Projects
Creative writing
I am currently writing a novel set primarily in Timor-Leste, but also moving between Australia, Uganda and Tanzania. The novel has a working title of The Turning Land, the Constant Sea. I also write short stories.
My fiction tends to have intercultural themes and to be ethnographic. This blog is one of my practices to support the development of my creative writing.
Social change and community development
I am co-founder and Programs and Partnerships Director of a not-for-profit community-based organisation, the Ligingi Community Learning Centre. The Ligingi Community Learning Centre (LCLC) is based in Ligingi village, eastern Uganda, and is supported by a group of international volunteers in Melbourne, Australia.
My partner (originally from Ligingi) and I were inspired to start the LCLC as a way of voluntarily lending our professional skills and energy to a community dear to our hearts. The community of Ligingi is now driving the organisation in conjunction with a group of highly committed and talented young volunteers based in Melbourne, Australia.
The vision of the LCLC is for a self-sustaining, vibrant, globally-interconnected village community by 2040, and our mission is to empower the women, men and children of Ligingi village to pursue their own pathways of change and sustainability through collective learning for improved quality of life.
The LCLC currently has 3 programmatic areas of focus: Arts and Culture, Education and Health, and Environmental and Livelihoods Sustainability.
Please have a look at our website or follow us on Facebook. We always welcome new ideas, organisational partnerships, volunteers and supporters, so please be in touch if you want to get involved.
Research (gender, anthropology, development)
I am undertaking a PhD thesis about processes of change to gender relations in independent Timor-Leste, based on years of ethnographic fieldwork. I have also written several reports about this topic and about community in Timor-Leste. Through my current employment with an international development agency, I also undertake research about the Melanesian Pacific region, with a continued focus on gender and women’s empowerment.
