Towards Eudaemonia
A Season on the Mountain, learning, connecting, feeling.
Eudæmonia is a state that results from living well…
(…or being seized by a nature spirit).
(…or being seized by a nature spirit).
In a state of Eudæmonia one finds self-discovery and expression, purpose in life, intense enjoyment and full presence in one’s activities. Eudæmonia does not arise from the ‘little self’ (or ego), but by getting the self “out of the way”, and allowing nature’s forms, feel and intent to wash through us. Eudæmonia is what we feel when we connect with nature.
This series of weekend offerings on the beautiful and mysterious Mt Tarrengower is designed to bring you closer to nature and to yourself. The series is presented in association with the Maldon Neighbourhood Centre.
Each day is a conversation built around a walk, a meal, and a mountain. Amongst the offerings there is a mix of the ecological and the esoteric, that will enrich and challenge your vision of the world. Most of us have grown up in a world tainted by the tragedy of separation. There are humans, and human concerns, and there is nature – out there, somehow distant and other. As little as one hundred years ago, the vast majority of humans lived in profound relationship with the natural world; awake to its seasons and moods; awake to the life-and-death entanglement of our place in it; awake to the animate.
Modernity has ‘disenchanted’ the world. What was mysterious, alive, and full of intention, is now reduced in our society-mind to a machine: a complex machine to be sure, but one who’s secrets can and will be cracked open for human exploitation. In our materialist society, the beauty, the complexity of nature has no value beyond its utility to humans and their never-ending quest for ease, comfort and to be one-up on the neighbours.
This season of ‘Towards Eudæmonia’ seeks to build small bridges back to belonging, feeling and harmony. The way is not always easy, and the path to Nostos (homecoming) passes close by some of the many-headed monsters and whirlpools we have spent our lives pretending we don’t see, and don’t feel. We are aware of the dangers, and those who come with us into monster territory will be held, cared for, and set back on the path in one piece. Better, we think, to face the monsters on a mountain with warriors than alone, in your bed, with a pillow over your head.
But having said that, there are many offerings that stick to calm waters and stray only a little off well-trodden paths.
This series of weekend offerings on the beautiful and mysterious Mt Tarrengower is designed to bring you closer to nature and to yourself. The series is presented in association with the Maldon Neighbourhood Centre.
Each day is a conversation built around a walk, a meal, and a mountain. Amongst the offerings there is a mix of the ecological and the esoteric, that will enrich and challenge your vision of the world. Most of us have grown up in a world tainted by the tragedy of separation. There are humans, and human concerns, and there is nature – out there, somehow distant and other. As little as one hundred years ago, the vast majority of humans lived in profound relationship with the natural world; awake to its seasons and moods; awake to the life-and-death entanglement of our place in it; awake to the animate.
Modernity has ‘disenchanted’ the world. What was mysterious, alive, and full of intention, is now reduced in our society-mind to a machine: a complex machine to be sure, but one who’s secrets can and will be cracked open for human exploitation. In our materialist society, the beauty, the complexity of nature has no value beyond its utility to humans and their never-ending quest for ease, comfort and to be one-up on the neighbours.
This season of ‘Towards Eudæmonia’ seeks to build small bridges back to belonging, feeling and harmony. The way is not always easy, and the path to Nostos (homecoming) passes close by some of the many-headed monsters and whirlpools we have spent our lives pretending we don’t see, and don’t feel. We are aware of the dangers, and those who come with us into monster territory will be held, cared for, and set back on the path in one piece. Better, we think, to face the monsters on a mountain with warriors than alone, in your bed, with a pillow over your head.
But having said that, there are many offerings that stick to calm waters and stray only a little off well-trodden paths.
Events
Presenters/Guides
Peter Yates is the originator and curator of this season of Eudaemonia. Peter has lived on the northern shoulder of Mt Tarrengower for eleven years, walking its secret paths most days. He knows the Australian bush as few of settler origin do, having walked the deserts with camels, and worked with Aboriginal people in Central and Northern Australia over two decades. Peter is an anthropologist with a keen interest in the mythopoetic connection between people and land, but you might know him better as the purveyor of delicious garlic at your local farmer’s market.
Events Persephone synchronous-listening night walk / Sept 29th A Day of Connections: Walking with the Right Brain / Oct 1st 
Eleni Rivers is an artist, teacher, and consultant. Eleni Rivers’ works reflect a captivation with nature and an allure with its enormity, diversity and ingenuity. Derived from a need to balance her civilised self with her primal essence, Eleni's artistic work pursues an intuitive understanding of our position within our present circumstances, as well as the world at large.
