Charles Sturt University (CSU) will formally congratulate almost a dozen staff on Friday 16 September in Wagga Wagga for their lengthy contributions to the institution. During a lunch in the University’s Convention Centre, medals will be presented to nine staff for 30 and 20 years of service to CSU and its predecessor institutions. Among those to receive a medal will be Head of Campus at CSU in Wagga Wagga, Mr Adrian Lindner for his 20 years of service with the organisation. The Vice-Chancellor and President of CSU, Professor Ian Goulter will present the medals to the staff over lunch in the Chancellor's Room in the Convention Centre at CSU in Wagga Wagga from 12noon on Friday 16 September.

Renowned Australian documentary filmmaker Mr Tom Zubrycki will present a special lecture to Charles Sturt University (CSU) students about his new film, The Hungry Tide, on Tuesday 13 September before a screening that night at Metro 5 Cinemas in Bathurst. Dr Jane Mills, Associate Professor in Communication (Teaching and Research) at the CSU School of Communication and Creative Industries said, “Tom Zubrycki has mapped Australia’s changing social and political landscape for the last 20 years. He has directed 14 documentaries, many of them feature-length and award-winning, and has produced another 12 with emerging filmmakers. His latest film, The Hungry Tide, which premiered at the 2011 Sydney Film Festival and greatly moved the audience, examines the struggle of Kiribati, a tiny Pacific nation threatened to be engulfed by rising sea levels due to climate change. For the105 000 inhabitants on Kiribati’s 33 atolls, climate change is not an abstract issue, as rising sea levels and salinity are now threatening their lives. I encourage everyone to see this compelling film about the plight of our Pacific neighbours, and to reflect on this most important environmental issue.” Mr Zubrycki will speak to students enrolled in various Bachelor of Communication courses at 4pm at the University.

An historic documentary exploring Muslim people through Australian history is the subject of a free screening in Dubbo on Wednesday 21 September. Highlighting Australia’s first interaction with Muslims, the Macassans, who travelled and traded well before European settlement, the documentary chronologically navigates the milestones for the Muslim community post-European settlement. The film captures the ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity of Muslims Down Under, and tells the stories of Muslim pioneers and their descendants, beginning with the pivotal role the Afghan camel herders played in the development of outback Australia, to the successful integration Muslims have made into modern Australian society. In the Footsteps of the Ancestors: Muslims Down Under by Ms Nada Roude can be seen from 6pm at the Western Plains Cultural Centre in Wingewarra Street in Dubbo. The event is hosted by Charles Sturt University (CSU) in association with the Islamic Council of NSW.

"Sometimes the only way to manage the daily percolating drip of fear, the corrosive dread of debt and humiliation, is to embrace another sort of terror, to put oneself in danger." The Booranga Writers’ Centre at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga is hosting author Ms Kalinda Ashton as its third writer-in-residence for 2011. Her first novel, The Danger Game was published by Sleepers Publishing in 2009. Ms Ashton was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelists of the Year in 2010. Her short stories have been published in journals and anthologies including the Sleeper Almanac, Overland, Meanjin and Kill Your Darlings. Ms Ashton will attend a writers’ workshop from 2pm at the Booranga Writers’ Centre, Mc Keown Drive, CSU in Wagga Wagga on Saturday 17 September and a public reading from 5pm on Thursday 22 September at the Wagga Wagga City Library in the Civic Centre, Baylis Street, Wagga Wagga.

Visiting Chinese ecologist Professor Cao Lei has a delightful enthusiasm for all things Australian, and a great concern for the environmental degradation of wetlands and the loss of waterbirds in her homeland. Professor Cao is working at Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS) as part of her three month visit to Australia, developing a cooperative project proposal with ILWS director Professor Max Finlayson and ILWS researchers on a model for wetland restoration and management in China to address the marked deterioration of wetlands in the giant Yangtze River basin. The Chinese ecologist is particularly concerned with the dramatic fall in the number of many waterbirds that rely on freshwater lakes in the basin for winter feeding and roosting. As leader of the Waterbirds and Wetlands Ecology Group of the University of Science and Technology of China’s School of Life Science, Professor Cao is also investigating how CSU teaches its ecology courses, with a view to establishing ecology as a major area of study at her university.

Regional engagement will be the topic for discussion when Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Mr John Nolan addresses the 2011 Australian Local Government Aboriginal Network Conference in Dubbo on Thursday 15 September. As community relations officer for CSU’s Centre for Indigenous Studies, Mr Nolan is passionate about regional engagement. “My lineage is part Wangkumarra northwest of Bourke, and Wiradjuri on my father’s side,” Mr Nolan explains. “After spending the first nine years of my life living in railway tents, I moved into one of the first homes built in Dubbo by the Aborigines Welfare Board in 1955.” After finishing his schooling in Dubbo, Mr Nolan worked in positions with the NSW Aboriginal Lands Trust and Aboriginal Development Commission and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission before following his other passion, teaching, which saw him working at primary and secondary schools in Dubbo, Alice Springs and Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. “I’ve certainly seen how beneficial regional engagement is in large communities. I hope to pass my knowledge on at the Conference.”

What do physical theatre, touring theatre for young people, and outdoor satirical hip-hop theatre at Charles Sturt University (CSU) all have in common? They are dynamic theatre forms featured in the coming SPRUNG Festival and supervised by newly-appointed lecturer in theatre/media, Mr Daniel Aubin, a former Canadian national gymnast who recently joined the School of Communication and Creative Industries in Bathurst. “These three exciting major works by our third year students will surprise and captivate audiences,” Mr Aubin said. “All productions demonstrate a high level of technical skill and imagination, and integrate all three years in the course.” The productions include Level 101 (physical theatre), Health Havoc (touring theatre for young people), and The 7PM Projects (an outdoor satirical hip-hop theatre). Mr Aubin has been a performing artist, theatre director and educator for over 15 years in Europe, North America, and Australasia. His experience ranges from stunt-doubling for US actor Mark Wahlberg and corporate leadership programs, to theatre, film, festivals, special events and circus. He has taught physical theatre, clown and acrobatics at Flinders University, Adelaide College of the Arts, and for the Australian Dance Theatre.

The annual SPRUNG Festival of performances and multi-media productions by final-year theatre/media students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) kicks off in Bathurst on Wednesday evening 14 September. Festival spokesperson, Ms Phoebe Lane, said, “The SPRUNG Festival seeks to engage the local community by demonstrating a commitment to artistic innovation by providing high quality entertainment. This year the festival features two theatre shows, a hip-hop comedy, a flash animation film, a children’s touring show, a physical theatre piece, an arts publication, and a documentary on a community project with Kelso Community Centre. Everyone is welcome.” The SPRUNG Festival is presented by CYLE Productions and the CSU School of Communication and Creative Industries in Bathurst. The official festival launch will be held at the Ponton Theatre at CSU at 6.45pm on Wednesday 14 September, and runs to Saturday 1 October.

School students from across the Riverina will show their investigative skills at a science competition at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga on Friday 16 September. The Science Investigation Award is being held by the Primary Industries Centre for Science Education (PICSE) as part of a partnership with CSU and involves up to 100 students from Year 6 and Year 10. The students were asked to pose a scientific question and then put together an investigation or experiment to help answer that question. PICSE Science Education Officer Ms Emma Wordsworth said students will present their scientific reports to the judges. “Students are putting the finishing touches to their investigations in preparation for judging on Friday, where they will be able to showcase their work to members of the scientific and wider community,” she said. PICSE aims to encourage students to study science and go on to careers in food and fibre industries.