Black Women Strong... I'm grateful

Photography by Becky Bligh

Last week I had the pleasure of being an invited speaker at the 4^th annual Black Women Strong Conference hosted by the Yarrabah Community. The two-day event included a series of workshops, speakers and plenty of time to just yarn.

MY GRATEFULS INCLUDE:

YARRABAH DREAMING: Only 40 minutes drive from downtown Cairns is the community of Yarrabah http://www.yarrabah.qld.gov.au/  with 3000 people and a setting to die for. Pick a tree by the sea, breathe in the serenity and start to feel the city stress just slide away. It is the perfect setting for reflection, planning, and getting motivated for the challenges that face us as women. 

 Deline, Lou and Emma - photo by Becky Bligh

MUSCIAL INTERLUDE: At the hands of three members of the Black Arm Band –  Deline Briscoe, Emma Donovan and Lou Bennett  we spent some time under the trees (where the best creativity occurs) and penned a Black Women Strong Anthem. As a writer of books, articles etc., it was interesting to watch the team effort that went into writing the song as a collective. It was the women’s generosity and an ability to listen to what each person suggested in terms of lyrics and melody, that made me consider: what might the process look like if men were doing the same thing. I wonder!

YARNING / LISTENING: For me personally, I am always grateful to just STOP. My life has been pretty hectic over the past decade and so the opportunity to connect with First Nations women where I can sit, yarn and listen to the stories of others from around the country, was a real blessing. Aside from delivering a speech and a workshop on writing memoir, which I also felt inspired doing, I got simply be an audience member and just indulge myself in other people’s stories and wisdom.

MUDGIN-GAL GALS: It was a great opportunity for me to see two of my favourite tiddas from Mudgin-gal  present their recently completed NRL Kit on domestic violence. Both Ashlee Donohue and Dixie Link-Gordon have presented their work at the UN a number of times and are wonderful advocates for the rights of women. One of their key messages on the day was that we need to stop saying domestic violence is a women’s issue because as men make up the bulk of perpetrators, it is in fact men’s business. Men need to be talking about DV and challenging each other. Here! Here!

 With conference coordinator, the always calm Elverina Johnson
Photography by Becky Bligh

THE ORGANISERS: A big shout out of gratitude to Elverina Johnson  and Joanne Houghton who worked tirelessly over the past year (I imagine since the last conference finished) to pull this year’s event together. Having organised literary events / seminars etc in the past I know the coordination and stress involved. So with that in mind, I say thank you for the time, effort, energy, enthusiasm and invitation to me to participate. Much peace.

With the stunning Emma Donovan and Ashlee Donohue at the conference dinner

TIDDA TIME: Just want to shout out to the beautiful Ruth Ghee (with me below) who shared breakfast, a stunning view and some special yarns with me while there. Peace tidda.

AM I BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU? a review by NSW Shadow Attorney General Paul Lynch

Bantam 2012RRP: $32.95

Anita Heiss is an impressive Aboriginal writer and intellectual. She’s worked in many genres including social policy and politics as well as ‘chick lit’ (which she describes as ‘choc lit’). This book is a memoir – specifically a memoir on identity.

Heiss and others (including the equally impressive LarissaBehrendt) were viciously attacked by Andrew Bolt, resulting in Federal Court proceedings under the Racial Discrimination Act. Bolt’s putrid rantings claimed Heiss had chosen her Aboriginal identity for political and career motives, was motivated by political and financial advantages and was a ‘white Aborigine’. The entirely correct Court decision condemning this drivel was greeted with outrage by pro-Bolt forces with rhetoric about free speech. Mike Carlton and David Marr pointed out and Heiss reinforces here that’s arrant nonsense – Bolt got things hopelessly wrong, seemed to do no proper checking and displayed appallingly sloppy research capacities.

That doesn’t mean this is a book about the Court case or a legal analysis of legislation or an attempt at retribution. It’s much broader, much more interesting and much more fun than that. The first page includes this “I am an urban beachside Blackfella, a concrete Koori with Westfield Dreaming, and I apologise to no one”. That gives a sense of the book.

Heiss’ focus on being an urban Aboriginal in contemporary Australia is incredibly important. One fifth of Australian Aboriginal people live in Greater Western Sydney (32% of Indigenous Australians live in urban centres). That is not what the mainstream media or most of the non-Aboriginal community think. Many think that to be ‘authentically Aboriginal’ you have to be a desert dweller, poor, uneducated, at risk and dark-skinned. That is an identity being imposed by non-Aboriginal people on Aboriginal people. But they’re still blacker than Bolt, who’s setting up degrees of blackness among Aboriginal people. And it doesn’t explain fellow students at Heiss’ primary school calling her ”Abo” and others harassing her on her way to high school.

