Healing cultures: designing regenerative systems

10 Oct 2026
01:30pm - 03:30pm
FREE
Burrinja Cultural Centre Theatre, 351 Glenfern Rd, Upwey

How do we create material cultures, economies, and innovations that actively heal and restore energy? What does it mean to design not just for zero waste, but for positive impact?  

This event is part of the Burrinja Climate Change Biennale 2026 and part of the Energy Futures events season presented by the RMIT Regenerative Futures Institute.

Find out more information about this event on the BCCB#4 Talks website.

Speakers

Associate Professor Ricarda Bigolin, RMIT School of Fashion & Textiles, Regenerative Futures Fellow

Associate Professor Ricarda Bigolin is a practice-based researcher, educator and designer. Ricarda’s research, teaching and design practice is recognised internationally with ongoing collaborations in research and education with some of the best Fashion, Design and Art Universities in the world. She is regarded as one of the establishing practitioners in the niche fields of critical and expanded fashion practice. Their practice research has has won international awards and acquisitive prizes in museums internationally and their work is shown regularly leading art and design museums, galleries, publications and universities globally. to better reflect relationships between design, diversity and sustainability.

Erica McCalman

Erica McCalman (she/her) is a creative director, producer, strategist, facilitator and speaker based in Melbourne. She works with organisations, artists and individuals doing ambitious, values-driven work.

She is a Ballardong Noongar woman with Irish Convict, Cornish and Scottish heritage, and is neurodivergent. She moves through the world as someone who has always lived at several intersections at once, in the liminal spaces between cultures, ways of knowing and ways of being.

Tishiko King

Tishiko King is a proud Kulkalaig woman from the Island of Masig and is a Ocean & Climate Advocate. Tish is the founder of Just Futures Collab, Torres Strait Island-led giving circle activating resources for climate justice.

Tish is a marine biologist and a dedicated climate justice advocate committed to addressing the interconnected crises of environmental degradation, gender and economic inequality. Grounded in the wisdom and frontline leadership of Torres Strait Island culture, Tish believes that redistributing wealth is essential to decolonising climate solutions in order for systemic change that respects the ocean, culture, and community.

Co-curated by Burrinja, Yarra Ranges Regional Museum and the RMIT Regenerative Futures Institute.

Upcoming events

Regenerative Futures Institute – I Brought a Thing: Electricity

29 Sep 2026

Melbourne City

Dr Jan Brueggemeier (Researcher & Lecturer, Media and Communication) and Dr Renick Bell (Research & Lecturer, Digital Media) join us to explore electricity from their distinct perspectives.

Regenerative Design as an Energy System

30 Sep 2026

Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed. This immersive session invites architects to ask a bigger question: transformed toward what?

RMIT City North Shared Futures Festival 2026

03 Oct 2026

RMIT City North Shared Futures Festival returns to Cardigan Street on Saturday 3 October for a free day of creativity, community and discovery. Explore food, performances, workshops, technology, design, urban growing and hands-on activities for all ages, and experience the City North Social Innovation Precinct as a living lab in action.

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

Learn more about our commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples