I’m dusting this here blog off for an announcement…

This is also my way of hoping you’ll all forgive me for being so slack in blogging and organising drinks nights… It’s all because my little brain has been busy plotting a big idea: Australia’s first Vegan Conference!

I love going to the Cruelty Free Festival and Vegan Expo. It’s good times, good food and a chance to catch up with people. But I’ve been craving opportunities for collaboration – a chance to get some of the brilliant vegan minds that exist in our community into a room to talk about what we can do as a movement.

This is all still very much a seedling of an idea, but I’d love to see speakers, panel discussions, workshops and interactive opportunities to really look at veganism from a whole variety of levels – animal activism, health, environmentalism, hell let’s get representatives from restaurants in to tell us how we can lobby for better vegan options, let’s look at campaigns that are working will within other movements, and the ways that veganism is going mainstream in the U.S. Let’s just all have a big ol’ campfire chat.

So there’s lots to work out still… like should this have more of a multi-day “camp” feeling which seems to be a trend amongst conferences these days or is that too big a commitment? When should we hold it? I’m pretty positive it’ll be in Sydney, so would you be willing to travel from elsewhere… And so on…

If you’d like to contribute your opinion you can take this here survey. Or as a replacement for this month’s Vegan Drinks let’s get together to discuss some ideas over beers. Friday May 27 I’ll be at The Courthouse Hotel in Newtown. Come swing by if you want to chat. Pretty informal. Hope to see you there!

It’s summer! That means everyone, myself included has been out and about cooking up vegan barbecues, picnicing in the parks, and soaking up Vitamin D.

I haven’t even gotten a chance to update you on the last Vegan Drinks Nights, when BAM! There’s more upcoming events to tell you about!

Sydney’s event went great, raising $350 for Manly’s penguins!

Making a speech at the 4th Sydney Vegan Drinks!

Detials on our next event coming soon. And I’m so excited that melbourne’s first Vegan Drinks Night was a hit. From organiser, Carla:

“Held at the Sporting Club in Brunswick, they were very accomodating in creating a vegan menu and giving us drinks lists and suggestions of what alcohol was vegan so a huge thank you to them. We had over 35 people, raised $121.80 for the QLD RSPCA and got to meet many awesome new people! I look forward to the next drinks! Many thanks to everyones support.”

Hooray! Melbourne’s next vegan drinks night will be held on 25 March at 7:00 at Gasometer. More info here on their Facebook event.

Mark your diaries for these other upcoming vegan events!

This Sunday 20 Feb Vegan Society NSW is holding a Vegan Picnic in conjunction with the Mardi gras Fair Day. Their Facebook event is here. Did you also know that Vegan Society NSW is on Twitter now? Follow their updates here!

Speaking of Mardi Gras, don’t forget to come out and support the Queer Animal Lib NSW float in  the Mardi Gras parade on Saturday 5 March. Guaranteed good times, and a chance to see me and some other vegaroo writers in yellow feathered tu-tu’s. Err… maybe leave the cameras at home though

That same morning, it’s the next Sydney Vegan Bake Sale! Funds are going to help the Queensland floods and it’ll be at the usual time and location: 8am – 1pm at the Newtown DIY Markets. More info on the Bake Sale blog.

And last but not least, on 19 March come on out for the launch of Kathy Divine’s new book Forever 21. It’s at 6:00 at Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, Mitchell Theatre. Word on the street is there will be delicious vegan cakes! You can RSVP here on Facebook.

If you know of other upcoming vegan events around Australia you’d like to publicize, please drop me a line at sharon@vegaroo.com

Hey Perthlings, I’ve been informed of an art show opening this weekend called “Sentience: an exhibition on life.”  Sentience is an initiative of Perth-based organisation Animal Rights Advocates Inc.

Here’s some more information.

 ANIMAL SENTIENCE ON DISPLAY IN NORTHBRIDGE
16-21 JANUARY 2011, KURB GALLERY
Featuring work by a variety of international and Australian artists across a range of mediums, Sentience: an exhibition of life is a thought-provoking and ultimately rewarding display of art exploring the feeling, perception and individuality of animals other than humans.

The exhibition will be open for viewing from:
10am-6pm from Sunday 16 January to Friday 21 January, 2011,
at Kurb Gallery, 310 William Street, Perth, Western Australia.
**A special opening night event will run from 6pm-9pm on Sat 15 January.**

A sample piece from artist Yvette Watt

Artwork is available for purchase, with participating artists including:

• Alex Cearns
• Zaaron Crosby
• Sarah Davison
• Sharon Dawes
• Michelle Dawson
• Jasmeet Flora
• Gaye Godfrey-Nicholls
• Stephanie Ives
• Ramona Janssen
• Claude Jones
• Jo-Anne McArthur
• Ciara Moore
• Lottie Moore
• Yvette Watt

From the ARA press release:

“Sentience refers to self-awareness and the ability to experience a range of sensations and emotions, of feeling pain and suffering, and of experiencing a state of well being. Sentient animals are aware of their surroundings and of what happens to them.”