Heiss’ father was an Austrian migrant with whom she clearly had a very deep bond. It’s not intellectually difficult to understand the idea of someone with Aboriginal identity and Austrian heritage. It’s no harder than understanding non-Aboriginal Australians with Greek, Italian or Irish heritage.

This memoir tells of Heiss’ life - schooling then UNSW and a PhD at UWS and academia and then working full-time as a writer.  It deals with life coaches, Oprah, Mr Right and being a workaholic. It also stresses the importance of education, the need to respond to racist slurs and criticism from within community. It’s well written and some of it hilariously funny (especially some of the bits about camping – this urban Aboriginal’s concept of traditional camping “under the stars” is to be on a bed in a house and seeing the stars through a window pane!). None of that makes it any less political or any less a great work of advocacy.

Paul Lynch

Member for Liverpool

NSW Shadow Attorney General

Am I Black Enough for You? is available from Gleebooks, Avid Reader, Readings, Booktopia and all good bookstores.

Alexx Stuart is grateful every day... here's why...

I’m pleased to welcome today’s guest blogger Alexx Stuart, whom I met at the recent Women in Focus Conference (see blog below!). I attended Alexx’s Health and Well-being workshop and it reminded me of the importance of listening to my body, especially as I am constantly on the run across town, and states.

Today, in the spirit of connecting as women with similar gratefuls, I’m thrilled that Alexx has shared her own here…

 

Alexx says she is grateful for…

Family. I am grateful to have a supportive family and an amazing partner, who let's me fly. Friends often say things like 'wow, and Ollie's cool with you doing that? Going there?' and similarly when he travels to amazing places for work, "I bet you hate that you don't get to go…" I have to say, I get excited and Ollie does too for me. Partnership is about lifting each other up and letting each other fly. It's about nurturing bravery, the seizing of opportunity and the support in each other's endeavors and beliefs, so that you live a full life - both together, and as individuals. I totally chose awesomely if I do say so myself and I am so grateful we found each other and have our beautiful little man with us for the ride. 

Gifts. I have always taught and directed, ever since I was tiny. Bossy little thing I was. As I got older I got better at getting people on side and better at making people feel good about converting to a new way / product. While that was very useful in a sales marketing career across cosmetics and hospitality, I never realised until last year, that I could really help make a difference once I developed a personal interest in health and well being. I'm so grateful to be able to transition into this new career phase, helping people regain their best possible wellness and re learn the wisdoms we've lost to convenience and clever marketing. To be truly able to help in an area so needed is just so exciting. 

Travel. I love to travel and I'm so grateful for the change to have travelled twice in this past week to Port Douglas and the Gold Coast to see life out of a different window for a few days. You can't put a price on what that does for the soul. 

Friends that lift you up. I have seen again and made so many new connections this past week thanks to Women in Focus and Problogger conferences and am excited no end at the new people coming into my life and the conversations I have now in my every day. No status quo talks. We're all too busy helping each other be the best we can be and having fabulous giggles and experiences along the way. 

My grandmère, who's 93 birthday it would have been yesterday. She taught me desserts, and while they were classic French all white flour / white sugar versions, it is her inspiration I carry with me today, as I finish editing my first book about to be launched, on healthy treats. I hope she's up there somewhere licking the bowl in spirit and while I'm sad we can't share the moment, I'm excited to have had such a beautiful woman as a grandmother for the 34 years that I did.

Wellness. I never take feeling well for granted and am grateful every day. When you've been sick in the past for long periods of time, you have the gift of perspective. If you've been more or less well and never sick, take a moment to think: Wow, I'm lucky, and be proud to continue to invest time into staying well. 

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You can check out all of Alexx’s recipes, inspirations and ideas on low tox living here!

You can follow her on Twitter and join her at Facebook! 

Women in Focus ... I am grateful

Pic courtesy Women in Focus

Two weeks ago I attended the CBA’s Women in Focus Conference  in Port Douglas. The day I received the invitation to participate I was grateful, intrigued and excited all in one. That’s quite a positive mix of emotions for one day, wouldn’t you say?

