Furneaux Islands Conference

It starts with people who have been sitting in the work for a long time. Not on the sidelines, but in the middle of it.

The kind of people who don’t arrive with neat answers, but with stories, questions, and a willingness to stay with the complexity.

For our Portals to Place conference 4-7 May, we’ve invited a small group of speakers who carry that depth of experience.

Damon Gameau brings a way of storytelling that has shifted how many people think about the future. His work asks us to look beyond the problems and into what regeneration could actually look like in practice, across communities, systems and everyday life.

Cherise Addinsallhas spent years working alongside island communities across the Pacific. Her approach is grounded in relationship, in listening, and in the belief that the knowledge needed to shape the future of a place already exists within it. Visit Regenerative Vanua for the wonderful work Cherise has been involved in.

Deborah WACE - Botanical artist offers a different kind of lens. Through her work with Tasmania’s botanical world, she reminds us that paying attention to the natural environment is not separate from how we live, but deeply connected to it.

And then there is our Furneaux community itself. Each with their own knowledge, experience and way of seeing the world. This community is not the backdrop for the conference. It is part of the conversation, part of the learning, and part of what makes this gathering what it is.

This isn’t a conference built around being told what to do. It is a space to sit together, to listen, to share stories and perspectives, and to explore what becomes possible when community leads and place is taken seriously.

There may not be a single answer at the end of it, but there is something in coming together like this. Sometimes that is where the real shift begins.

Flinders Island

Portals to Place 4-7 May 2026

If this feels like your kind of conversation, you are welcome. 💚