In 2025, The Island Almanac became a living record of a place under pressure, and a steady refusal to let pressure collapse us into binary thinking. Moving through the year’s rupture-points (from public grief and violence to contested megaprojects, salmon industry harms, energy transition conflict, and the quiet intensity of a widening mental health crisis), the writing traced a deeper pattern: when systems harden, people harden too, unless we deliberately rebuild the village layer of life, relationship, meaning, practical competence, and shared care.

Across essays on convivial governance, foundational economics, regenerative culture, and what I call Ecological Mind Activism, the Almanac argued for a shift from activism as constant alarm to activism as ecological intelligence, measuring effectiveness not only by what we oppose, but by what we can grow: real alternatives, replicable practices, and everyday lives less dependent on extraction. At its heart, this body of work offers a new narrative for Tasmania: not a fight for the “right side,” but a practice of reweaving, where grief becomes a doorway to repair, conflict becomes a catalyst for better containers, and the future becomes something we build together, one living pattern at a time.

Tasmania is being asked to accept another top-down, corporate megaproject—this time a stadium shaped more by AFL interests than community wellbeing. Drawing on the legacy of Scenario Two – Powering Regeneration, this article offers seven alternative visions rooted in Designing with Country, justice, imagination and local place-making. These scenarios show how investing outside Hobart’s CBD, into Glenorchy, Bridgewater/Gagebrook, Shorewell Park, Risdon Vale or a retrofit on the outskirts, creates regeneration rather than displacement. First Nations leadership, diverse sports, food-growing, arts, youth programs and wellbeing ecosystems become the real legacy. Scenario Two reclaims public investment for the highest good of all Tasmanian’s, proving a stadium can uplift rather than extract.

Tasmania’s debates over aquaculture, forestry, and energy are framed in binaries: jobs versus environment, growth versus preservation. These divisions fracture not only politics but also communities and inner life.

Drawing on Rudolf Steiner’s idea of the hardening of the soul and Carl Jung’s call for the Third, this article argues for a new orientation beyond opposites. The Third space is not neutral but generative, where ideas compost into gardens, strategies translate into action, and governance is rooted in transparency and practice.

Through threefold social theory, cultural freedom, political equity, and economic mutuality the piece highlights how projects like food hubs, biodynamic farms, and cooperatives act as acupuncture points in the social body. Supported by eco-feminist perspectives and the symbolic guidance of yarrow, rosemary, and nettle, these initiatives show how imagination can become infrastructure.

This is not a time for mediocrity, so Tasmania has the scale and creativity to pioneer a regenerative future, reweaving narrative, soul, and community into politics, economics, and culture.

This piece by Dr Demeter (Emily Samuels-Ballantyne) explores the urgent need to redefine who counts as a farmer in Australia’s evolving agricultural landscape. It highlights how current government support programs like the Farm Household Allowance largely exclude small-scale, regenerative, and community-based farmers, many of whom are young people building resilient regional economies through diverse, place-based food systems. The article calls for policy reform that values ecological health, social wellbeing, and cultural vitality alongside traditional economic measures, urging recognition and support for the farmers shaping a reenerative future.

By Dr. Emily Samuels Ballantyne

Right now, Tasmania’s future is being shaped by a single, homogenous energy narrative “Battery of the Nation” designed and decided by a small group of stakeholders. This narrow vision risks sidelining the diverse voices, knowledge systems, and community-led solutions that are essential for a truly resilient future. In such a defining moment, we must ask: Who gets to imagine the future? A thriving Tasmania requires many scenarios, not just one. Scenario Two is an invitation to co-create not dictate what regeneration looks like, place by place.