I assumed the invitation was extended to me because of a RAWomen  webinar session I’d previously done with Karen James (GM of Women in Focus, also of CEO Cook Off fame), and Catriona Wallace (CEO, Fifth Quadrant). If you missed it you can watch on demand here! 

Having already engaged in the political and the personal with Karen and Catriona on-line, I was enthusiastic about joining other like-minded women to share their positive stories of success in business, and to determine how we could support each other’s personal and professional goals. Even with backgrounds ranging from legal to pharmaceuticals, health and well-being to farming, data mining to philanthropy, I found it possible to connect on some level with most of the women I met. Sometimes it was just sharing the issue of frizzy-humidity hair in tropical QLD!

I am still working through my many long lists of TO DO’S that the conference created for me (okay I created the lists myself), but today I wanted to share some of my gratefuls about my time with this extraordinary group of women from around the country.

NEW FRIENDS: Developing new friendships is not why most of us go to professional events, but it was hard to walk away from this gathering having not only made professional contacts but also new friends. I need to mention specifically here Karan White from Pod Legal who has been an avid supporter of mine on Twitter in recent months, and while me may share some professional work in the future, her sistahood is what I am most grateful for today.

DEADLY ARTISTS: Speaking of sistahood, I was proud to see the artwork of two deadly Aboriginal women featured as part of the conference. Joanne Nasir  (pictured above) from Darwin was the creator of the ‘starfish’ rock each delegate received (see mine pictured below), and Bibi Barba from Roma Queensland. It was great to see Bibi’s art as gifts for presenters. Be sure and check out her work here for your own enjoyment. 

NEW CONNECTIONS: Aside from new friends and deadly sistas, other connections that will cross personal /professional are what I have taken away also. Cathy Reid (has already blogged for me here  about her gratefuls), Alexx Stuart (will appear here shortly), Vicki Fitzgibbon and Louise Curtis (the original CBA WIF poster girl, see below) are all now in my thoughts and I hope to be able to share my skills – and a few cuppas or cocktails -with them in the future.

INSPIRATION: I’m rarely short of inspiration, but the WIF conference left me brimming with new ideas, a greater sense of possibilities and a better understanding of my own professional potential. And for that I am grateful. My time there listening to speakers like Claudia Batten, Victoria Ransom, Andy Lark, Debra Cerasa, Ronni Kahn  and Kim McKay , left me in awe for the strong, staunch women out there. Having spent most of my life working on the NFP sector within community organisations, as well as doing a lot of ‘love jobs’ still, I was also pleased to listen to a panel about being socially conscious in business.

FOCUS: I am grateful for the time to sit, listen, learn, engage, share and reflect on my professional goals, and just to FOCUS on what is needed to grow my own business. I may be a sole trader, managed by and manager of none, I am still a businesswoman motivated by making change. I also have bills to pay, so being able to manage my business is just every day life. People who work for themselves will understand that taking time to focus on your own life and dreams is a luxury, especially when my deadlines and travel for work get in the way. I remain grateful for the time dedicated over the two days to allow me to considered how I might focus on redefining my own “Anita Heiss” brand, and where I might see my professional life head in 2014 and beyond.

INFORMATION: From learning about successful business models here and abroad, to how to consider being well-thy, and the importance of social media in connecting with my clients – i.e. audiences internationally – I was given the tools to move forword through information sharing. Most importantly for me, as someone who is an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation  and Advocate for the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence, I was impressed to learn about the various community programs run by the CBA. These include the Community Grants Program  and support for Indigenous Youth to name a few. I was also impressed to learn that the CBA has raised over $2m through staff donations alone for community projects. Awesome!

 

ROLE MODELS: I am grateful for the women I consider to be role models to me and thank them for their support and most importantly, their good humour. Huge shout out to Catriona Wallace (pictured above) and Karen James (below middle) for taking me under your powerful wings.

ENVIRONMENT: Finally, if you’re going to be working from 8am-10pm (networking over dinner is work!) then you may as well be doing it at QT, Port Douglas.  The places adds new meaning to the phrase working-paradise. Thank you to all the staff who took care of us, fed and watered us.

Finally, thank you to the entire Women in Focus team: Karen, Katie, Ana, Chelsea, Kelly, Melynder, Nicole, Ruth, Vanessa and Lauren. 

I'd also like to thank Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS for supporting my travel to the conference.

I am forever grateful.

