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Scenting Cultural Stories [Panel Discussion]

Geelong Fragrance Fair Event

Scenting Cultural Stories is an engaging panel discussion that delves into the powerful role of scent in shaping cultural identities and traditions across the globe.

Scenting Cultural Stories is an engaging panel discussion that delves into the powerful role of scent in shaping cultural identities and traditions across the globe. This event explores how different societies use fragrance to express values, tell stories, and connect with their histories. This discussion offers a unique opportunity to connect with global perspectives on scent, challenging our perceptions of smell as merely a physical sensation and highlighting its deep cultural and emotional resonance

The panel will include- 
 
Nathalie Cael: 
Nathalie oversees Perfumery at DSM-Firmenich Australia. DSM-Firmenich is a global leader in the creation of fragrances and flavors, with a rich legacy of 150 years in the fragrance industry. In addition to their exceptional fragrances, the company is renowned for their distinctive ingredients, breakthrough technologies, and esteemed perfumers.

Purvi Joshi: 
Purvi is the founder of PEOSYM, a Sydney-based niche perfume house that transforms human emotion and lived experiences into fine fragrances. Inspired by her Indian heritage and a passion for meaningful olfactory art, Purvi launched PEOSYM to celebrate authenticity, cultural diversity, and sustainability. What began as a tribute to her mother’s warmth has now evolved into a journey of crafting fragrances that evoke heartfelt responses—building a brand that bridges personal memories with universal connections.

Lee Couch: 
Lee is a proud Gamilaraay woman from Northern NSW with kinship connections to Yorta Yorta through her maternal and Western cultures through her paternal lines.
She was born on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people in Narrm and currently lives on her adopted homelands, surrounded in the medicine and connection to Country on the traditional lands of the Dhudhuroa, Waywurru & Taungurong Peoples in the Victorian Alps.

Lee is nested in the nourishment of traditional knowledge and connects culturally responsive approaches that honor and empower individuals’ well-being and healing. She embodies a decolonized approach to remembering and reckoning, reclaiming and restoring, reconnecting and repairing. For over 15 years, Lee has facilitated healing through both group sessions and individual mentoring.

Jocelyn Fullerton: 
Jocelyn is an independent perfumer. Her body of work spans fine fragrances, skincare and homecare to performance, art installations to cinema and exhibitions. Seeing fragrance as a unique synthesis of art and science; Jocelyn also teaches workshops in perfumery, scent creation and sensory engagement via olfaction for a diverse range of audiences such as The National Trust, The Art Gallery of Newcastle, St Marys Girls School, NIDA and SXSW and via Cult of Scent Atelier. Her technical background in phytomedicine also informs her work. Jocelyn has trained with The Grasse Institute of Perfumery and has been a member of the Societé Française des Parfumeurs since 2010.

Tickets $20 or $10 for Geelong Regional Library Members (Membership is free and available immediately online)

Proudly sponsored by 

Part of the Geelong Fragrance Fair - Scents for Mind and Mood.

Other events include: 

The Marketplace 

Perfumed Perspectives: In Conversation with Suzy Nightingale

Nostalgic Scents: a Lecture and Workshop on Memory

Exhibition: Metropolis Oasis by Nadia Vitlin 

Upcoming events