Ocean Lovers founders honoured

Ocean Lovers Festival co-founders Anita Kolni and Carolyn Grant have been recognised with the United Nations Day Honour Award for their work in public engagement on ocean conservation.

The award was presented at the annual UN Day Lunch at NSW Parliament House last month, by United Nations Association of Australia NSW (UNAA NSW) president and chair Dr Patricia Jenkings.

“This award is in recognition of your leadership and vision in founding the Ocean Lovers Festival, whose work embodies the values and goals of the United Nations, and for your significant contribution to raising awareness of ocean conservation and sustainability across Australia,” Jenkings said.

Ocean Lovers was founded in Bondi in 2019, with Kolni staging the first festival at Bondi Beach in April of that year. The organisation describes itself as Australia’s largest cultural and science celebration for the ocean, bringing together science, First Nations knowledge, education, innovation, business and community.

Its programs include free public festivals, school education, youth innovation, ocean wellbeing initiatives and the Blue Solutions Summit. 

At the first festival, Kolni championed the Sydney Coast Hope Spot, securing support from Mission Blue and the Sylvia Earle Alliance. She has received a Rolex Hope Spot Grant and was named among the Global 500 Female Founders in Ocean and New Energy across 100 countries. 

According to the organisation, more than 300,000 people have participated in its experiences since 2019, and around 100,000 people have made changes to their daily lives as a result. It said its work contributes to 11 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The award comes as Australia begins implementing its Sustainable Ocean Plan, which calls for stronger collaboration across sectors and communities, deeper engagement with First Nations peoples, greater investment in ocean knowledge and collective action. Ocean Lovers said it had spent the past seven years putting many of those principles into practice.

Kolni said the organisation began after she recognised a gap between work under way to protect and restore the ocean and what the broader community knew about it.

“I wanted people to know about the solutions, to feel hopeful rather than helpless, and to understand the power we have to change things when we come together,” she said.

“We thought we were building a festival. What we’ve actually built is a bridge between knowledge and understanding, between solutions and people, and between caring about the ocean and knowing how to act.”

Grant said the organisation’s growth had been made possible by a network of scientists, educators, Traditional Owners, partners, volunteers and supporters.

“Ocean Lovers has always been about bringing people together. We’ve seen first-hand what happens when you make ocean science accessible, engaging and hopeful. People don’t just learn more, they want to become part of the solution.”

UNAA NSW has supported Ocean Lovers through its volunteer program, mobilising dozens of volunteers each year.