“Research is showing us that the lives of animals, including farmed animals, are much more complex than we previously understood. Research suggests that their social groupings, communication, feelings of pain, fear and anxiety, and the positive feelings of pleasure and play are vitally important to them.”

“It is these ideas of animal experience and personality that we wish to capture with the work of Sentience: an exhibition of life.”

Happy New Year! I hope that you all enjoyed a festive and relaxing holiday season. I know it was a much needed break for me, but I’m excited to now hit the ground running back here on vegaroo and announce the next Sydney Vegan Drinks night!

We’ll be back at The Hive Bar who hosted our last awesome event, at 93 Erskineville Road. The event is from 7-10 (or likely later…) on January 28th.

As usual we’ll have yummy vegan snacks and a list of vegan wine, beer, cocktail and mocktail options.

We’re asking for suggested donation of $5 from attendees.

I started asking for suggestions for beneficiaries, but when my friend Derek of Inner West Live alerted me to a recent attack on the penguins of Manly, I knew immediately that these were the animals I wanted to help! Penguins are my spirit animal, man!

You can view some news footage about the attacks here.

The money we raise will go to the Manly Environmental Centre who have a Penguin Warden program! I know what you’re thinking, “Where do I sign up???” Easy. Click here to learn more about penguin protection!

I’m really excited about this particular event and hope to see/meet many of you there.

If you’d like to come it would be cool if you RSVPed on our Facebook event and invited your friends!! If you’re not on Facebook you can just leave your RSVP as a comment here.

UPDATE: We just learned that a Vegan Drinks night is starting up in Melbourne, hosted by the lovely Carla of Easy as Vegan Pie. Their first night is also Jan 28 and you can read more here on their Facebook event.

After a whirlwind weekend of vegan events, I’m finally catching up. Sadly, our final Sydney Vegan Bake Sale of 2010 got rained out and I only got to snap photos of the baked goods my housemates and I made. Luckily, some of the goods were able to be transported to Naked Espresso where the wonderful staff sold them, and we still managed to raise $361!

And the timing worked out well, so that anything we didn’t sell we could bring to the Vegan Society NSW stall at the Cruelty Free Festival!

The event was a huge success! It was my first one and I volunteered to be there at the butt-crack of dawn to help with load-in, which was cool because I got to meet a lot of awesome vendors and community organisations.

Some of my favourites were:

Rubyfruit! I pretty much raved about their cheesecakes to everyone I saw that day. They’re based in the blue mountains and don’t have a storefront, but sell out of local cafes. They also do cupcakes and muffins and while they don’t appear to have a website, you can find out more info on their Facebook page.

The Cruelty Free Shop always hooks me up with hard to come by vegan products, like my beloved Go Max Go bars.

I didn’t get to attend a lot of cooking demos, but I went to Leigh Drew’s biscuit demo, which was unsurprisingly fabulous. Somebody get this lady a cooking show! And while I was a non-participant in the vegan speed dating, I think it was an awesome idea and hope there were some vegan love connections made.

I also walked away with a lovely dress, child’s colouring book, bottle of garlic infused olive oil, a jar of mustard pickles being sold by an adorable little old lady at the MAWA stall, and a tummy full of spring rolls, bliss balls, quiche and gozleme.

A huge round of applause to Sarah and Animal Liberation for organising such a wonderful community-building event!

This past weekend, over 4,000 showed up for World Vegan Day in Melbourne! In the rain! SHUT UP! That is a crazy turnout. So it’s up to us in Sydney to step it up this weekend. We’ve got two great events on!

First up on Saturday, it’s the last Sydney Vegan Bake Sale of 2010. I’ve hear rumours of cinnamon buns, donuts, the usual delicious cupcakes – maybe even some CUPCAKES IN ICE CREAM CONES – WHAT???

I will also definitely be making some of these bad boys:

Those are caramel apple muffins, slightly modified from this recipe. And since I’m planning on making roughly 4,000 of them, y’all better show up and buy!!! As usual the sale is from 8-1 at the Newtown Markets across from the train station. This time we’re raising money for Charlie’s Angels Horse Rescue in Queensland.

Then you can work off some off that sugar by walking to Belmore Park on Sunday for the 2010 Cruelty Free Festival! From 10am-7pm there will be over 60 stalls, many of them food-based, including vegaroo favourites, Funky Pies, Addiction Food, Nourishing Quarter, and many more!

Hope to see you all there!

Look, I organise a Vegan Drinks night. I love drunken reverie as much as the next person. And as a non-native Australian, I don’t feel quite right coming in and slagging off one of the country’s most celebrated customs. But as vegans, I think we all agree: Melbourne Cup is fucked.

And if you don’t, I’ll simply link you to this (difficult to watch) YouTube Video  and let you come to your own conclusions.

