Our Team

Barbara Lepani

Enlivenment Network Coordinator

Writer, blogger, sociologist of technological change, and long term Buddhist practitioner in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradtion, Barbara is a cultural change community weaver of the Enlivenment Worldview. With an MA in the sociology of science and technology, after the completion of a three-year retreat in the Dzogchen tradtion, she has authored  three books: ‘Call of the Dakini’, ‘Tulkus, Tertons, Turmoil: East Tibet 1855-1955’, and ‘The Regenesis Journey’, all available on the amazon platform. They reflect her strong interest in comparative knowledge systems to help us meet the challenges of the intersecting crises engulfing our world. Barbara has worked as a culture change agent in the government, not-for-profit, university and private sectors in Australia, PNG, New Zealand and China.

Barbara is based in Katoomba, Gundungurra and Dharug Country

Catherine van Wilgenburg

Eco-Science Webinar Coordinator

Catherine van Wilgenburg is an eco-artist and educator with over three decades of experience in integrating arts and ecological sustainability. She brings her passion for fostering creative responses to ecological and social challenges through innovative cultural projects. Through Catherine’s interdisciplinary EcoArt practice in EcoArt Systems Australia, she focuses on collaborative projects that blend painting, performance art, installation, and community cultural development. Her work is deeply inspired by partnerships with Wurundjeri and Gunaikurnai elders, as well as environmental scientists, fostering environmental stewardship in regions like Melbourne’s West and East Gippsland. 

Catherine is based in East Gippsland, Gunalkurnal Country

Saskya Clarke

Creative Community Weaver

A leading community weaver practitioner and learning facilitator, Saskya has extensive experience in designing and delivering a range of regenerative outdoor/wilderness education programs across all age groups. She is experienced in trauma-informed community healing and transformative learning processes, including storytelling, somatic embodiment and creative engagement.

Saskya is based in Blackheath, Blue Mountains, Gundungurra and Dharug Country

N’gaire Howard

Creative Community Weaver

As a Wiradjuri woman, living and working on Country in the Kanimbla Valley of NSW, N’gaire works in the field of somatic healing and inner transformation, as part of supporting people to move towards a regenerative approach to enlivenment: healing our relationship with nature and one another as expressions of the relational ethos of Caring for Country. Through her work in permaculture, she co-founded the weekly Gang Gang Farmers Market. N’gaire runs a range of in-person retreats and workshops on Country and helps coordinate the creative engagement work of Gang Gang Gallery, a leading contemporary arts space in Lithgow.

N’gaire is based in the Kanimbla Valley, Wiradjuri Country

Tarik Ćutuk

Creative Community Weaver

Tarik is a postgraduate with the Graduate Centre in Governance and International Affairs at the University of Queensland. They live in Umpi Korumba (Brisbane), on unceded land, and recognise the Jagera and Turrbal people as its traditional custodians. They have an academic background in Philosophy, Historical Studies, and English Literature, as well as experience as an activist and organiser with Extinction Rebellion in South-East Queensland. Their passion is participation in social, cultural, and political transformation and play, and are particularly interested in critically reflecting upon the nature of modernity and the Australian state, as well as engaging in broader existential and spiritual inquiry and exploration.
Tarik is based in Brisbane, Turrbal and Jagera Country

Inge Riebe

Inter-cultural Thought Leader

Dr Inge Riebe is an anthropologist who has undertaken long term immersive field work among the Kalam of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and the Bundjalung of the Northern Rivers Region of NSW Australia. Her work has been deeply embedded in the challenge of understanding and communicating about cultures different to her own, particularly their ways of establishing knowledge, understandings of the universe, and their systems of values. This immensely enriching journey was supported by her interactions with Buddhist teachers that efficiently undermines attachment to rationalist subject:object based dualistic thinking, and any dangerous devotion to individualism. Inge is committed to the journey of facilitating respectful inter-cultural exchange in the hope of creating new visions and relational ways of doing in this imploding world of ours. 

Inge is based in Katoomba, Gundungurra and Dharug Country

Gav Barbey

Interdisciplinary Enlivenment Artist

Interdisciplinary artist and creative mentor, with a background in film, television, theatre writing, directing and design, Gav has exhibited his artistic works in numerous galleries, and led workshops in human centred design, creative somatic embodiment, and playful engagement for a wide range of corporate and not-for-profit organisations. Gav is a graduate of NIDA, the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, with a major in Production and Set Design, and is a qualified yoga teacher. He brings his diverse skills to the design of in-person creative engagement with exploring ways of embodying the paradigm shift to an enlivenment worldview.

Gav is based in the Daylesford area, Dja Dja Wurrung Country

B

Posthumanist Philosopher and Writer

B. is a Melbourne-based artist and the founder of Posthuman Press, which specialises in creative posthuman texts. They’re interested in the overlap of posthumanism with spirituality and Indigenous knowledge systems, and advocate against our tendency to abstraction, in favour of more embodied and relational ways of becoming. Their own work obliterates binaries and seeks to decolonise the mind by deconstructing the human, and reimagining them anew.
B is based in Wurunjeri Woi-wurrung Country

Ian McLeod

Singer-songwriter, musician, storyteller, poet

Ian’s passion has been living his life as a singer-songwriter, while working within the visual arts, performance, video and animation fields. He sees his songs as his ‘children’, his way of speaking with the world. Ian is interested in creative endeavours and co-created projects that include the healing power of storytelling via podcasting and live music performance, and writing on the Enlivenment Network’s blog. Although he has a degree in Communications (Media Production) from Western Sydney University, with an elective in Animation, he was disappointed its focus was on advertising and public relations to fit into a capitalist economy, rather than storytelling and poetics to explore worlds beyond capitalism.
Ian lives in Katoomba on Gundungurra and Dharug Country, but was born on Lutruwita Country in Tasmania.

Brad Diedrich

Enlivenment Media Officer
Website support, Social Media Marketing and Communications, AV production & Podcasting

Brad is the Director of BradDiedrich.com, a web & graphic designer, digital marketer, photographer and videographer with over 20 years experience in corporate, government and community/NFP organisations. Brad produces and hosts Talking ArtZ on Radio Blue Mountains 89.1FM, also available as podcasts.

Brad is based in Katoomba, Gundurra and Dharug Country