Events Co-convener of The Dao of Civilisation & Ecological Literature Study Group / Ongoing In Praise of a Mountain / Sept 29th 
Sarah Taylor is an artist, farmer and mother. Sarah was born on Anaiwan country and she now lives and works on Djaara Country.
Events In Praise of a Mountain / Sept 29th Persephone synchronous-listening night walk / Sept 29th |
Jess Szigethy-Gyula is an artist, botanist and farmer who has the (in our times rare) good fortune to take on the stewardship of the land where she grew up. For her botanical work she has conducted flora surveys in northern rainforests, outback rangelands and from seashores to snowy mountaintops, always intrigued by the distribution of plant species and ecosystems and how they respond to disturbance and change. For Jess, returning to live on the lands and forests of the Macedon Ranges has been a source of joy as she weaves artistic expression and spiritual connection with a deep concern for biodiversity and sustainable farming practices as well as contemporary ways of deep care for self, country and community.
Events A Day of Connections: Nature's Design / Oct 1st 
Freya Mathews is a grandmother, land carer, and Emeritus Professor of Environmental Philosophy at Latrobe University. She is the author of over a hundred books, articles and essays on ecophilosophy. Her new book, The Dao of Civilization: a Letter to China, is due out early in 2023. She lives in Melbourne on Wurrundjeri Country but also has a long association with a conservation property north of Inglewood.
Events The Dao of Civilisation Lecture @ Castlemaine Free University / Oct 2nd 
Jem Gay (they/he) was born on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung lands and now resides on Djaara Country, Castlemaine. Jem has a broad experience as both a mindful movement facilitator and an educator. They work across trauma and community informed yoga, somatic movement and meditation. They also have experience in tertiary environmental education and community development.
Currently, their primary focus is exploring: How does a connection to the more than human world (nature) help navigate troubling times? They are passionate about using movement and meditation as a form of storytelling. Events In Praise of a Mountain / Sept 29th |
Andrew Skeoch is an educator, naturalist, environmental thinker, and one of Australia's best-known nature sound recordists.
In 1993, he established the independent label Listening Earth to publish immersive nature soundscape recordings, work which has since taken him around the world documenting the sounds of threatened ecosystems. His presentations seek to address the fundamental questions of our human relationship with the living biosphere, and have been given at TedX, on ABC Radio’s ‘Big Ideas’, and to academic and community audiences. Events Deep Listening to the Natural World / Sept 30th 
Dr Ross Colliver is a custodian and advocate for 120 hectares of bushland near Riddells Creek. He is currently negotiating the tricky transition from ‘work as money’ to ‘work as living’. After five decades facilitating and consulting, his next big thing is learning how to grow local capacity to shift systems, practice and ways of thinking fast. This workshop draws on his recent work in peer-to-peer learning in landcare and regenerative agriculture, and his own experience living in the Riddells Creek community.
Events Co-convener of The Dao of Civilisation & Ecological Literature Study Group / Ongoing 
Kirsten Moegerlein is an artist, researcher and designer. Kirsten's creative practice centres around the question: what seeds of culture do we need to cultivate now, given what is unfolding in the world? She loves to host and hold space for rich conversation, creative practice and playful experiments.
Events In Praise of a Mountain / Sept 29th |
Ecological Literature Study Group 2023-24
Towards Eudaemonia offers a bi-monthly ecological literature study group in Castlemaine. We begin with a pot-luck dinner and then settle into some good conversation.
Potential books for 2023-24 include:
The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth - Joe Brewer
Sand Talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
Deep Listening to Nature - Andrew Skeoch
Matter and Desire - Andreas Weber
The Web of Meaning - Jeremy Lent
Wild Mind Wild Earth - David Hinton
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic - Martin Prechtel
The Future is Degrowth - Schmelzer, Vetter and Vansintjan
Animate Earth - Stephan Harding
Think Like a Commoner - David Bollier
…and suggestions from the floor are also welcome.
Dao of Civilization Study Group
In her 2023 book The Dao of Civilisation, eco-philosopher Freya Mathews imagines our transformation to an ecological civilisation supporting the biosphere. Opposing the essential thrust of modernity in which humans are central, a conscious and co-generative cosmos becomes an alternative axis for civilisation. ‘Termed Dao, (of Tao) in ancient China, and often coded as Law in indigenous and first-nations cultures, this innate template is here taken as a first principle for economic production that could shift contemporary societies toward a genuinely ecological form of civilisation’.
