‘Field Notes’ is a weekly column through which Regen Melbourne’s Lead Convenors provide on-the-ground updates and insights from their work and focus areas.

If we want the Swimmable Birrarung to be realised, we need a couple of things: a shared, collaborative vision and some damn good stories. Swimmable Birrarung Lead Convenor, Charity Mosienyane, shares two recent reflections around communications and community that she has been hearing time and time again within the broader Birrarung collaborator ecosystem.

Over the last couple of months, two strong themes have been constantly coming up from the collaborators, actors and stakeholders involved with the wildly ambitious Swimmable Birrarung project. These reflections are vital to help us boost community engagement, alignment and advocacy – three key elements to building the desired future state of our beloved river.

Who is the Birrarung, and how do we tell her story?

Stories are important. As screenwriting legend Robert McKee says, “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.”

So how do we tell the Birrarung’s story? 

Through her own voice and point of view. Where has she come from? How is she faring right now? What are her hopes and dreams for the future? 

By way of example, here is a paraphrased version of what Carolyn Tate from Yarra Riverkeeper Association recently shared as a reframing for how we talk about the river:

“For decades, humanity has carelessly discharged stormwater and other pollutants into my very essence without consideration of how it affects me. Nonetheless, I have managed to ebb and flow and continue to give life to a third of Victoria’s wildlife and drinking water to 70% of Melburnians. I may not look and feel the way I want to, but I am still alive and I desperately need your help.”

This reframed language allows us to draw on our humanity, and to relate and engage with the Birrarung in a different way. It also has the power to influence how we respond to the needs and interests of the river when making decisions.

As part of my convenor role for a Swimmable Birrarung, I am now bringing this shift in how I talk about the river into my everyday work and seeing what impact it will have on the people around me.

Community is at the heart of transformation, so how can we collaborate better?

Just last week, I heard a leader in the catchment and waterways sector express the need to have a community-centric approach to regenerating the Birrarung. 

This was not an isolated reflection. Over the past year of convening, various partners and environmental/water leaders have expressed a desire to increase community collaboration in service of achieving the ambitious goal of creating a healthy, thriving Birrarung. 

In response to last year’s Yarra Strategic Plan Implementation Annual Report, the Yarra Riverkeeper Association – the largest independent advocacy group for the river – identified a lack of community voice in the strategy and recommended increased community participation at strategic and implementation levels of the plan.

I was recently on a call with Liz Weaver from the Tamarack Institute in Canada. One of the case studies she shared was around the transformation of a lower socio-economic area in the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Some of the actions they took included:

• Inviting community to provide solutions to addressing poverty, then uplifting some of these solutions and attributing them to the community 

• Equally sharing the convening role between community, government and NGOs doing the work 

• Managing perceptions to ensure that community was not seen as a threat but rather a much-needed voice in the transformation journey out of poverty

• Putting the citizen voice first. During town hall meetings, community representatives would speak first before other speakers, including government officials 

When it comes to applying these lessons to Swimmable Birrarung, the ecosystem is clearly communicating that a community-centric approach is required to achieve the vision. It becomes clear that transforming the river will require a lot of care, resources and commitment from all of us – and that together, we’re better. 

I have a profound respect for the community groups that have consistently shown up and worked tirelessly to transform the Birrarung, its tributaries and associated parklands. It’s a labour of love, and this critical work is often done behind the scenes and with limited resources and attribution. 

There is currently local and state government investment of resources directed towards transforming the river catchment to a healthy and thriving status. The opportunity is: how do we increase the love for the river, share resources and work together to see this life force thriving again? 

I would say we begin at the river. It is at the banks of the river where we can actually find common ground and agree that we have a shared goal. It is also worth reading the Yarra River 50 year community vision to remind us of what we could all be working towards. 

Every day, I’m sensing that we need to enable collective ways of working beyond organisational boundaries. I would like to explore what this looks like with the willingness to create a true community-centric environment in our work of transforming the river.

When it comes to collaborating with community, I am curious to know what has worked and hasn’t worked along the Birrarung. How do we learn and share previous and current successes and failures in the ecosystem? How do we move forward and learn out loud?

Caro, our Participatory Lead, is exploring how we promote participation on projects such as Swimmable Birrarung in service to regeneration. Please reach out at charity@regen.melbourne if you would like to continue this discussion.

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