Murray Upper Dreamers

A brilliant day listening to dreams of adults of the future. To think all of them will be teenagers now!

Following the Crow Song

This post is by Michael Bromage.  I helped with the audio on the video that accompanied the post.

What do a camera girl, motorbike rider, robber and fairy have in common?

They each represent some of the dreams shared by students attending Murray River Upper State School.

I love ABC Open’s Dreambox project. The dreams people share can be surprising, inspirational or down to earth. I enjoy seeing the differences and similarities between the dreams of kids and adults and I get to meet new people in our community, practice my photography and teach digital storytelling techniques.

My mother will be proud. She has always wanted me to try teaching in a classroom and HERE I am at a state school in front of the class. Good fun. Great students.

Thank you to principle, Kayte Gillinder, and staff for helping provide the Dreambox opportunity and thank you to June Perkins

View original post 142 more words

Song Trails revisits the Cassowary Coast

From the Archives. All ABC Open direct links will soon be gone, but you can still find most of my posts and posts relating to my family on my memoir blog.

Following the Crow Song

At Song Trails, a three day workshop created for the Queensland Music Festival, attendees were asked to move out of their comfort zones by working with people they didn’t know as well as with new combinations of instruments and voice to create new songs.

Young worked with old, punk poppers, with folk and country stylers, and rock with country and as for instruments we had saxophones, harp, guitars, flutes, trumpet, bass and voices – high and low – all came together to do what we all loved- make music. Tully Song Trails resulted in a rhythm and blues song -Throw me in the Water, laid back pop song – Solo, a grunge rock song with parts sung in German – Gone So Long, folksy – Coming in From the Clouds (or Mother Nature) and a poetry rap with folky chorus.

The musical experience of nineteen people from the ages of…

View original post 1,372 more words

Ian Hallmond, Festival Founder Says


June brings warmth of spirit plus a wealth of experience with her, and I feel privileged to have worked with her on the past two,’ Ink of Light: Baha’i Writers’ Festivals’.

Her commitment and enthusiasm is infectious to any project, and her sense of professionalism in representing other creatives is commendable.

It has been a true honour to have June’s assistance and I look forward to collaborating with her in the future.  

Ian Hallmond. Founder of the ‘Ink of Light- Baha’i Writers’ Festival.’



Look – Don’t Touch

More work from the archives of ABC Open. From the days of The 500 word project.

Following the Crow Song

Mum has always loved gardens.  She used to stop and knock on our neighbours’ doors when their gardens had plants with brilliant potential cuttings.   Then she would ask ‘Do you mind if I take a cutting?’

She came equipped with her own garden gloves, shears and buckets.  I wonder what the neighbours thought of her as she harvested their gardens.  I remember being embarrassed, but she did do it with everyone’s blessing.  I don’t remember anyone ever saying no to her.

Mum loved to try and grow tropical plants in Tasmania to remind her of her original home in Papua New Guinea.  She had immense pride when she had success with her hibiscus. She has always been a determined lady in both her garden and other parts of her life.

When we were little Mum clearly told us to stay away from her garden flowers – ’Look, don’t touch.’

View original post 565 more words

Listening Divas

ABC Open will be archived and no longer available at its current spaces after June 30th. They kindly wrote us an email to give us a chance to make sure we had all our stories backed up (which is good practice to do anyway). I am sharing my favourite ABC Open contributions on my memoir blog. If you look up the category ABC Open they will appear there. Not sure if I can save a copy of the documentary on our After Yasi experience done by the ABC, but will see what can be done.

Following the Crow Song

When we were young, Dad told us bed time stories. They were always silly with us in starring roles.

Dad liked Spike Milligan and AA Milne. Sometimes he’d recite his favourite poems and direct them to one of us. Snatches of AA Milne come back to me at the oddest times, with his poetry of children whose parents run away and cautionary tales to not step on the cracks in the footpath.

Dad’s stories were funny and satirical but sometimes we protested about the way he portrayed us. We were unruly characters, tiny divas, jostling for bigger and more complimentary roles. We directed our storytelling Dad just so.

Our favourite thing was Dad giving us magical powers. We told him the names we wanted and what we should be doing.
‘No I wouldn’t do that.’
‘I should be taller’
‘I need to run faster’
‘I’d jump to … the moon’

View original post 335 more words