6 months until 40

"The time is now, the walrus said, to talk of many things..."

Well, in 6 months, I turn forty.  Yeah, yeah, I know, it's just a number.  Regardless, I started taking a Social Psychology class and there was an "about me" portion to fill out on our profile.  I know I'm coming up to a time that is a huge right of passage, and it might take 10 years to get through it...but I feel it.

Here is what I wrote:


As a social entrepreneur, I look at a problem as an artist views a blank canvas, and my mediums are storytelling, art therapy, music, theatre, spoken word, and film.

I have engaged in community activism all over the world, but the experience closest to my heart is when I produced and directed the musical HAIR. The event was preceded by a host of local events, workshops and panel discussions that created dialogue on race, sex, drugs, war, and the environment. Among those who were engaged in this production were the Asheville chapter of the Veterans for Peace, local community cultural centres, UNCA Centre for Diversity, Gary Orfield (former co-director of Harvard Civil Rights Project) and Michael Butler (original Broadway producer of HAIR ). Together we all played a part in this most inspiring community event that served as a catalyst for a diverse group of strangers who became empowered activists and who also created a network of friends. It was a truly profound experience!

A few years earlier, I was honored to facilitate another network of empowerment during my service in Americorps at Mission Dolores school in San Francisco. There I created a women's studies class for seventh grade girls. To witness the girls using a knowledge of their own history, creating identities of confidence, based on critical thinking skills, continues to give me hope that a similar program can be re-created and implemented in schools around the country and eventually the world.

A panoply of skills and good timing helped me secure a position at the 2008 Olympics in China. I was open to this incredible experience after two personal traumas: being hit in the face and chest with fireworks and then being violently attacked in my own home, which precipitated my need to leave my life in Asheville for awhile. While in Beijing, I managed a hospitality suite for executives from Telstra, Australia's biggest media company. Interacting with and making invaluable connections with these corporate giants renewed my interest in social entrepreneurship and reinvigorated my commitment to creating programs for indigenous women in Australia and North America.

To transform this idea into reality is most vital: women in developing countries and indigenous societies are especially at risk for violence, poverty, and have no access to health care.

I used to say, "I want to develop programs that...", but after living in the desert in the Anangu community I don't want to speak at all; the time is for action and support, with consistency and determination. I first learned about the atrocities endured by the Aboriginal population in Australia, and consequently in my own country, while pursuing my Masters degree at Macquarie University, just north of Sydney. Later, I returned to the Garma Festival in Arnhem Land (NT) where my mind and heart were truly opened. After getting married, my husband and I traveled back to Uluru, in the centre, and spend three months with Anangu Elder, Uncle Bob Randall. It's a constant struggle to find the meaning in paying rent when we'd rather be there, being present in the day-to-day of community life. We then spent a month in Aotearoa and continue to be humbled by the power of the First Australians, Maori, and keep learning from their relationship with the Land.

Currently we live on Oahu, Hawai'i. UA MAU KE EA O KA ‘AINA I KA PONO O HAWAI’I. (The life of the land is preserved in "Pono", that which is right and perfect)


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