership such as Rodney share and acknowledge his white-man privilege and the genuine cultural sensitivity, have-a go growth mindset and "good trouble" you lot can demonstrate! Such fun. Thank you.

My highlights included talking on the panel that discussed the power of storytelling in learning and evaluation, joining the storyteller's campfire session where I shared my story, connecting with people that I wouldn’t necessarily get the opportunity to like government contract managers, other place-based community members and service providers and spending time with my Burnie Works colleagues.

Charlotte Siddle from the Siddle Family Foundation made me reflect on how I “show up” in this work, and that there can’t be a disconnect between my professional role and what I bring as a person. The other real challenge was from Jandamarra Cadd who talked about having a seven generation impact.

The interactive hypothetical activity helped me to understand how community-led work works! The activity posed a hypothetical situation where a minister wanted a problem fixed (dropping school attendance rates) and committed money to build a program to solve that problem. A service provider was asked to deliver the program, philanthropy was then invited to help fund it, a government department was then tasked to work out how it would be implemented and finally they delivered it to the community. What is wrong with this picture? They didn’t go to community first! We should be working together to find out the deeper issues and what is really needed. This really made sense to me. We need to place people and their experiences at the centre of driving change. How can a program be designed for Burnie if the people designing it have not been to or talked to the people in Burnie?

What a thought provoking few days. Being new to this space, ChangeFest provided an opportunity to get comfortable with being uncomfortable in a safe and supportive environment. It highlighted how important this work is, what is needed to do this well and the big challenges we can be up against. I couldn’t be prouder of the two Knowledge Collectors who also joined us and completely immersed themselves in all the opportunities from sharing stories at a storytelling campfire in front of 25 strangers, presenting on a panel, endless networking, and input into how the hypothetical panel discussion would occur.

Change fest is always a great opportunity to learn from other communities around Australia, and I enjoyed the chance to see and learn about different ways of imagining and working towards to the future.