It can be an especially awkward time of year for vegans in the workplace who don’t want to come off as joyless buzzkills, but at the same time, can’t endorse the cruel “sport.” Our vegaroo contributor Tim recently lamented to me,

“I have a choice of either going along with the office and not really enjoying it, or ostracising myself by refusing to participate. While everyone else takes the day off to go party (and the next day to recover) I have to either stay in the office and work or take a day of leave. Either way, I feel like I’ll be judged poorly for not ‘playing with the team.’ “

So what are some alternatives?

For you Melbournians who have the day off, HorseRacingKills.com has a list of demonstrations and events you can attend.

If you’re in Sydney, I recommend this Not the Melbourne Cup Celebration at University of Sydney, which is what I’ll be attending. I also just learned about this Melbourne Cup protest happening that morning in Martin Place.

You can also sign Animal Australia’s pledge to never bet on horse-racing or donate to Charlies Angels Horse Sanctuary in Queensland, which is also the beneficiary of the next Sydney Vegan Bake Sale.

I’m sure there are far more events happening around the country, so I ask you to please share other alternatives in the comments.

Last night I returned home, exhausted, a little bit sunburnt, but mostly inspired by a great weekend in the Gold Coast for the 2010 Animal Activist Forum. I was honoured to be invited to speak about Activist Blogging, and for anyone who attended my talk, (or did not but would like more info) the resources page I put together can be found here.

Nerd talk!

There were heaps of other great presentations as well from groups like Animal Liberation NSW, Sea Shepherd, the Animal Justice Party, and many more organisations, businesses and individuals. One of the highlights was a talk on Intersectionality, specifically looking at feminism, sexual identity, and race within the Animal Rights movement, which was presented by Katrina Fox and our own vegaroo contributor Stephanie Lai. There was a lively discussion following, and I think we’d all agree that this could certainly be expanded into a much longer panel discussion next year. Katrina will be publishing their talks on her online magazine The Scavenger next month, so look out for that.

One thing that jumped out to me from listening to so many talks was the amount of time and money that so many activists spend, presumably out of pocket, for the cause. I’d love to see some discussion next year of how people for don’t have $2,500 to invest into throwing a festival can raise that kind of money, and what fundraising opportunities and resources are available to us as Animal Activists.

Many thanks to Jo and Roy who organised the event, and worked tirelessly all weekend to ensure everything went successfully. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the awesome food that was arranged, both at the dining hall at the Rec Centre where we stayed, and Saturday night’s dinner at Zullaz in Burleigh Heads. What kind of food blogger would I be if I didn’t include some photos?

Pictured above are the Fijian/Indian vegan feast we were lucky to partake in, as well as a specially made dessert: semolina pudding with sultanas and and orange sauce.

It was a wonderful weekend filled with sunshine, great food, and great conversations. Can’t wait till next year!

Few things make me feel warmer and fuzzier than bringing together an awesome group of people for a great cause. On Friday night, we had a crowd of over 60 people gather together at The Hive in Erskineville for October’s installment of Sydney Vegan Drinks – some traveling from as far away as Canberra! 60 PEOPLE!!! I didn’t even think there were 60 vegans in Sydney!

We raised $318 for Pet Rescue – many thanks to Tim for coming to rep the organisation and “pass the bucket.” So many people also came promoting wonderful organisations, campaigns, and projects, as evidenced by our literature table.

It was really wonderful to meet so many new people, and hang out with an awesome, diverse crowd of vegans in a casual atmosphere.

I’ve had a number of people ask me “When are you going to do an event in Queensland?” or “Hey, why don’t you start a drinks night in Melbourne?” Would that I had the disposable income to travel around the country planning and attending happy hours. But if anyone from another part of Australia is interested in setting up a vegaroo! drinks night, I’m happy to do all I can to promote. Check out the official Vegan Drinks website  too, for tips on setting up an event in your area.

A million thank you’s to everyone who stopped by, chatted, promoted the event and helped make the evening a smashing success!

I took heaps of photos, which are up on Facebook -  I didn’t want to post them here without people’s permission. Become a fan of vegaroo to see them! Small informal poll: Would early December work for our next Drinks Night, or are people generally starting to get busy with holiday parties and plans? Hope to see you at our next event, regardless!

UPDATE: Forgot to add, I had a few people who couldn’t attend Friday ask how they could donate to Pet Rescue. Why, by clicking here!

Back in 1985, Tina Turner may have contended that We Don’t Need Another Hero, but I for one certainly find it important to draw inspiration from the examples of other activists who are out there raising awareness about animal protection issues and veganism in innovative, exciting, and – most of all – effective ways.  Since meeting her at the 2002 Animal Rights Conference in the United States, one of my personal ‘AR Heroes’ has been the media activist, spokesperson and author, Karen Dawn.

Karen in person has so much energy, enthusiasm, and passion for promoting animal rights, but it’s matched with equal amounts of knowledge about a multitude of issues and also the communication skills to get the message across in an engaging way.  Plus, there’s a huge sense of fun and playfulness in the way she approaches the serious issues of how animals are viewed and treated, which helps to draw in those who are not already interested and involved in the movement.

Karen with Katie Manitsas, a director of Samadhi Yoga

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