Her Canberra

Warning: you will be craving frozen yoghurt after reading this. Canberra is home to an amazing food scene that we’ve said time and time again rivals the likes of Sydney and Melbourne. And with the announcement of Yo-Chi’s impending arrival, we thought it was a good time to look at Canberra’s frozen yoghurt scene. Ranging from local businesses at the top of the frozen yoghurt game to Australia’s first totally gluten-free yoghurt bar, here’s where you can cure your craving.

Designed for the makers, the bakers, the growers and the creators, the Canberra Homemaker Swap is bringing together like-minded women to connect, slow down, and share items made with intention. It’s this philosophy that attracted Canberra mums Jess Muirden and Tam Green to the idea of a homemaker swap in the first place – a trend that has been sweeping Australia since Sunshine Coast mother Kaya Elliot first put the call out for creatives to swap homemade goods on social media.

Joy isn’t her personality – it’s her rebellion. “I have this really intense commitment to joy,” Gen Sparkle says. This is no motivational slogan. Believe me. Her words are hard won. Spend an hour in Gen’s company and you’ll understand why. The riot of flowers, fabrics and colour in her home. The blush-pink couch where her black dog, Xena, sprawls across her lap. The lush plants.

This week, the capital is turning up the energy with a wonderfully eclectic mix of events. We’re talking festivals (plural) celebrating winter, a massive pop-culture Geek Expo, a high-stakes local battle to crown the city’s ultimate toasted sandwich, and a giant free plant giveaway to spruce up your home. Toss in major international sporting tournaments and intimate live music sessions, and you have zero excuses to stay bored. Here are the absolute best ways to spend your week.

Across the Plateau + Q&A takes audiences on an epic ride across one of the world’s toughest landscapes. This inspiring documentary follows seven retired Chinese cyclists as they pedal an incredible 3,100 kilometres from Lanzhou, across the Tibetan Plateau and all the way to Everest Base Camp. Along the journey, stories of endurance, friendship and survival unfold, offering a unique window into China’s changing culture and history.

Glass Blowing Experience: Make Your Own Bird Get a taste for the Hotshop at Canberra Glassworks in this unique one-on-one glass-blowing class! Choose to blow your own glass bird in this one-of-a-kind glass-blowing experience with the guidance of a skilled glass-blowing teacher. This 20-minute individual class runs most weekends and is suitable for ages 14 years and over.

Glass Blowing Experience: Make Your Own Vase or Tumbler Get a taste for the Hotshop at Canberra Glassworks in this unique one-on-one glass-blowing class! Choose to blow your own glass vase or tumbler in this one-of-a-kind glass-blowing experience with the guidance of a skilled glass-blowing teacher. This individual 40-minute class runs most weekends and is suitable for ages 14 years and over.

A Day at the Movies is the NFSA’s dementia-friendly film program for cinema-lovers, designed for the enjoyment and comfort of people living with dementia, as well as their families and friends, carers and companions. The series is brought to you by film and media experts Associate Professor Dr Jodi Brooks (Project Lead, University of New South Wales), Dr Fincina Hopgood (University of New England), and independent screen culture and audience development specialist, Karina Libbey.

Join artist Chris Carmody in conversation with author Quentin Sprague to discuss Carmody’s exhibition All the Time, now showing at Civic Art Bureau, Canberra. All welcome, bar open, at Civic Art Bureau. Quentin Sprague is an arts writer and critic, author of What Artists See (Monash), Ken Whisson: Painting and Drawing (MUP), The Stranger Artist: Life at the Edge of Kimberley Painting (Hardie Grant, winner 2021 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for non-fiction) and The Lake (Stolon Press).

Since relocating to Australia, compost has occupied a central position within Tamara Henderson’s practice: as material, method, and model of transformation. Through processes of decomposition and regeneration, Henderson constructs an ecology in which sculpture, painting, film and sound emerge through the same cycles of accumulation, decay and renewal. ‘The Gardener’s Bar’ developed from this environment as an ode to Henderson’s backyard Kamberri/Canberra shed.