Karenza is a local Filmmaker, Digital Storyteller and Yoga teacher who has led a very interesting life, some would say 'out of the norm'. Karenza spoke to Denise Alison (Humans of Lismore) about the many different chapters that her journey has taken her on, from the hills of Perth to the Ananda Margis in Stanthorpe and finally to Lismore. “My life has lot’s of chapters. The first chapter began in 1973 in Perth where I was born in Subiaco Hospital. I was the youngest of 5 kids. All the other kids were 2 years apart and then I came along 6 years later.I spent the first 10 years of my life in Perth where my mum was like 3rd generation. She came from a “ nice", middle-class home and she told me her parents had hoped she would marry a sensible Perth boy who was an accountant or a businessman [like her Dad]. Instead, she fell in love with an artist from London through her theatre group, who became my Dad.Mum and Dad split up when I was 2 after 13 years of marriage. I think things were kind of on the rocks with them before I was born. It was a traumatic time for the family. Dad was an alcoholic at that time and loved to socialise, he was always the life of the party. Mum was getting into Yoga and living a clean and healthy life. All the other kids were born in England and Mum had studied Yoga with Iyengar in London. She was really inspired by him. When they came back to live in Australia and had me, she was looking for a Yoga community to support her.Dad was in the film industry. He was a Bohemian, a theatre actor and a filmmaker. He worked with the BBC in England and made a lot of documentaries over there. Dad was a workaholic. Mum’s outlet was to find her Yoga practice. Mum joined an organisation that was focused on Indian practices and they had a Guru. Mum, in an attempt to leave my Dad actually moved to this community in the hills of Perth. They were called Ananda Marga. She changed all our names without telling Dad. My birth name is Karenza so I’ve gone back to that. I became Kiran from age 2 to 30, which is a Sanskrit name [meaning “ray of light”] and all my brothers and sisters were given these spiritual names.My sister told me the story of when I was only 2 we came home one day from the community and my sister was bathing me as she was 10 years older. She said - "Come on Kiran, let’s get out of the bath". Dad said - "What are you calling her?" She said - "That’s her name now. Mum said - We all have new names." Dad lost it. That was probably the last straw. They had quite an ugly break-up.Mum took all of us and retreated to the community. We lived with lot’s of family in this hippy community for about a year and then Mum met a younger man there who she fell in love with. She was raised Catholic so didn’t want to have sex with him until she was married so they kind of had to get married because they wanted to have sex I guess (laughs). He agreed to marry her. He was 6 years younger and she had 5 kids. He was my Stepdad for 20 years and he did his best. He took us all on.A year after they got together the most traumatic thing in my family history happened. My oldest brother Caedie who was 15 was distraught that he wasn’t with our Dad. He could not cope with our new stepdad. They didn’t get along. He was getting into drugs and alcohol and he stole a car with his mates. They crashed the car and he died. That was on my Mum's birthday.Mum just wasn’t coping. She still had 4 kids to look after. I was only 3 at that time. She bottled up her grief and became very focused on the spiritual group she was in. She would meditate 3 times a day and it was a way of switching off and she just wasn’t really present after that. My older sister was like my second mum. She became the one that was emotionally there for me. Her birth name was Zazie but she changed her name to Satya. We just went on as a family but Satya and my brother were only 2 years apart so they were very close, and the trauma of this plus dad leaving and needing to care for us younger kids affected her deeply.We were sort of taken from one rental to another with Mum and my stepdad. Dad didn’t cope with the death of Caedie and he moved back to England so he separated from us altogether. He had another son and daughter in England.My 3 brothers and sisters who were left embraced the Ananda Marga but I didn’t so I was kind of the black sheep of the family. I’ve got a bit of my Mum and Dad in me. I’m a filmmaker and a yoga teacher as well. I grew up with yoga and meditation as part of our daily practice so I know that’s a part of my truth but I’m very mistrustful of groups and organisations that try and separate you from the rest of the community with their dogma. My alarm bells go off.The hub of this organisation, the Margi’s, was happening in Sydney in the ’70s and 80’s so they decided we would move to Sydney to be closer to the action. The Margi's believed they were going to revolutionise the world with their ideology but it was pretty culty and sexist from my perspective. They packed me off to live in a community in Stanthorpe by myself [with an American Margi family] when I was 10 years old. I’m resentful of my Mum for doing this but she thought that was the best thing to do while they sorted their new life in Sydney.There was a Margi school in Stanthorpe that needed numbers to get started so lots of the Margi kids were sent there. I lived in this remote community near Stanthorpe with a lot of Margi families, Monks and Nuns. I was very traumatised by being removed from my family and circle of friends in Perth. But we were told that “we were all one Universal family” constantly. While I was there my eldest sister decided to become a Nun in the organisation so she trained in Nepal and India before being sent overseas to work. She was only 19 and then my second sister followed in the same footsteps. They effectively cut me off, saying that everyone was their sister and brother now, not just me. After that, Margi’s kept asking me - "Are you going to become a Nun like your sisters?” No way, not me!After a year in Stanthorpe, I moved to Sydney to join Mum and my Step-Dad. That was a good time because I went