Gecko Talk – What Can COP30 Teach Us About Indigenous Leadership and Climate Action?

What does global climate leadership look like when it’s grounded in Country, culture and community?

Join us for our March Gecko Talk with Mara Bún, fresh from the road to COP30 in Belém, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon. Drawing on her work with the Australian Ethical Foundation and alongside WA First Nations leader Professor Anne Poelina (Chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council), Mara brings a powerful, on-the-ground perspective from one of the world’s most important climate gatherings.

At COP30, Mara helped lead a series of dynamic dialogues in the Australian Pavilion, spotlighting Indigenous-led “forever-industries” and bold new approaches to climate adaptation. She will also share insights from the first national pilot of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists’ Blueprint for Landscape Repair, now unfolding in the West Kimberley under Professor Poelina’s stewardship.

Beyond the Amazon, Mara participated in pre-COP nature finance sessions in São Paulo with the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures, and joined discussions with KPMG on the rise of Renewable Energy Zones — bringing together frontline experience, policy innovation and systems-level thinking.

This is a conversation about shifting perspectives from top-down solutions to those led by Indigenous knowledge systems that have cared for land and water for tens of thousands of years.

Whether you’re deeply involved in environmental work or simply curious about where climate solutions are heading, this is a talk that will leave you thinking differently.

The Gecko Talks series is generously supported by Currumbin RSL. Join us before the talk for dinner, or grab a drink to bring in with you.