The May 2023 topic for Canberra Conversations is...

'How may peace be achieved while the drums of war are sounding?' 

Our focus questions are: 

How has the world come to the brink of WW111? 
Is is still possible to pull back now?  
Who decides when and how to go to war? 
What War Powers does the Australian Government have and how can they/should they be reformed? 
Who profits from war? 
Who wants war? 
Millions marched against the Iraq war, why did our governments ignore our wishes? How can we get our governments to listen to 'We the People? 

Guest Speakers

Facilitator Mark Spain  

Mark Spain of The Canberra Alliance for participatory Democracy (CAPaD) is a professional facilitator of groups and group discussion and will lead this sometimes controversial conversation with the finesse it deserves. 

Mark is a leader and learner in developing systems, structures and processes that build innovation, curiosity and high-trust relationships with people and their organisations to produce sustainable business results. He enjoys working with energetic teams of people who are focused on creating extraordinary results and is particularly passionate about implementing sustainable and ethical business management systems that build success for all players, and for the future. 

Currently he is Chair of SEE-Change. 

His family, climbing mountains and house-building rate highly, too. 

Kathryn Kelly  

Kathryn is a former nurse, public servant and long-time peace environment and democracy activist. She is a national coordinating committee member of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network, founding member of Australians for Justice and Peace in Palestine, Friends of CSIRO and is a Co-convenor of the Alliance Against Political Prosecutions, and a member of Move Beyond Coal ACT. She was a candidate for the ACT Greens on two occasions. 

David Macilwain  

David is an independent writer and researcher with a special focus on Syria and Ukraine from a non-Western perspective. He lives off grid on a small farm with his wife, animals, and an internet connection. Together they have travelled widely in the Middle East and North Africa, Russia and Iran. 

Dr Sue Wareham OAM  

Sue is President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia). She has spoken and written widely on matters related to peace and disarmament over several decades, with nuclear disarmament being a particular focus. She has been on the board in Australia of ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) which was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Sue is also Secretary of Australians for War Powers Reform, which campaigns to change the way in which a decision to send the ADF to war overseas can be made so that it must be a decision of the parliament, not the PM (with or without Cabinet). She worked in general practice in Canberra for over three decades. 

Tony Kevin

Tony Kevin is a former Australian career diplomat, with his first posting in Moscow in Soviet times 1969-71, and his last postings as ambassador to Poland and then Cambodia. He is a member of the Emeritus Faculty at Australian National University. The author of ‘Walking the Camino’ ( Scribe, 2006) and ‘Return to Moscow’ (UWA Publishing, 2017), he has been a frequent traveller to Russia since 2016. He writes and speaks independently on Australian foreign policy and great power relations.

About Canberra Conversations

Canberra Conversations is a place to meet regularly in a casual, welcoming, and safe space to explore the big issues by looking beyond what we see in the mainstream media. It aims to pique our curiosity, challenge our thinking, and deepen our understanding of the big issues facing our society, to examine how we might better understand and therefore participate in our democratic process via conversations with expert speakers and with each other. We hope to start conversations that will extend beyond our walls. Audience participation is a large part of our conversations.

Principles for Canberra Conversations

Canberra Conversations aims for a mutually respectful and inclusive space that is safe enough for people to speak their minds. Inclusivity means that all are welcome regardless of cultural background, sex or sexual orientation, age or political beliefs.

We welcome and encourage participation by everyone, and aim to provide a safe space to allow a diversity of opinions to be listened to, respected and heard. No person speaks twice until all who are involved in the conversation are heard.

Free speech is welcome – hate speech is not.

When we disagree:

Raising of voices or yelling over others is not acceptable.
Speaking over the top of others is not acceptable.

Canberra Conversations acknowledges that we meet on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners of this land and we pay our respect to their elders past present and future. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here and everywhere.

Please join Canberra Conversations on
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/839556946246928
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Conver1Canberra

Email us today to go on the CANBERRA ONLY mailing list so that we can identify who lives in Canberra and who is interstate or overseas. CanberraConversations@proton.me

Freedom needs to be used or it will be lost – Hunter S Thompson