#aime mentoring

[sexysundayjam]

NAIDOC

Pictured: Fely Irvine - SSJ Unplugged “Sunset Sessions”, BridgeClimb Sydney

Privileged to sing on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge under the Aboriginal flag. 

White Australia has a black history.

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Day 200: GLOBAL

Zooming out and thinking about the world in its entirety has been a unexpected common theme in my life over the past few weeks.

Unexpectedly in the recent development of a personal trip to Europe I am now taking at the closure of 2016 and an “Around the World” themed party I recently attended - which I’m only mentioning because I need to self promote my greatest dress-up costume creation to date just a little more:

I am of course the moon and am literally around the world.

(And my sister to the right is some kind of Mexican motif - I don’t know but her effort is insignificant in comparison)

You’re welcome.

Otherwise, the “global” reoccurrence is less surprising when considering AIME’s newest directional shift: our global campaign. 

Which I would encourage you to read more about here: https://wannachangetheworld.raisely.com/

As I touched on a few posts ago, there’s this crazy surge of change, ideas and action that’s drenching everything we touch at the moment. Global is the word on everyone’s lips and It’s nerve racking and intense for just about everyone here. It’s adding a lot of pressure simply because it’s something we’ve tried or even considered before.

I have no doubt that this time next year the AIME I know now will be almost unrecognisable. That’s not meant to sound negative at all but I really can’t imagine with all this change around our branding and the projects we’re working on, that it will look completely different.

Just something to think about.

[aimementoring-blog]

Day 125: “Do schools kill creativity?”

Here’s an incredibly thought provoking, fascinating and funny analysis of how our education systems are effecting our world which I stumbled upon today. 

It’s from 2006 and a pretty lengthy video but very much still relevant and worth the watch, as it discusses why it might be a good idea to make some changes, and what we can hope to see our future look like if we do.

When I was in the U.S. I found myself questioning some of the very subject matter which is discussed by Ken Robinson here. Over there in that environment, the rhetoric around the value of people and their talents was unsettling and ostracising. If you don’t have a university education (and increasingly, if you haven’t further that education post grad) - you’re not valued, in both social and industry contexts. This is merely recementing the class system, and I think it stems back to what happens on school grounds. Measuring the skill and intelligence of humans - and specifically kids in the school context - by evaluating their aptitude around a rigid hierarchical set of topics, leaves little room for creativity - so when Robinson asks “Why don’t we teach kids to dance everyday like we do maths?” I’m with him.

My favourite excerpts if you haven’t got the time to watch it all are in the final moments of the talk here:

“I believe our only hope for the future is to adopt a new conception of human ecology, one in which we start to reconstitute our conception of the richness of human capacity. Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we strip-mine the earth: for a particular commodity. And for the future, it won't serve us. We have to rethink the fundamental principles on which we're educating our children.

...

What TED celebrates is the gift of the human imagination. We have to be careful now that we use this gift wisely and that we avert some of the scenarios that we've talked about. And the only way we'll do it is by seeing our creative capacities for the richness they are and seeing our children for the hope that they are. And our task is to educate their whole being, so they can face this future. By the way -- we may not see this future, but they will. And our job is to help them make something of it.”

[aimementoring-blog]

Day 72: HELLO FROM THE ROAD

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Day 70: “Everyday Leadership”

I think I’ve been writing too many essays recently, so here’s an awesome, thought provoking TED Talk around the pedestal we’ve put ‘leadership’ on.

Worth the watch - and it’s worth it to start thinking about the concept of leading in a more accessible light.

Enjoy.

[aimementoring-blog]

Day 56: Invasion

The University of NSW has today announced that the way in which they teach their students of Australia’s history, has been changed from a story of “discovery” made by the British Empire, to an invasion of the already existing Indigenous culture and society. 

In the true style of Australian mainstream media, this story broke this morning with an attitude that was solely focused on generating emotional and polarising discussion within the public. And it succeeded in doing just that.

 From the get go they’ve segregated the population in to “invasion” or “discovery”, “us” or “them”, “left” or “right”, “black” or “white”. In doing so, the outcome is inherently antagonistic and negative and simply misses the boat completely.

The ignorant will always uphold their narrow views. Our words have been falling on those deaf ears for centuries. Instead of trying to re-educate the ones who don’t want to learn anything, can we take a moment to celebrate this win?

The idea that our young people can learn about the atrocities of our past, be exposed to the true foundations of Australia and mourn on it and grow to overcome it together - regardless of race, is, to say the least, a step in the right direction.

To imagine there may be a time where no Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander student battles with their school test that asks for the year of “English Settlement” and talks of Captain Cook as some kind of hero of the British Empire.

A time where no Indigenous student will have to explain why there’s an Acknowledgement of Country at the beginning of school assemblies, because everyone would know that this land has never rightfully been anyone other than Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s.

And to think, that maybe, just maybe, there will come a time when the lone, fourteen year old Aboriginal girl sitting in a classroom at her predominantly white school can avoid being called on by her teacher to provide the “Indigenous perspective” on Australian history where she’ll be ashamed because she doesn’t know what to say and the educator has forgotten she’s a student needing to learn more too - to think that won’t happen, makes this story not one that insights argument and anger, but excitement for how this will change the school experience and what kind of progress can come next.

[aimementoring-blog]

Day 53: In light of the world’s horrors

When something horrible like what we’ve seen in Belgium in the past 24 hours occurs, we’re forced to ask why?

Why does this happen? What compels people to seek to commit harm against one and other? How do we fix what is so obviously a universal issue? And, why do I feel like I’ve asked these questions before?

I don’t think I could come close to giving an accurate answer to these, and the array of injustices that exist in our world sometimes feels so vast that focusing too much time on them is simply overwhelming.

But if as many individuals as possible took the time to reflect on some ideas around this ‘why’ - maybe we could finally come up with an answer.

I guess this post is just a bit of a spew of my thoughts.

The video below is pretty thought provoking too.