Mikael Willie writes about The ASSI 150 Project and pride in identity

It is 2013, and it is 150 years since the first South Sea Islanders were brought into Queensland to work as indentured labourers  on plantations that were part of the opening up of the new colony. Robert Towns  had a cotton plantation at Townsville (now Veradale) near Beaudesert. This was the destination of the first Islanders brought into Queensland. They arrived at Redbank and walked 45 km to Townsville stopping to break the journey at Jimboomba station. Other local plantation owners soon followed suit with the importation of South Sea Islander labour. After the failure of cotton growing on the Logan River, South Sea Islander labour was used extensively to develop the sugar, pastoral and Beche-de-mer industries in Queensland. Up to 60,000 South Sea Islanders were brought to this country until the early 20th century.

On Saturday 24^th of August I was lucky enough to be a part of the ASSI 150 project,  my name is Mikael Willie I am a Year 11 student at Chisholm College,   and I am of South Sea Islander descent, from Banks Island at the very top of Vanuatu, I also have connections to Tanna Is, Ambrym Is and Epi from my two great grandmothers, I also have Indigenous heritage from the Gureng Gureng  people near Bundaberg, it was a real honour to stand by my people as we marched the land of Beaudesert, it made me feel proud of my South Sea Island and Aboriginal identity. 

The march was walked on the same path that my ancestors walked when arriving at the sugar canes. I was very proud to be a part of the march, representing my people. I walked with the highest Authorities of Vanuatu Paramount Chief Richard Fandanumata (from Tonga) he is the representative chief of all Vanuatu and founder of Blackbirding issue against Australia. This event was very significant as the Indigenous tribe of Beaudesert the Mununjali people welcomed us into their land also using a smoke ceremony where all the South Sea Islanders in the march walked through the smoke into the land. 

Nowadays, their descendants are scattered across Queensland and NSW and have made a significant contribution to the country. Specifically, the ASSI 150 Project will work towards an exhibition and associated events initially for a period of time in 2013 but the vision is for these to be exhibited and performed in venues throughout SE Qld. The aim is to help tell that story to the wider community and to acknowledge and commemorate the contribution that Australian South Sea Islanders have made.

Brisbane… a never-ending list to be grateful for…

When I started this gratefulness blog, I religiously sat down of a night and easily found five things to document and be grateful for in my day. I still can, I just haven’t been, and for that I am mentally slapping myself. Of course there is plenty to be grateful for, especially during my extended working / break her in Brisbane, and today I just want to share some of my gratefuls of the past few weeks.

The All Stars before the run...

RUNNING BUDDIES: I am grateful to the beautiful women affectionately known as THE ALL STARS (Nadine McDonald-Dowd, Louisa Panuel and Jasmyn Sheppard) who ran with me recently to raise money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. We travelled up from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast Marathon, and gained some strength the day before by lying by the pool of the Novotel Twin Waters. I was also nursing a broken toe – which I won’t bore you with here – so I also need to extend my gratitude to Nurse Nadine to provide an endless supply of tape and sympathy.

  
The All Stars at the end...

We did our 10km run in the heat of the Sunday morning sun, replenished ourselves with big breakfasts afterwards and came back content knowing we had all achieved in our run and our fundraising.

I am especially grateful to all those who put their dollars where my feet were for the race. Collectively, THE ALL STARS were the top ranking fundraiser! Awesome! 

 

 Mel Kettle's cooking class - how lucky am I?

COOKING LESSON with MEL KETTLE: I can’t cook, that’s no secret, but I have friends who are deadly chefs, including Mel Kettle who’s blog – The Cook’s Notebook  – has given me some simple and simply delicious recipes that I have been able to manage all on my lonesome. In exchange for a copy of Manhattan Dreaming, Mel invited me into her all-equipped and well-stocked kitchen for a lesson in preparation for a dinner-party I was hosting – see next entry.

I am grateful for the personal tutorial and just being able to watch a ‘real cook’ up close and personal to see how it’s done. Would I dare to cook for Mel one day??? Maybe that will be a challenge for 2014… I do have a recipe or two up my sleeve now, I just need the courage.

 Josie, Anita, Narelle, Sheryl and Angela at the non-dinner party!

THE NON-DINNER PARTY: So, with my cooking lesson and confidence under my belt, and a new set of wine glasses and cutlery to play hostess in my temporary home here in Brisbane, I set about preparing my menu for some of Brisbane’s deadliest writers. These women are award-winning, witty, warm and wonderful. They cross-genres and are multi-skilled BUT also have some issues with their food! I learned that one was vegan, another GF, one a fruitarian, one a carnivore, one lactose intolerant, one sugar-free, one didn’t like capsicum, another anything spicy, one was all of the above, and none really drank. But by the time we’d finished our email exchanges I was on my third glass and in tears. It was my worst hostessing nightmare. I couldn’t even make this up for a novel if I tried!

