About THE EVENT

Presented by UMSU Events in collaboration with UMSU Burnley

Part two of our series on food, ethnobotany, and the people who carry plants across time.

This session turns to two grasses with deep histories on this land: Themeda (kangaroo grass) and Microlaena (weeping grass) — once staple grains, ground into flour and baked into damper long before introduced crops reshaped the landscape.

We'll start where growing always starts hands in the soil, seed between fingers. As we plant, we'll talk and eat together, sitting with a question that runs through the whole series: what changes when we stop seeing plants as separate from us, and start seeing them as part of us?

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Gregory Lorenzutti  is a dancer, choreographer, photographer and urban farmer. PhD candidate at University of Melbourne in dance and plant studies. UMSU 2026 Artist in Residence

Ian Adams is a Master of Urban Horticulture student and UMSU Campus Coordinator at Burnley. Before joining UniMelb, Ian was a high school science and humanities teacher, and then a primary school kitchen garden teacher. Along with other students, Ian has helped start a kitchen garden at Burnley that is delivering fresh local produce to Union Mart at Parkville – focussing on delicious foods from many different cultures around the world. Let him know if there is something you’d like to see grown in Melbourne!

Jakobi is a Bachelor of Science student in Plant Science with plans to pursue postgraduate study in ethnobotany. A Djab Wurrung and Dhauwurd Wurrung man, he works as a First Peoples Learning Officer at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, where he shares cultural connections across people, plants and landscapes, and supports First Peoples engagement and projects. At the University of Melbourne, he serves as a MITS Science Demonstrator and MISEP Facilitator, promoting STEM engagement and education for First Peoples secondary students. He also volunteers at the University of Melbourne Herbarium, contributing to the curation of specimens, and is Education Officer for the Soil and Plant Society. Jakobi is a co-founder of Petrichor Collaborative, a landscape architecture and research practice centred on First Peoples place-based storytelling and biocultural knowledge. He is passionate about connecting people with plants and using storytelling to foster reciprocal custodianship of Country.

Date

Location

Arts Lab, Arts and Cultural Building (Building 159), The University of Melbourne

Contact Event Organiser