ODYSSEY Based on Homer’s epic poem about Odysseus’ ten years of wandering after the fall of Troy, the dictionary defines an odyssey as a long and eventful or adventurous journey or experience. Critics are raving about Christopher Nolan’s new three hour film...

WHAT DOES BELONGING MEAN? I am provoked by the current political debate about immigration and multiculturalism, and the creeping anxiety about what constantly evolving agentic AI might mean for our humanness in a political ecosystem that bridges the carbon/silicon...

THE NEW DRIVER IN THE SEAT Many years ago, now it seems, I was invited by my friend Rhonda Galbally to join her in Melbourne to help establish the Commission for the Future, to which she had been appointed as its inaugural Director. Under the chairmanship of cultural...

COLLAPSE OR TRANSFORMATION? THE TRUST DEFICIT We’ve all been brought up on a constant diet of media entertainment shaped by conspiracy theories of the Deep State, corrupt politicians, wealth scams and national security fears, and the glorification of shallow fame and...

The Challenge of Relationship One of the issues that comes up in creating any community engaged in direct relationships is what is our relationship going to be with other communities? In particular, indigenous communities, and even more particularly those indigenous...

THE QUAGMIRE The ancient Dhammapada (300BCE) warned: “We are what we think: with our thoughts we make the world”. Canada’s Mark Carney named it at Davos: the post WWII international rules-based order under US hegemony is over. The global pattern of nation states’...

THE ANGLOSPHERE Mark Carney called it out at Davos: the end of the international rules-based order under Pax Americana, the undisputed global hegemon since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The world’s political powers are re-arranging themselves into a new multi-polar...

REGENESIS Back in 2023, when I published The Regenesis Journey (amazon.com.au), I suggested that the regeneration of Australia as a sustainable, vibrant, multicultural and socially justice society, should rest on three pillars: Caring for Country—a bridge that unites...

THE MANY ASPECTS OF SOVEREIGNTY The dictionary defines sovereignty as [attributive] (of a nation or its affairs) acting or done independentlyand without outside interference. We also see the idea of 'sovereign' recently applied to a type of citizenship - the sovereign...

Saturdays are when I get to do deep dives into interesting articles from my ‘go-to’ sources, such as The Guardian and The Saturday Paper, bringing me to insightful reflections and musings about the state of the world and my own life. What caught my attention were...

Creative Climate Futures Incubator    The Aust-Indo Creative Climate Futures Incubator is a cross-cultural artist incubation-residency and exhibition program that brings together Indonesian and Australian artists to imagine alternative climate futures through...

THE REGENESIS PROJECT Since 2022 I have been working with my community of creatives in the Greater Blue Mountains to run the yearly Regenesis Project. In 2024 we wound up GBMCAN (Greater Blue Mountains Creative Arts Network) and created a new group, the Enlivenment...