Wildlife Disease Association
72nd Annual Conference
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Our journey to WDA 2024 begins with a year of thought-provoking webinars introducing ideas that are at the heart of the vision for this event. The series opened with RESPECT, a launch event broadcast live from Wiradjuri Country in Australia, and is followed by monthly webinars and online workshops covering socio-ecological systems thinking, democratic professionalism, colonialism and science and conservation, First Nations understandings of Country, Indigenous research methodologies, sharing knowledge through storytelling and the arts, and more.
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Start your journey to WDA 2024 with RESPECT, our unique launch event celebrating and centring Wiradjuri First Nations culture and reflecting on what those working in conservation, One Health and the environment might learn from the Wiradjuri ways of yindyamarra (going slowly, respecting, honouring) and gulbali ngurambang (understanding Country).
Professor Albert Dzur, of Bowling Green State University, changes the way we think about ourselves as professionals through this talk about citizen participation and power-sharing in institutions and professions. Dzur is an internationally renowned democratic theorist whose work is grounded in real cases studies from the criminal justice, health and public administration systems.
Associate Professor Rohan Deb Roy, of the University of Reading in the UK, explores the relationship between science and medicine, empire and colonialism, and the environment and animals in the history of one of the best-known human pathogens, malaria, in South Asia.
As conservation practitioners, do we understand the problematic relationship between conservation and colonialism, and how we can approach our own work without perpetuating this? Leading academic and First Nations thinkers come together to share their stories on conservation and colonialism, and to challenge us on whose terms we are really undertaking conservation. Join us for this deeply engaging discussion.
Let’s move beyond mere information delivery and spark curiosity through the art of sharing stories. This workshop by creative director Nigel Sutton explores effective strategies for sharing knowledge through storytelling, offering practical insights and tips. The workshop includes preparatory material, and is time zone accessible with two 1-hour sessions to choose from!
Creative Producer Phoebe Cowdery and Wiradjuri curator/artist/artsworker Aleshia Lonsdale will be facilitating an online workshop session illustrating examples of science, arts and cultural activity in how they have collaborated with local communities focussing on environmentalism. Learn creative strategies in how you can captivate an audience and broaden their understanding through visual language centred on endangered Australian flora and fauna through place based activity. The workshop includes preparatory material, and is time zone accessible with two 1-hour sessions to choose from!
Who are the First Nations of the Australian continent, and what is their profound relationship with Country? How has settler-colonialism impacted these First Nations and their connection to Country?
Professor Marcia Langton, acclaimed academic and writer with deep engagement in First Nations communities for over five decades, introduces us to the Custodians of Country in an extraordinary webinar as part of our WDA 2024 webinar series – on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island nations and people have a profound and enduring relationship with Country and wildlife that stretches back over 60,000 years.
We acknowledge the First Nations of the Australian continent and recognise their traditional and continuing connection and custodianship with the Country on which this event takes place. We honour, respect and listen to First Nations Elders. We respect, listen to and celebrate First Nations stories and knowledges.
We acknowledge our responsibility to First Nations and strive to honour this in our collective work towards this special event – WDA 2024.
