Teachers Federation Year in Review

Going to try to get back into blogging here soon.
Every year for the Teachers Fed annual conference, we present a ‘Year in Review’ video. I’ll post up this as it shows a lot of what I’ve been doing over the past year. I didn’t edit this one, credit goes to my colleague, Matt Joyce. (There is a lot of obligatory ‘show a little of everything’ in here so it might not be of interest to anyone outside the Federation.)

Speaking from the silence


I attended Quaker meeting this morning; somewhere down the street a group of high spirited people had either a very late night party from Saturday or an early start to this evening. As we Quakers attempted to sit in silence, our neighbors worshiped to techno and modern ballads (there was a story about questing for ‘booty’...perhaps something involving pirates).

This was…distracting. I am focused on this shared spiritual experience with my fellow Friends; open to the Light that resides in…Boom-Shick Boom-Shick Boom-Shick Boom-Shick Boom-Shick Boom-Shick Boom-Shick. Remember when there were we were the way toooooo remember whennnnn!

So I began to consider distraction itself and what it means to avoid it, confront it, and carry a quiet space within. In my work at the Teachers Federation, I have a recording studio. In it is a large steel box with a padded room inside; when the door is closed, it’s completely silent and one is isolated from all noise and distraction (the box is literally separated from the building itself, it ‘floats’ on rubber pads). I’ve jokingly noted to my collegues that, should they feel the need, they are welcome to close themselves inside for a while and carry some quiet space away when they leave. This is, in effect, what Quakers attempt to do collectively in Meeting. We come together for an hour of quiet to share of it in itself and then carry that away.

Yet, we’ve the tendency to covet the quiet space itself and forget the world outside. I know this morning, I became irritated at the outside sounds that were intruding on our silent considerations. Don’t you people know we are doing the important work here? We are…Zweeeeeeeeeeeeooooo! I am on the star! I am on the star! I am higher than the star! I am slightly left of the star and somewhere out in space! In Space!

I then considered what a recording studio (and the Meeting) is truly for. It’s not about the quiet space; the space is built so that something important can be clearly heard there. When there is something important to be said at Teachers Fed, someone with the voice steps into the silence and speaks. It’s about having a space for clarity so that others can hear without distraction; it’s not about the speaker himself or herself. It’s not really even about the experience that he or she has in that space. We go into the silence to speak what is necessary; there is the need for preparation, for pacing and quiet contemplation. But, in the end, all the work of building a place of silence is moot if nothing is spoken within is then spoken without. We have to bring the quiet voice out of the silence and into the world.

This is something I struggle with personally; I’m drawn to the quiet spaces and tend to avoid the messy cacophony of life. Part of this is my nature (insert long conversation about introversion and extroversion, hard-wiring of the brain, studies with chimpansees, etc.). But there is always choice involved as well. I then end, this morning at least, I chose to embrace the distraction, stand, and speak to the Meeting what I related above. The distraction became the Light speaking and, though the silence was broken, the voice heard in the end was that of a shared experience we carried away together.

Voices of the Living and the Dead

These past days, since I wrote my last post, I’ve further considered the active voice, what is it that I have to say and how can I equip others to speak their stories? I am, at this moment, the most equipped I’ve ever been to do this. In my ‘day job’ at the Teachers Federation I’ve created a full production suite and recording studio. This will allow me to pull in all manner of interesting folks and amplify the stories they have to tell. 


I wrote my dissertation on the concept of stewardship. Stewardship is this all encompassing idea (it must be, we cannot rightly be stewards of only one part of nature or culture; the neglect of anything touches on everything else). I’m considering what I hold in my own stewardship. I read this morning an essay by Jay Allison on Transom.org. Jay has become an of Elder of Stewards for National Public Radio and writes here about holding in care the actual voices of people:

I co-produced the wonderful series Lost and Found Sound with my friends the Kitchen Sisters. Sometimes, I would listen all day to the voices of dead people. The listeners who would call our Quest for Sound line would describe their old tape or phonograph or whatever contained the voice of their loved one and say, “It’s all I have left,” as if it were an actual part of the person, full of life and breath. And in a way, it was. The connection to the remaining voice is not at all like a photograph, it’s much deeper. Sound has the ghostly power to enter our bodies, unbidden.

