Leonie Sheedy presenting at SNAICC conference
IPMEN delegates with Fijian school children at Taqage District school.
I have just been through a bit of a presenting binge starting with the Healthy Parks Healthy People Inaugural Congress in Melbourne, then IPMEN conference in Fiji and finally SNAICC conference in Alice Springs.
The three conferences managed to cover topics ranging from Parks Management, community engagement in both management and study of Marine parks, marine science (particularly water quality), sharing knowledge about Caring for Sea Country, Traditional Knowledge and social justice issues.
I am not quite sure how I have got myself entangled in these terrific themes. I think my job description must certainly be Generalist by now. The years of studying fine art, putting brush to paper or canvas and always feeling a deep uncertainty about my Art stuff has resulted in me branching out a little.
Perhaps it is also due to being the child of a young colonial nation with Ancient underpinnings which have called me from any path I could have predicted within my particular framework of schooling and social environment. Just goes to show what can happen if you have an open mind.
But it also means that the path is not smooth on a personal level. I now move with more surety in the world, feeling that what I am doing is the best way to respond to the incredibly complex times that we live in. And that I am blessed to be able to have the freedom to work in the way I do and learn.
I sometimes wish that the illumination and determination I feel in relation to my actual work could be translated into certainty around some of the major painful issues in my life. My heart is becoming a strange soldier, standing on guard, watchful.
