SoS is a five day camping conference for anyone interested in creating a more ecologically & socially sustainable world. It will be a week full of workshops and forums on a range of topics, demonstrating how theory and practice can be used to make positive social and environmental change.

SoS is completely organised by volunteers, mostly from the Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN)

The conference began in Canberra in 1991 under the name “Students, Science and Sustainability”. This first conference attracted 300 students to discuss matters of sustainability with respect to students and science.

Throughout the past twenty-one years, interest and enthusiasm for the conference has grown, and the number of participants has steadily and exponentially increased. As SoS moves around the country, it spreads its unique, life-affirming, change-making energy to the University and community that hosts it…

Each year students, community members, Indigenous activists, academics, public intellectuals, environmental educators and social change agents of all stripes and from all over Australia are invited to participate.

There is a range of educational, practical and participatory forums, workshops, excursions, entertainment and lots of time drinking chai with new friends.

The vision is to provide a conference that will bring together diverse groups of people to share inspiring and thought-provoking experiences, which encourage positive discussion and action aimed at creating ecological, political, economic and social sustainability in the world. SoS provides an opportunity for us to become empowered with the confidence, practical skills and motivation, required so that humanity can have a healthy relationship with the earth and all of its diverse ecosystems.

2012 will be the twenty-first year of the SoS Conference, and the second time since 1997 that the conference will be held in a regional area. The conference is being organised by a dedicated groups of students largely based in Bendigo and Melbourne. Around 500 hundred students and community delegates from all over Australia, representatives from a variety of universities, TAFEs, High Schools, business, government, and community groups are expected to participate in the conference.

[image= a map of the continent of Australia coloured in with different hues and shapes - showing Aboriginal nations instead of Australian federated states}

The Students of Sustainability (SoS) 2012 collective acknowledge and pay respects to the Indigenous nations and traditional caretakers of this land – past, present and future.

We recognise the sovereignty of every Indigenous nation on this continent – over five hundred nations whose sovereignty was never ceded upon European invasion.

We express solidarity and continued commitment to working with Indigenous peoples both in Australia and around the world in ongoing struggles for sovereignty, land rights, self-determination and the recognition of past and present injustices.

***

This website was compiled largely on the land of the Wurundjeri people, with the SoS 2012  conference to occur on Dja Dja Wurrung country.

map reference: David R Horton, creator, ©Aboriginal Studies Press, AIATSIS and Auslig/Sinclair, Knight, Merz, 1996.

Do you have a workshop you’d like to run?

How about a discussion group?

Is there an autonomous session you’d love to see happening?

Do you have information or ideas you’d like to share with participants?

If so, please email program@studentsofsustainability.org, leave a comment below or check back on this page at a later date for more information on how to submit a program event or activity.

*

For ideas of what SoS programs have looked like in the past, feel free to browse last year’s SOS 2011 Programme (click to download)

The majority of donations collected go towards making the conference run more smoothly, prioritizing the ability and comfort of Indigenous elders to come to the conference (whom we are often privileged to have attend), and to helping out people who might not otherwise be able to attend with financial support.

Or,

Would you or your organisation like to become a financial supporter of the student-run conference that is Students of Sustainability? The large majority or what we do is made possible by generous donations by our financial backers. We advertise financial backers’ support on our website and promotional material and are extremely grateful for their help.

To donate to SoS 2012, or to become a supporter, please contact the collective through info@studentsofsustainability.org

Many thanks, the 2012 Students of Sustainability Collective.

]]> http://studentsofsustainability.org/2012/would-you-like-to-become-a-supporter-of-or-donate-to-sos-2012/feed/ 0 http://studentsofsustainability.org/2012/conference-reader/ http://studentsofsustainability.org/2012/conference-reader/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:59:07 +0000 Students of Sustainability 2012 http://studentsofsustainability.org/?p=169

As usual for the Students of Sustainability conference, we’re putting together a reader as a companion to the week. The reader could contain inspiring histories and reflections, mind-blowingly radical ideas, incisive critiques of infuriating injustices etc etc. It’s really up to you!

If you’ve read (or written) something that you would like to see in the SOS 2012 reader, please submit your recommendations to info@studentsofsustainability.org or through a comment on this page as soon as possible, or by the 15th of June 2012 with either a link to the source, or a digital copy.

The reader will focus on themes of Indigenous sovereignty, environmental and social justice issues. Other themes to be advised soon.

Also if there is anyway we can make this site more accessible to you (eg/ for screen readers) etc. please comment below or email sosadmin@studentsofsustainability.org and we will endeavour to improve the site as soon as possible.

Thanks

The SoS 2012 organising collective

Please check back at a later date!

If you need a ride:

Post your name, email, phone number, where you are, whether you want a ride there and back or just one-way and whether you can chip in for petrol costs.

If you can give someone a lift:

Post your name, email, phone number, where you are, whether you can offer a lift there and back or just one-way and whether you require money for petrol.

OR contact people who place ads.  If you would like your ad removed email info@studentsofsustainability.org

Comments are moderated due to spam so don’t be concerned if it takes a while and please get in early to find a ride.