The playwright Marsha Norman talks about a time after her husband died, finding a plastic blow-up beach ball in the back of the closet and realizing it contained her husband’s breath. That resonates with me. It reminds me of the kind of power we hold in our medium.

There is something about our voices, the sounds that we make and take for granted. Each breath has so much potential for changing the course of a conversation—or in different circumstances, the course of a life or the lives of many. Breath and spirit have the same root in Greek, pneuma (yes, I did pay some attention in that one semester of Greek). I’m considering making a sign or writing this to people before they come in my studio. The breath you take in and give out here is an expression of your spirit. You breathe in and live; what you exhale speaks from your soul. I record our voices here in this place and the spirit of this will resonate out from here—and may for years to come.

It’s easy to get caught up in the technicalities of this stewardship (the stewarding of expression and spirit). I’ve taken time to pick out the right microphones, amplifiers with glowing tubes, and made diagrams of how to connect one box to another. But I must take greater care to get caught up holding on to the spirits of those who come into this space, to go beyond the mechanism and into a realm where we can encounter one another and the real substance of the moment we share.

I know that this sounds almost preposterous as the balance of what we discuss is the political activity of a trade union. Most of the people who step into the studio aren’t there to speak from the spirit and share our connection with the Universe. But I think that has to be my intent, otherwise I’ll just sit in a box recording people reading off lists of legal advice and oppositional statements to government decisions. I have to have the presence of mind and spirit to bring it somewhere deeper.

Also, this is again the ‘day job’, I realise that I need to build a body of work separate to this as well. Not so much for professional reasons, but to keep my spirit connected and grounded to other matters that are important. I have to be a steward of the opportunities I’m given in all aspects of life—and hold them for those who will listen.

Passive Voice, Active Voice

I’m considering my voice—not my physical voice, but my ability to speak out to others and what means I have at hand to do so. I am, by nature, a quiet person and usually reluctant to speak or intervene. This might not readily change; I don’t think I’ll ever be the ‘in your face’ contender out on the frontline. But I do need to understand the bounds and abilities of my voice and use it wisely.
Last week I read several news articles relating to weapons, war, video games (playing at war) and the general glorification of violence as a social norm. I think we need to pause for consideration when a new battle simulation video game garners nearly $800 million in its first two days of sale in a time when there is such a need for the ending of wars and fostering peace. I know video games are the easy end of the spectrum to speak about, ‘oh, you know what happens when kids play those violent video games’. I’m not sure I do; but, regardless of what the games in themselves encourage in people’s minds, I do know that ‘actual war’ is increasingly engaged through the medium of a computer screen rather than in person. There are still troops on the ground facing real risk; but the movement is toward a sterile press the button and the figures on the screen are dead warfare. One of the other articles I read last week was about a new cruise missile in the US that can be launched from the States and basically target anything in the world within an hour. Soon, like an online multiplayer game, our wars may be fought by telecommuters at home in their socks.

Which brings me back to voice; I am, at this very moment, sitting at home in my socks. What havoc for peace might I bring from here? What is the balance of what I can and can’t do with these tools at hand? I don’t want that to sound like dithering as I am actually aware of what can be accomplished. It’s more a question of what is the next action and then the next. I know that, in the face of these conflicts we hear about abroad (and at home), that one voice may seem moot. But this is no reason or excuse not to speak (that’s been said over and again—one voice does make a difference when raised up in a chorus of others). I stood and spoke at Meeting on Sunday saying, It is neither weapons nor the glorification of violence that are evil’s most potent tools; war is best served by the apathy of those who do nothing to speak against it. That is the crux of it, if nothing else it is put upon me to speak what I may in the way open to me.

