Speakers
The speakers are at the heart of the Vegan Festival Adelaide. These amazing communicators explore and illustrate the Festival's core themes through their own personal stories and passions.
Zachary Bird - Animal Rights Aerobics
Zacchary Bird is the vegan butcher, the vegan baker and, above all, the vegan rule breaker. He’s vegan, BTW. No matter which hat he’s wearing, the job is the same: to perfect the plant-based version of absolutely every menu item known to humankind, and then some.
With a background in commercial plant-based meat development and teaching cooking classes (that go heavy on the deep-frying), Zac and his recipes alike are known for being extra AF. Flipping through his cookbooks will reveal a bounty of bold flavours, vibrant eye candy and (at times) bewildering creativity. Scrolling through his social media, you’ll find Zacchary teaching recipes as well as performing as a global dance icon (live from his living room), to kill time between tours of a croissant dough.
Zacchary’s first book, Vegan Junk Food was published in 2020 and was once used as a political prop by Jacinda Ardern. The Vegan Butcher won the PETA Australia Vegan Cookbook of the Year 2021, which Zacchary claims makes him the world’s number one vegan butcher/baker hybrid who can also do a backbend. These days, Zac owns a Brisbane based vegan eatery and coffee bar called Archie AM PM.
Kristy Alger
Kristy Alger is an animal, human, and environmental rights campaigner living in lutruwita/Tasmania on the unceded lands of the Palawa peoples. She is currently the coordinator for Animal Liberation Tasmania. Recent camosigns include the push to ban greyhound racing in lutruwita, as part of a broad community of advocates and organisations at the grassroots. Kristy is also an avid photographer, primarily documenting protest actions especially the continuing movement for Palestine. In 2000 she published the book "Five Essays for Freedom: a political primer for animal advocates." In her spare time she enjoys watching endless repeats of Vikings and knitting hideous 100% plant based beanies.
Harley McDonald-Eckersall - Behind the Walls - Australia's largest slaughterhouse investigation.
Harley has been organising for animal rights for 10 years. At age 19, Harley co-founded her first animal rights organisation Young Voices for Animals. Since then, she has organised for groups across Australia and the UK, including Animal Rising (formerly Animal Rebellion), the Save Movement and Farm Transparency Project.
For the past three years, Harley has shaped Farm Transparency Project's direction and strategy, leading investigations and building campaigns, such as the Ban Gas Chambers and Shut Down Slaughterhouses Campaigns.
Chris Delforce - Farm Transparency Project
Farm Transparency Project (FTP) is a non-profit animal protection charity, dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals in farms, slaughterhouses and other commercial settings.
In 2018, Farm Transparency Project (then Aussie Farms), released the groundbreaking documentary film Dominion, bringing global attention to animal farming and slaughter in Australia and around the world. Since then, their cutting edge investigations have pushed the boundaries of what is possible when it comes to documenting and exposing how animals are bred, confined and killed by humans.
Chris Delforce
Chris learned from a young age the importance of social justice and compassion for all – particularly those less fortunate than himself - and seeks to use the privileges afforded to him to improve the lives of others. He started an organisation called the Youth Vegetarian Association at his university in Canberra, through which he met members of Animal Liberation ACT and learned of the cruelty of the dairy and egg industries. He went vegan and began participating in covert rescues of animals from factory farms, liberating hundreds of animals. Chris has investigated over one hundred farms, slaughterhouses and other animal exploitation facilities across Australia and internationally, founded Farm Transparency Project (originally Aussie Farms) in 2014, and has written, directed and edited two award-winning feature-length documentaries, 2014's Lucent and 2018's Dominion.
Dan Mackerman
Dan McKernan is the founder and president of Barn Sanctuary in Michigan, a haven for rescued farmed animals and a centre for education and compassion. After years working in technology start-ups, a life-changing encounter with a cow inspired Dan to become vegan and transform his family’s neglected farm into a sanctuary. Since welcoming its first resident in 2016, Barn Sanctuary has rescued hundreds of animals and shared their stories with millions through social media and the television series Saved by the Barn. Dan’s work invites people to recognise farmed animals as individuals and build a kinder, compassionate world for all.
Pam ahern - edgars mission
A lifelong animal lover, Pam cut her teeth on cat and dog rescue and became a champion equestrian. However, everything changed when a tiny piglet, the eminent Edgar Alan Pig, trotted into her life in 2003 and led her down a path she’d never imagined. She gave up her full-time paying job, hung up her riding boots, and dedicated her life to the protection of farmed animals. With Edgar firmly at its heart, Pam built the sanctuary from the ground up and set in motion outreach programs that would bring farmed animals out of the dark unknown and into public view. Pam is also the proud Australian Ambassador for World Animal Day and was a 2014 Victorian Local Hero Finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards.
