Story vessels

Twelve sculptors were chosen to research and create a story vessel to represent the stories of the twelve wards of The City of Greater Geelong. I organised the community meetings for nine of the sculptors including myself.  This involved facilitating 27 meetngs.  I then documented and curated the exhibition of the twelve story vessels at three locations (Geelong City Hall, Johnstone Park and Federation Square).  This was part of the project called Connecting Identities in which other artists consulted with other communities to record stories, write and compose songs, poetry and performance art.

The challenges of addressing an Aboriginal responsibility for Country in land-use and national park planning: a South East Queensland case study

This paper presents research insights on the challenges that Australian Aboriginal communities living within the South East Queensland (SEQ) metropolitan region face in seeking to exercise their contemporary responsibilities to care for Country in land-use and national park planning. A case study design was adopted to analyse the incorporation of two Aboriginal communities connections to Country in state-based planning systems, and to explore the responsibilities Aboriginal communities ethically seek to adhere to in maintaining Country from their own understandings.
Country, from an Aboriginal understanding, involves a deep ecological, cultural, economic and social comprehension of ‘law’ guided by a responsibility for Country. Otherwise known as customary law and custom, Country is that which both Aboriginals and their communities are intrinsically connected to. Country is the moral value that guides Aboriginal obligation to care and this obligation could well conflict
with mainstream contemporary Western management policy and legislation.
This research draws on insights from Quandamooka Country (North Stradbroke Island) and Jagera Country (Brisbane City and Ipswich), located within the Brisbane metropolitan region in South East Queensland of Australia. During this research, it was concluded that, in both Quandamooka Country and Jagera Country, the respective Owners are operating within a sphere of increasingly complex challenges that impact upon their ability to conserve and have recognized the values of their obligations to Country care in planning. Common themes occurring on Country identified in this research included issues relating to a neglect of care to maintain Country by planners and government officials, and interactions that prevent Traditional Owners from having their obligation of caring for Country on their terms expressed through land-use planning legislation. Political agendas of the Queensland State that influences the interactions of planners and government with Traditional Owners were also concluded to be detrimental, and to damaging trust, ongoing discussions and understandings. These insights indicate that Aboriginal communities are facing an increasing conflicting range of perceptions and comprehensions that are hindering the expression and execution of their moral responsibility embodied in their deep ecological law to care for Country in Western planning legislative obligations. It illustrates that the responsibilities given to practicing planners and government officials to care for Country under Western law are commonly not adhered to It concludes with the suggestion that for some progress to recognize an Aboriginal responsibility to Country in planning, state-Traditional Owner relations and collaboration is now needed to help transcend the legislative challenges underpinning Western planning law.

Close, but still too far: the experience of Australian people with cancer commuting from a regional to a capital city for radiotherapy treatment

This paper reports the findings of a study undertaken in November 2001 on the experiences of 17 rural people from the regional city of Toowoomba who had been diagnosed with cancer and were required to travel to the capital city of Queensland (Brisbane) for radiotherapy. The interviews were tape recorded; the recordings were transcribed verbatim and analysed for emergent themes and subthemes, following verification by the participants that the transcription was a true record of their experience. The major themes that arose from the study were (1) the burden of travel; (2) the difficulties of living in accommodation that is not one's own home; (3) the financial burden caused by the need to relocate or travel to and from Brisbane; (4) the lack of closeness to family and friends; (5) and feelings of being a burden on others. The findings suggest that at a time of stress, an increasing burden is placed on cancer clients and their families if they are required to travel for radiotherapy. Health professionals who read the results of this study should be aware of the isolation of rural people who have to live in an unfamiliar environment at a time of great stress. Support mechanisms should be put into place in these referral centres to deal with these stressors.

Learning from rural planning development to encourage urban and regional planning ; indigenous villages versus city development in Bali province

The most important crises in the planning system is related to the significance of "capitalist state" influences [3]. In the global context, Bengs states that there is a matter partiality between "global capitalism" and "national democracy"[4]. Bengs stresses that planning is closely related to the economy of a country, which is in one side the government wants to reduce taxes, while on the other side there is a dilemma of the global and indefinite solicitation of assets. Hall (2002) discusses the problems of the city; those are city planning, history of planning, and geographical setting. City planning is not only planning in one region but also including the district around the city, such as river basin and a certain regional culture. The urban planner should involve all those aspects in the city planning. Friedmann (2003) distinguishes planning theory into three types. First, planning theory is related to planning in particular fields such as land utilization, transportation, urban design, regional development, environmental planning etc. Second, the type of theory related to planning tout court, and the third type is the theory about planning itself. Sanyal (2002) states that although planners have limited autonomy, their actions affect policy result [5]. Friedman (2003) supports Sanyal's argument stressing that planners learned from their actions not from theories.