I interviewed John Michaelis, the editor of Quaker Voice on Wednesday at the Devonshire Street Meeting House here in Surry Hills. Quaker Voice will be (it’s still in the works) an online forum for ‘Quakers and likeminded people’ around the world to speak out and discern social issues where they are. It will be a conversation where that first person voice of real people on the ground is shared with others of concern (rather the opposite of digitally mediated warfare). I’ve just edited the interview with John and you can listen here:

Quaker Voice Devonshire Street Interview by quietamerican

Some recent work

I’ve been getting a kit together (not quite there yet, but working with a Canon XF-305 which I’ll eventually write some comments on) for my work with the NSW Teachers Federation. Here are three pieces from the past couple weeks regarding a big debate on public sector pay. It’s a bit of a challenge to make an interesting piece on a rally as, frankly, the same things tend to happen at each. It sort of looks exciting with all the banners and shouting…but that’s what people do at every rally.
We’ve everything on YouTube at the moment but we are looking into some content management systems for more controlled delivery and integration with social networking.

There is a major rally this week in Sydney which I have some plans for additional media, so stay tuned.

And, this one is a bit of an experiment that we ended up just going with…

Campaign to ban DU weapons

Donna Mulhern asked me to make up a quick flyer for the Australian Campaign to Ban Uranium Weapons last week for her to hand out at the Indigo Girls concert in Sydney (she is friends with them and was asked to speak during the performance). Here is some text from the flyer and a .pdf (I’m working on a few revisions and will refine the logo a bit).
What: Uranium weapons, often called ‘depleted’ uranium (DU) weapons, are used because of their high density and unique armour piercing capability. Manufactured from radioactive waste materials produced during the nuclear fuel chain and the production of nuclear weapons, they cause widespread and long lasting contamination of the environment. These weapon systems are radiologically and chemically toxic.

The Problem: Many people–innocent civilians especially children, military veterans, industry workers–have illnesses and medical problems, which may be due to their exposure to ‘depleted’ uranium. In areas such as southern Iraq, where uranium munitions were used by the US and the UK in recent wars, there have been reports of increases in cancers, leukaemia and birth defects.

Where: It is now clear that uranium weapons were used on a large scale by the US and the UK in the Gulf War in 1991, then in Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo, and again in the war in Iraq by the US and the UK in 2003. It is suspected that the US also used uranium weapons in Afghanistan in 2001.

Impact: The use of uranium weapons results in a human and environmental catastrophe for the affected region as uranium can remain in the air as dust particles for more than 500 years and leech into the soil and water sources.

What next: At least seventeen countries possess uranium weapons, the use of which is contrary to existing humanitarian law. We, the people, need to let governments and the United Nations know that these weapons can have no part in a humane and caring world. There is an international campaign to ban uranium weapons “(ICBUW)“www.bandepleteduranium.org and considering Australia’s involvement in recent wars, it is important we are actively involved in this campaign.

The Australian and International campaigns call for your support to demand:

  • An immediate end to the use of uranium weapons,
  • Disclosure of all locations where uranium weapons have been used and immediate removal of the remnants and contaminated materials from the sites under strict control,
  • Health surveys of the ‘depleted’ uranium victims and environmental investigations at the affected sites,
  • Medical treatment and compensation for the ‘depleted’ uranium victims,
  • An end to the development, production, stockpiling, testing, trade of uranium weapons.
  • A Convention for a total ban on uranium weapons

Be part of something bigger: the International Campaign
With more than one-hundred member organisations in twenty-eight countries worldwide, ICBUW represents the best opportunity yet to achieve a global ban on the use of uranium in weapons. Even though the use of weapons containing uranium should already be illegal, an explicit treaty, as has been seen with chemical and biological weapons, landmines and cluster bombs, has proved the best solution for confirming their illegality. Such a treaty would not only outlaw the use of uranium weapons, but would include the prohibition of their production, the destruction of stockpiles, the decontamination of battlefields and rules on compensation for victims.

ICBUW has prepared a draft treaty and is following the successful example of the Cluster Munition Coalition. ICBUW’s grassroots member organisations lobby at a national level (that’s us!), while ICBUW itself works with supranational bodies such as the European Parliament and the United Nations.

Click here for the .pdf file

See Donna’s website here

Leah Samuelson Interview

Here is a twenty minute interview with mural artist Leah Samuelson from last Spring’s BuildaBridge Institute. We spoke about her teaching methodology and how she approaches a community about the process of mural making. Her work has brought her to ‘visionaries, personnel of biblical training institutions, schools, correctional facilities, slums, and palaces.’