31 mars 2013

Passenger

AAAAAHMAAAAAHGAAAAADH WHAT AN AMAZING GIG!!!!!!!!!
I'm still buzzing from it. It was so intimate despite being quite formal and loads of people. Stu LArsen started us off followed by this girl Georgia or something, the most adorable girl. So awkward in the cutest, funniest way!
 
Blind Love - acoustic and absolutely mesmerizing

If you aren't already a Passenger fan, get on the train!! Make sure you go see him if you get the chance, it is worth every penny.

Riverside

Ah I'm just so far behind with a lot of my subjects! It's getting a bit stressful. So I invited Caez over for a girls night...! We went for a walk around the river in North Freo, it's just so beautiful.
Australia seems to have a love for putting benches in strange places.
I mean, what a view......
This house always have these life-sized animal sculptures in different positions around the garden. Very interesting... It's obviously Easter theme right now... Ususally they are chained in place, as if anyone would actually want to steal them haha
We finished off with a nice healthy dinner, good wine and lots of Easter chocolate. So much for being healthy right!

The enxt morning I got up at 7 (!!) to study (yeah didn't get much done, but it's the thought that counts no? Haha, I'm sure my lecturer will let my late assignment slip if I say that!) I woke Caez up at 9nd we went down to the beach for a little stroll before we had banana pancakes (just 1 moshed banana, 1 egg and some yoghurt, yummy!) for breakfast. It's an arts festival in Freo this weekend so we took the chance to check that out at lunch time. We found Mike Rosenberg aka Passenger "busking" so we got a little pre-taste of the concert. Not sure you can call it busking when you've become quite big and have teenage girls waiting 45 minutes for you to start and then scream right through the "gig". Bless.
 Waiting patiently to get Mike's autograph.
Aaaaand then came the concert! I'll post that soon.

26 mars 2013

Dr. Vincent Harding

26 March is a day that will forever stay in my mind and in my heart. This day we got to take part in an intimate (as intimate as skype can get) skype interview with Dr. Vincent Harding, speech writer and personal friend of Martin Luther King Jr. This man took part of the Freedom movement (civil rights movement) from its early days and is still fighting for peace, freedom and justice in the world. Words cannot desribe what an honour it is to have been a part of this.

The interview was at 4.30 am so most of us stayed up the whole night. We watched two films about the freedom movement and about the controversial speech Dr. King held at Riverside Church concerning the Vietnam War; the speech Dr. Harding wrote.
Soundtrack for a Revolution Trailer
worth watching!

What really hit me about the films and the interview was the love, compassion and courage of the movement and Dr. Harding. It is incredibly brave and strong to remain non-violent and loving in the face of brutality and hate. I feel extremely frustrated by apathy, ignorance and evil but frustration, anger and violence will not bring about peace, love and freedom. If we want the world to be a peaceful and sustainable place we have to lead by example and that means finding that inner place of love; even and especially for our enemy. You cannot create real change with hatred and brutality. But , we can create change. We can live in the world of our vision. However, the world is not going to change by itself, it takes active global citizenship. The system we live in is a social contruction that can be de-constructed and re-constructed to fit the needs of the entire world.

Finally, I want to shout out to Jarrod McKenna and his family for the fantastic work they are doing for both the local and global community.

24 mars 2013

Hold on my love


This week has been all about catching up on studies yet there has been very little progress on that front...

Photo: Shane Thaw, UC Photography
My internship is going well and I'm really enjoying it. It's very grass roots and the people are amazing! I might, might, be heading up to Broome to join the blockade when Woodside wants to start drilling in the dunes where the Indigenous peoples' ancestors are buried. The Indigenous spirituality is strongly linked to the  Land, it is earth-centred rather than god-centred, which is why this act is so condemnable. 


Spiritual Song of the Aborigine

I am a child of the Dreamtime People
Part of this Land, like the gnarled gumtree
I am the river, softly singing
Chanting our songs on my way to the sea
My spirit is the dust-devils
Mirages, that dance on the plain
I'm the snow, the wind and the falling rain
I'm part of the rocks and the red desert earth
Red as the blood that flows in my veins
I am eagle, crow and snake that glides
Thorough the rain-forest that clings to the mountainside
I awakened here when the earth was new
There was emu, wombat, kangaroo
No other man of a different hue
I am this land
And this land is me
I am Australia.
Poem by Hyllus Maris.
If you want to know more about the beautiful Kimberley region then visit www.savethekimberley.com

Yesterday Katherine came over for dinner and a very unproductive study sesh. She ended up staying the night and we had a bit more productive morning thankfully! Later in the arvo we met up with Naz at moore&moore café.
 We had a sneak peak at the Hearts and Vessels exhibition by Errol McMahon
Hold on
Hooked on you

Sculptures by the Sea in Cottesloe

There were so many people there that we decided to leave quite quickly...
Back to trying to study....

20 mars 2013

We WILL change the World

Shano Thaw has created this brilliant video of all the WA roadtrippers! Cheers man, lots of love to you!

18 mars 2013

Road Trip to End Poverty

So yesterday we arrived back from the Road Trip to End Poverty organised by the Oaktree Foundation.

The aim with the trip was to raise awareness about the injustice of extreme poverty and push the government to raise the foreign aid. Australia currently gives 0.35 % of its GNI in foreign aid and has promised to raise it to 0.5 by 2015. However, the Govt is pushing it back so we are holding them accountable for the promise they've made and we are pushing for another raise to 0.7 % by 2020.

The Road Trip included 1000 young people from all over Australia. In WA we were based around Perth campaigning for the first few days before flying to Canberra for media stunts and meetings with our local MPs and Senators. We then bussed it to Sydney for another media stunt and petitioning. Between all the campaigning we had lots of debriefs, interesting energisers and warm, fuzzy moments.

Beautiful Barbs and I the first day of the Roadie

This Man
<3
(photo: Rosemary Henderson)

Tree hugger!

Best moment: Receiving the average March rainfall in one night... Yes, the grass got waterlogged and our tents got flooded.

Rory and Mr Roo chilling before our flashmob

Cuddle party at YMCA HQ

Hello Canberra!
Best group ever!!



Parliament House
Finger knitting is a thing

 Ninja destruction!


Meeting with Senator Rachel Siewert from the Greens.

SYDNEY





Thanks to all of you. There will always be a special place in my heart for all of you who made this experience so incredible. Lots of love to you all!

(Special shout out to Rosemary Henderson and Shanye Thaw for the photos!)
)