So what am I grateful for with this little event – the local Thai restaurant I took them to instead, where I said – pick what you can eat!

I don’t recommend you inviting them all for dinner at the same time, but I do recommend you read their books! Check out Josie Montano,  Sheryl Gwyther,  Narelle Oliver  and Angela Sunde!

 

PICNICS FOR ONE: Perhaps one of my most significant gratefuls for my time in Brisbane has been the ‘me time’ I have gifted myself and spending time sitting under trees along the river and having picnics for one. I find an incredible sense of peace at Orleigh Park and along the stretch from West End to the SLQLD where I spend time every weekend. So I am grateful for the weather and the landscape for providing the perfect setting for me. Oh and a good book (i.e. Cate Kennedy’s Dark Roots), a beer and some Twistie’s also make for a great party for one.

 With the cheeky Adam Hill, aka Blak Douglas

SMALL TOWN MOMENTS: Brisbanite's hate me saying their city is like a country-town, but it is, in a good way. It’s logistically easier to get around and catch up with people, and indeed bumping into people, like I did…. There I was on my way home from my picnic-for-one and I look to the right and see none other than deadly artist Adam Hill. It was a surreal but typically small-town-in-a-big-world-moment. I was grateful for the fleeting moment we shared before I toddled of home and he got back into his book… perfect Sunday arvo along the river. Oh and it pays to look left and right, not just when crossing the road, cos you never know who you might see!

Brilliant businesswoman Cathie Reid is grateful...

Today I am excited I can welcome to my blog the first of the wonderful connections I made at the #womenCAN conference in Port Douglas recently. Hosted by the Women in Focus  team of the CBA, the event brought together 140 women who are positively disrupting their industries through the businesses they run. I was grateful having been invited to learn, but also to share so many inspiring stories and moments with women from around Australia. (I will blog my own gratefuls ASAP).

 #womenCAN l-to-r: Alexx Stuart, Emma Isaacs, Cathy Reid and Naomi Simpson

Cathie Reid is one of the women I got to spend time with, talking about life in general, and some fantastic fashion as well (see her gorgeous outfits above and below!)

Cathie is
 APHS Managing Partner  and APHS Packaging Founder but that’s not why she’s blogging today. I invited Cathy to share her gratefuls because I think she’s not only deadly in business, but also on the dance-floor.

Cathie says she is grateful for…

1.        Opportunities.  I am so grateful for the opportunities that continue to present whereby I am able to attend amazing thought provoking, stimulating events that also allow me to catch up with existing connections and make new ones.  Last weeks Women in Focus conference was a great example, and delivered a wonderful new connection with the amazing Anita Heiss!

2.       Health.  Good health is an asset that so many of us take for granted, but when friends undergo health challenges it is a salient reminder of how grateful I am for the good health I enjoy, and the responsibility to do everything I can to maintain that.

3.       My family.  I have a wonderful husband and two great kids who support and encourage me in everything I do, even when it involves spending time away from them.  They constantly find ways to surprise me and light up my world, and I am so grateful that they are in my life.

4.       The sheer joy women get from each other’s company.  The Women in Focus conference illustrated this in spades as we all embraced the opportunity to dance like loons to 80s music in the middle of a rainforest, with laughter and new friendships fizzing like champagne bubbles.  Women supporting other women is such a powerful force, and I am grateful to be part of supportive communities with like-minded women who love to celebrate being in each other’s company.

5.       Living in Queensland.  After leaving beautiful sunny days in Brisbane to head to equally beautiful sunny days in Port Douglas my arrival into Melbourne to a temperature of 14 degrees was a rude shock.  As I shivered in my shorts I was so grateful that life enables me to live in a climate that suits my cold blood!

 #womanCAN Cathie Reid with Adele Blair - another Brisbane business-babe

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I can relate to all Cathie’s gratefuls – except husband and kids, and I’m good with that. How many of Cathie’s gratefuls can you relate to?

You can follow Cathie on Twitter!

Where our journey begins… an anthology by primary school students

As part of my wonderful few months in Brisbane, I had the pleasure of doing a writing residency at St Peter Chanel in The Gap. During my time there I worked with the entire student body from Preps to Year 7, and together we created an anthology of writing titled Where Our Journey Begins.

