Australian Inspiring Women - Geraldine Cox: ‘Wealth of a different kind’: Sunrise Children’s Villages, Cambodia

Wednesday, 25 September 2013 - 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Geraldine Cox, A.M. CV. Geraldine started her career with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs in 1970. Her first posting was to Phnom Penh, where she experienced life in a country caught up in the Vietnam War. Subsequent postings were: Manila, Bangkok, Tehran and Washington DC. After resigning from the government in 1987 she worked for 8 years with The Chase Manhattan Bank in Sydney. Her love of Cambodia remained and on a return visit in 1993 her journey to assist orphaned and underprivileged children began. Geraldine co- founded, what is now, the Sunrise Children’s Villages. In 2013 there are 400 children in three Sunrise Children’s Villages, including one specifically for AIDS infected children. Geraldine was granted full Cambodian Citizenship by Royal Decree in 1999 and in 2012 Cambodia’s Prime Minister, Hun Sen, awarded her the Royal Order of Sahametrei Medal. She is the recipient of many Australian awards and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2000. Pan Macmillan published Geraldine’s autobiography, Home Is Where The Heart Is in 2000. The documentary on her life, My Khmer Heart, won the 2000 Hollywood Film Festival Documentary of the Year Award and has been screened extensively.

Geraldine’s presentation “Wealth of a Different Kind” will centre on how her life changed from one of materialism and hedonism, before discovering children in desperate need in the jungles of Cambodia in 1994 and, the joys that await those who dare to move out of their comfort zone.

Geraldine Cox is one of six women featured in the 2013 book; Inspiring Australian Women by Dr Kathryn Spurling, Visiting Scholar, School of History, ANU.

This event is supported by the ANU Gender Institute.

Enquiries: For further information contact Dr. Kathryn Spurling or Martina Fechner, ANU Gender Institute or 6125 6281.

Access: Free and open to the Public, no RSVP required.

Podcast

Australian Inspring Women - Matilda House-Williams: Ngambri, Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri elder

Monday, 21 October 2013 - 5:30pm to 6:30pm

The life of Ngambri, Ngunnawal, Wiradjuri, Matilda House-Williams, well reflects the simple joys, the importance of family and the struggles of an Aboriginal woman born in the 1940s and growing up in white Australia. On 12 February 2008, Matilda House-Williams, as Ngambri elder, offered a “Welcome to Country” at the opening of Parliament, the 42nd, the first Indigenous Australian so invited.

Matilda House was born on an Aboriginal reserve on the fringe of Cowra, NSW. One of ten children, she was sent to her grandfather’s house on the Hollywood Aboriginal Reserve in the Yass precincts. The reserve was dismantled in 1959 and she was returned to her parents and Cowra. Matilda was strong-willed, a trait not well received in mainstream Australian society when exhibited by an Aboriginal girl. Matilda became increasingly rebellious, refused to defer to white authority and aged 12, was sent to the infamous Parramatta Girls Home. Matilda has spent her life endeavouring to improve the quality of life for Aboriginal Australians. As Ngambri elder Matilda takes her responsibilities seriously. She advocates reconciliation rather than alienation, education and unity – with a confidence borne from truly knowing who she is and being comfortable with that. Her immediate family and the extended family of her people is the essence of this life.

Matilda House-Williams is one of six women featured in the 2013 book; Inspiring Australian Women by Dr Kathryn Spurling, Visiting Scholar, School of History, ANU.

This event is supported by the ANU Gender Institute.

Enquiries: For further information contact Dr. Kathryn Spurling or Martina Fechner, Gender Institute Administration or 6125 6281.

Access: Free and open to the Public, no RSVP required.

Portrait by Margaret Hadfield (Zorgdrager)

Australian Inspiring Women - Professor Fiona Wood: ‘In mind, body and spirit’

Wednesday, 30 October 2013 - 4:30pm to 5:30pm

Professor Fiona Wood came to prominence for her pioneering plastic surgery work with Bali bombing victims, when she led a courageous Royal Perth Hospital team and saved 28 patients from shocking burns and infection.

Fiona Wood was born in a Yorkshire coal mining village. Her parents and the Quaker Ackworth School, inspired her to work hard and serve the community. By 1975 she was studying in St Thomas’ Hospital Medical School, London and challenging the long tradition of restricted entry of women to medical schools and the field of surgery. She married Western Australian-born surgeon Tony Kierath and migrated to Perth in 1987. They have four sons and two daughters.

Professor Wood has been a burns surgeon and researcher for the past 20 years and is Director of the Burns Service of Western Australia (BSWA). She is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Royal Perth Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, Co-founder of the first skin cell laboratory in WA, Winthrop Professor in the School of Surgery at The University of Western Australia. Professor Wood was named a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003; West Australian of the Year in 2004 and 2005; and 2005 Australian of the Year. Voted Australia’s Most Trusted Person between 2005 and 2010, Professor Wood’s unwavering dedication to burns survivors and commitment to improving and continually evolving the treatment of burn injury, has earned her a reputation as one of the world’s leading burn experts.

Fiona Wood’s mantra is “The quality of outcome must be worth the pain of survival”. ‘In Mind, Body and Spirit’ she will explore her personal and professional quest to deliver scarless healing to all burn injury survivors.

Fiona Wood is one of six women featured in the 2013 book; Inspiring Australian Women by Dr Kathryn Spurling, Visiting Scholar, School of History, ANU.

This event is supported by the ANU Gender Institute.

Enquiries: For further information contact Dr. Kathryn Spurling or Martina Fechner, ANU Gender Institute or 6125 6281.

Access: Free and open to the Public, no RSVP required.