Our declaration has launched!

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From the 6 - 9th July 2021 geographers from Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and beyond met virtually for the Institute of Australian Geographers and New Zealand Geographical Society combined Conference. 

Whilst we had planned to be physically together at the University of Sydney on lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, Covid-19 had other ideas. 

Sydney was a few weeks into its er lasting lockdown. Melbourne for once, was not in lockdown, border bubbles were popped, and Zoom and Twitter were the mediums of choice for conference chatter. 

On the middle day of the conference, Wednesday 7th July, Susan Caldis, just days away from submitting her PhD thesis, gave a keynote marking the launch of the Climate and biodiversity emergency declaration by geographers in Australia.

The Geographical Teachers Association NSW & ACT President's talk, Understanding a climate emergency in and through geography education: What can geography educators declare, highlighted how there is a chasm between geography education and academic geography in this country. BUT importantly, this declaration that joins the dots across and within the discipline is one way teachers and academics can work closer together. 



The declaration was successfully endorsed by the conference delegation, after a unanimous vote in favour. 

Since then we have had over 30 signatories, including the Geographical Society of New South Wales and the National Committee for Geographical Science of the Australian Academy of Science. 

The declaration has been drafted to represent all geographers, a hard task for the broad discipline we are! The declaration isn't prescriptive, but it does provide a broad set of principles for practicing and teaching geography in a world that is in a climate and biodiversity emergency. 

So what's next? Great question. We've declared so now time to take action.

If you are a geography teacher, current or former student or academic we invite you to: 

  • sign the declaration
  • share the declaration with your current and former geography colleagues or students
  • send the declaration to your department heads, schools, professional societies and ask them to endorse it
  • put a link to the declaration in your email signature
  • include the declaration in your teaching
  • reflect on principles of the declaration and how they relate to your practice, and 
  • if you have any ideas on how to take things further - get in touch! Email us at geographersdeclareau@gmail.com 



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