Within these pages you will read the passionate, enthusiastic and engaging words of some very motivated and inspiring students in the SPC community.

In considering the role of totems in Aboriginal society the energetic Preps and Year 1’s were asked to choose a totem for their own clan, their own family. I think parents and siblings might be interested to see what animal each child chose for their totem to protect the ones they love, and why they wanted to protect their chosen totem. It was interesting to see that the black snake and carpet snake were as popular as the koala and the shark!

Years 2 and 3 brainstormed all the ways they could care for land and the sea, as well as why they should protect and respect the earth. In sharing their strategies for caring for country, they also explained why they love living on Turrbul land around The Gap.

Places like Uluru and the Bunya Mountains are known as sacred sites to Aboriginal people and important cultural heritage, but most of us have somewhere that is sacred to us on a personal level; a place that holds fond memories, a space where we feel safe and at peace. Years 4 and 5 wrote about those places that are sacred to them; why they are special, who they go there with, any rules there might be to protect their sacred place. They used their senses to describe in detail just exactly what the place was like, so the reader could be transported there as well. I’m sure you will be.

In talking about Indigenous Australia in modern society, Years 6 and 7 brainstormed all the words, phrases, people and concepts that come to mind when they think about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today. Some of their work also reflects their own understanding of our shared Australian history as well, and the choice to write performance pieces also helped them to tell their stories.

It is important to note that some of the words and phrases used in some these pieces reflect the racist vernacular of the time the children were writing about, such as ‘half-blood’ and ‘native’. This terminology is not used in today’s discussion around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Peoples of Australia.

I thoroughly enjoyed the writing journey with these beautiful students. I hope the parents enjoy the reading journey.

Byron Bay Writers Festival... I'm grateful

This is a belated blog but I didn’t want to let the experience of the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival  pass without me expressing my gratitude. This fabulous video shot by Tim Eddy truly captures the spirit of the festival, and I recommend watching it just to make yourself feel good today.

In the meantime, in no particular order (and leaving out lots of other things I am grateful for) here are five gratefuls from my weekend at the BBWF:

 Pic courtesy Diane Curran

FUNNIEST PANEL EVER: I have been to writers festivals around the country and indeed internationally, and I always have a laugh and sometimes a weep, but the BBWF this year provided the biggest laughs I have ever experienced at any event anywhere. Taking the stage with local author LisaWalker featured on my blog below and in the pic above) to talk about chick lit and mass market, we say alongside Colin Falconer who had more identities than I could count, Ed Chatterton who was supposed to be suffering from man flu, and our deadly chair Moya Sayer-Jones   who facilitated the laughter! Seriously, I nearly peed my pants. You will see the laugher of the panel and the audience in the fab video by Tim Eddy.

 

BLUE STOCKING BABES: The BBWF was the second Stella Prize Trivia night I’d done (the other being at the Perth Writers Festival). The event is always full of laughter, a touch of competition and the occasional boo, but it’s also very stressful. So stressful in fact that I didn’t recognise my own work (from Not Meeting Mr Right) being read out to the audience. Thankfully my team members Georgia Blain  and Judy Horacek had all the answers! Big shout out to the awesome Sally Warhaft who is the most awesome mediator, timekeeper, chair, judge ever! And of course, even she knows we were robbed on the night.

MEETING THE READERS: I like going to festivals because I get to meet my readers. I think it’s a normal part of being a writer to engage with those I write for. I like to know what they get out of my storytelling, which characters they relate to and why. I especially loved the audience engagement in our chick lit session with support from readers such as Colleen Hickey (pictured above). She gladly stepped in as one-woman cheer squad, just like a mother. Too gorgeous!

CATCHING UP WITH FRIENDS: The BBWF was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with writerly friends and to make new ones. Just because I have this fabulous pic of Benjamin Law  from the Stella Prize event, I’ll flag him today and note that I am always grateful to see Ben. And if you haven’t read The Family Law then I totally recommend it. It picked my up at a time when I was feeling very low.

 

BYRON BAY BEACH FRONT: One cannot ignore the absolute beauty of the beachfront at Byron. Peaceful beyond words so I won’t add any. The photo speaks for itself. And I’m grateful.

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to Jeni Caffin and all her team at the Northern Rivers Writers Centre, especially the volunteers who make the festival as special as it is.

Celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day in Melbourne with great art!