On the 2nd October 2023, Freya Mathews will be offering a talk on The Dao of Civilisation at the Castlemaine Free University. In preparation for this event, Towards Eudaemonia is offering a series of three study groups based around the book.
Monday 11th September: A letter to China and Lecture 1.
Monday 18th September: Lecture 2 and Lecture 3.
Monday 25th September: Lecture 4, and personal reflections on how Freya’s idea of praxis as “wanting what the world needs us to want” could play out in our own place and our own lives.
Potential books for 2023-24 include:
The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth - Joe Brewer
Sand Talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
Deep Listening to Nature - Andrew Skeoch
Matter and Desire - Andreas Weber
The Web of Meaning - Jeremy Lent
Wild Mind Wild Earth - David Hinton
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic - Martin Prechtel
The Future is Degrowth - Schmelzer, Vetter and Vansintjan
Animate Earth - Stephan Harding
Think Like a Commoner - David Bollier
…and suggestions from the floor are also welcome.
Dao of Civilization Study Group
In her 2023 book The Dao of Civilisation, eco-philosopher Freya Mathews imagines our transformation to an ecological civilisation supporting the biosphere. Opposing the essential thrust of modernity in which humans are central, a conscious and co-generative cosmos becomes an alternative axis for civilisation. ‘Termed Dao, (of Tao) in ancient China, and often coded as Law in indigenous and first-nations cultures, this innate template is here taken as a first principle for economic production that could shift contemporary societies toward a genuinely ecological form of civilisation’.
On the 2nd October 2023, Freya Mathews will be offering a talk on The Dao of Civilisation at the Castlemaine Free University. In preparation for this event, Towards Eudaemonia is offering a series of three study groups based around the book.
Monday 11th September: A letter to China and Lecture 1.
Monday 18th September: Lecture 2 and Lecture 3.
Monday 25th September: Lecture 4, and personal reflections on how Freya’s idea of praxis as “wanting what the world needs us to want” could play out in our own place and our own lives.
Previous Contributors
Alice Cummins is a dance artist, somatic practitioner and educator. Her life’s practice has been an enquiry into the generative power of the moving body. Alice’s process creates an environment of refined somatic awareness through attunement, generating engagement and embodied intelligence within a community of shared inquiry. Alice has been researching, teaching and performing her work nationally and internationally for over thirty years. She collaborates with musicians, writers, visual artists and filmmakers. Her work reflects the entanglement of cultural, social, and personal matter in a relational field, recognizing we are always of the body.
www.alicecummins.com Events Sharing & Cultivating Our Love of Country 
Steff Armstrong (Aunty Steff to some)
A Gamilaraay/ Bigambul woman from the rich black soils and the quiet river banks. Steff has walked on many lands, often with children and people wishing to learn about themselves and the land beneath their feet. An educator for nearly 40 years, a mother, daughter, sister and aunt her role now is most importantly as a grandmother/ Baagii. This means more time to yarn and share stories and inviting others to share their stories. Events Story and It’s Comforts |
Frances Cincotta has lived and worked on Dja Dja Wurrung country for 32 years. She currently calls Newstead home and runs a native nursery there, specialising in propagating the indigenous plants of the Shire of Mount Alexander to enable habitat restoration. Frances loves nature and shares her passion and knowledge with others. An active community member, Frances is involved in Landcare, environmental education and guided bushwalks.
Events A Botanical Ramble 
Meredith Connie is a composer, performer, classical guitarist, educator, Alexander Technique teacher and creator of “narrative guitar” storytelling. These elements are combined together to explore the intersection between narrative and music, between live performance and recorded soundscapes, and extend the notions of what audiences might expect from a ‘concert’ by the overt inclusion of interrogations of place, conception and realization. My compositions often work with elements outside of pre-composed music, including natural environment soundscapes, collaborations with artists from other disciplines, text and poetry, and are often peripatetic in their exploration of place. Since relocating to Australia in 2018, my identity as a composer has intensified, taking its place at the creative centre of my life.
www.meredithconnie.com Events Sharing & Cultivating Our Love of Country |
Diane Thompson lives and work on Djaara Country. She has facilitated The Council of All Being activities in primary schools, youth camps and adult workshops. As well as being a practicing artist of 35 years, Diane is deeply involved in spirit centred ritual and ceremony on her bush property. The Council of All Beings program enables her to consolidate all her passions of creative activities, connection to nature and continued exploration of her spirit journey.
Events The Council of All Beings |
