Email Article Michael Crossland
Michael's Message of Hope
“I use the rope to play tug of war.” That was the opening line in a letter that Michael Crossland recently received from a young girl in Denver, Colorado. Michael remembers the girl; she was the one dressed in black with black eye make up and black nails. The plan had been to hang herself in a motel room, she wrote. But after hearing Michael speak she had decided the rope was better used to play tug of war with her friends.
Phil Greed
A Life Shaped by Clay
Like one of his pots, Phil Greed’s life has been shaped by clay. “Clay has been the one constant for me,” says Phil of his abiding passion. As he talks about his life, loves and art, a sense of symmetry appears: whilst Phil’s life has been changed by clay, so too the joys and sorrows of living have influenced the shape and feeling of his pots.
Kerry Hines
Councillor Kerry Hines fights for ‘the greater good’
Councillor Kerry Hines is a fighter. Just ask Michael Robotham, the international crime writer, who she pummelled in high school for having the gall to pick on her girlfriend. The fact that Kerry has had to fight some pretty tough battles to get to where she is today probably explains her tough, direct, somewhat impatient style. But underneath her gruff exterior this wrestling, skateboarding tomboy turned successful business woman and tough-talking local politician cares more than she is prepared to let on.
Dave Knight
Cheering on Dave Knight
I knock on the door of Dave Knight’s Boambee home. When no one answers I call to the shadow I can see sitting at a desk inside, “Dave, is that you?” Suddenly a short, somewhat dishevelled man jumps from behind the desk exclaiming “Oh dear, I completely forgot. Oh no, I haven’t showered or changed.” He hustles me into the kitchen, introduces me to his wife Linda who is busy cleaning and rushes off to get changed, returning momentarily looking pretty much the same as when he left.
James Parker
The founder of Jetty Research is definitely a Seven
If you have ever studied the enneagram you will know that it divides the world into nine personality types. It’s often hard to figure out what “type” someone is, but every once in awhile someone comes along and you immediately recognise their number. This is the case with James Parker. It takes less than half an hour to know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he is type seven.
For the uninitiated, type seven is described by the Enneagram Institute as: The Busy Variety Seeking Type: adventurous, scattered, and extroverted. The fit with James is uncanny.
Alison Page
Alison Page Breathes Hope into our Community
If you have ever opened the paper or turned on the news and seen a story about Aboriginal Australians that just made you want to weep with hopelessness and despair, then you need to spend an hour with Alison Page. She is a tonic, a genuine breath of hope with the outlook and energy to change the world.
You may recognise Alison as the bubbly Aboriginal interior designer on the panel of ABC’s The New Inventors. Perhaps you have purchased a piece of Alison’s exclusive Diamond Dreaming jewellery from Mondial Neuman Jewellers in Sydney’s QVB. If you live in Willcannia you might remember Alison from the weeks she spent in the community while designing the new hospital. If you are local to Coffs then you probably recognise Alison as the head of the Saltwater Freshwater Arts Alliance, the partnership of mid-North Coast Aboriginal communities that has brought us the Saltwater Freshwater Festival for the last 2 years.
Errol Gray
Sawtell's Backyard Balladeer
Errol Gray looks different without his guitar. As the man with the bald head, Miami Vice beard and tanned floral shirt saunters toward my table, it takes me a moment to realise that this is the Backyard Balladeer I met recently at a bush poetry festival in Tenterfield. But as soon as he says “g’day, how ya goin’” I’m quite sure this is Errol. He sits across from me, orders a coffee and a Parmesan Turkish Bread and starts to tell me about life as a struggling and not-so struggling musician.