Is a river alive and a koala a person?

In this special event to kick off our 2026 season, we will meet on the banks of the Birrarung at Abbotsford Convent. Here we will converse about human beings and our obligations to our kin in the natural world. Should we think of rivers as legal persons with rights? And what about animals? How can non-Indigenous law and ethics learn from Indigenous knowledge? And will this make a difference to our planet’s future?

This event is presented in partnership with Abbotsford Convent.

Erin O’Donnell

Speaker

Dr Erin O’Donnell is a water law and policy expert who is internationally recognised for her contributions to the ground-breaking new field of legal rights for rivers. An Associate Professor and ARC Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne Law School, Erin’s work explores the challenges and opportunities these new rights create for protecting the social, cultural and natural values of rivers. Since 2018, Erin has been a member of the Birrarung Council, and she has worked in partnership with Traditional Owners across Australia on a range of projects, including the Cultural Water for Cultural Economies project. Her current research fellowship explores the opportunity of treaty to address aqua nullius and create more sustainable settler state water laws. She is the author of Legal Rights for Rivers: Competition, Collaboration, and Water Governance (Routlege, 2018) and a new edited collection People, Place and Nature in Indigenous-Settler Relations: Recentring the More-Than-Human World (Springer, 2026).

Erin can be found on Bluesky at @ezzyod.bsky.social

Melissa Kennedy

Speaker

Melissa Kennedy, Tati Tati, belongs to Murray River Country in Australia, between the Murrumbidgee junction and the Barka junction. As a social and environmental researcher, Melissa aims to combat the settler-colonial control of water resources at the exclusion of First Nations’ inherent rights and responsibilities. She is currently undertaking her PhD at Monash University, and is a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity, a global community collaborating across borders and disciplines to address the root causes of inequity. Additionally, Melissa sits on the advisory board for the federal Aboriginal Water Entitlements Program, and is the director and cofounder of Tati Tati Kaiejin, an Indigenous owned and operated conservation organisation. In Victoria, Melissa co-authored the Government policy commitment Water is Life: Traditional Owner Access to Water.

Tina Stefanou

Artist

Tina Stefanou is a visual artist and performer living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. With a background as a vocalist, she works undisciplined, with and across a diverse range of mediums and practices. Informed by diasporic and working-class experiences, Stefanou engages in sound, filmography, installation and research as social practice, exploring with and beyond all-too-human and more-than-human vocalities. She has an ongoing relationship with a herd of elderly horses with whom she co-creates performative environments, outside of human-dominated contexts and audiences. Stefanou has performed and exhibited internationally at institutions like Le Pavé d’Orsay (Paris), E-flux (NYC), The Sydney Opera House, and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Melbourne). In 2025, she presented a critically acclaimed solo exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and is currently showing a new commission at West Space (Melbourne).

Tina can be found on instagram at @_the_longest_hum

Brigid Hains

Host

Brigid Hains is the editorial director of Aeon Media. An environmental historian by training, she is driven by a deep curiosity about the natural and human worlds. The Sophia Club is a chance for Brigid to express her love of beauty and the arts, and to share the heartfelt dimensions of her intellectual life.