to a great Public School in Woollahra with teachers who really saw me. They were my best schooling years, I discovered there that I loved to write and was good at it.They decided to join another community on the Sunshine Coast so just when I was about to go to a good high school we moved again to the country to start this community. We lived in a caravan and a shed for a few years. No running water or toilet while they were building. Everything was about building the organisation, nothing about the family unit being important.As soon as I finished Year 12 I took off and moved to Melbourne to do a Bachelor of Arts and start my own life. That move was a huge turning point.Going to uni, I enjoyed independence and in true postmodern 90’s style, totally deconstructed my upbringing and found my own tribe of people. I also got to connect with my Dad on my own terms, not through my Mum’s lens. He inspired me to pursue film. We would watch a lot of interesting, obscure films together on his couch and I absorbed his artistic sensibility for film as a medium of poetic expression. He was giving up drinking so we had a bonding time there and we had a good 25 years of Dad sober before we lost him.Of course, doing an Arts degree you don’t always come out with a job. You have to create your own work. I always felt like I was a writer and thought I’d become a journalist, but after uni, my mind was open to other forms of creative expression.After studying, I travelled through Europe and based myself in London, squatting with some friends from Melbourne in a punk, traveller, rave scene partying pretty hard. I reclaimed my birth name Karenza and connected with my Dad’s English / Welsh heritage. Travelling solo, hitching around Europe and then exploring India I found a resilient, strong person inside myself and realised I could face any obstacle that came my way (especially wearing my favourite red, doc martin boots!). I took heaps of photos and wrote everything I was doing in my journal. When I returned to Australia I got right into photography and that led to film and through that, I did a Post Grad in Film and TV back in Brisbane.Coming back from overseas, in that space, I got really, really sick. I was in my late 20’s and the trip to India led to a nasty virus that attacked my immune system. That led to getting Diabetes Type 1.I nearly died in hospital. I made a choice to get super healthy and look after myself properly. It was a big transition learning how to live with that.I thought, this city life’s not doing it for me and I knew I had to get out of Melbourne. I left my girlfriend and moved back to live with Mum for a little while in the community. I must have been really sick (laughs). Then I moved to Brisbane to study Chinese Medicine and massage and got right into making my body and mind strong.Then in 2003, I met the person I knew I wanted to make a life with. I knew very early on that he was the one I was looking for, a trust in someone I’d never experienced before. I’d been working in Brisbane for 5 years in the film and tv industry, but was finding the stress of city life was building up again and I wasn’t enjoying the work there anymore. He had 3 children already who lived in Maleny so I left Brisbane to move back to the Sunshine Coast and start a life and a family with him.We had our daughter there and raised her in a rainforest treehouse that we built, looking out over a little creek for her first 4 years. She’s 13 now. The three of us do everything together. We are a team. It’s been a really healing time, this family time. We’ve been together for 17 years now.Having a baby also connected me to my mum in a new way and brought us closer together, healing our fraught relationship a lot. Becoming a mum has been a major highlight of my life. My daughter inspires me and brings me so much joy. Her childhood has been so different to mine. She gets everything she needs and gets to follow her interests. As a result, she is a balanced, self-contained and loving human. She makes parenting easy.We would always come down here to the Byron area for holidays and knew this was somewhere we’d love to live one day. So we moved to Lismore 9 years ago and as my daughter started school, I was ready to go back to my creative life.I always thought Tafe was someplace I could work one day because it has a film department. I went and did a refresher course to get my skills up again and got my mojo back. I got funding with Screenworks the next year to make my first short documentary, Tilly’s Symphony. The next year I did another short doc, Making Waves. Screenworks have been the best thing for me in this regional area. They’ve supported me so much in getting the confidence to call myself a filmmaker. I’m currently attempting to write a feature, drama screenplay based on some of my own story. Along with filmmaking projects, I also work as an educator, teaching film skills within the local community.I also teach Yoga at a few places in town, yoga keeps me centred and content. I taught Pre-Natal yoga classes for many years too which I love as I think that bonding time between mother and baby in the womb is so important. I guess it reminds me of how connected we are to our mothers, forever.I would like to mention that my mum was a founding member of the Margi community in Maleny where the River school began. Both my sisters also helped start schools in their roles as nuns. One here in Lismore “Vistara” primary, nearly 30 years ago, which is where my daughter started school.Dad died 5 years ago and Mum 3 years ago, both only in their 70’s. Neither of them liked going to doctors and they wouldn’t go to hospital when they were unwell. They lived their lives to the full and then found out they were really sick. Mum died from a second stroke while she was travelling in South Africa. It happened after staying up all night chanting and meditating at a yoga retreat with her Margi family there. It was quite a spiritual end to a life that she had devoted to that practice.I love Lismore. I always remember the first Yoga class I taught here in Lismore after coming from QLD. There was an older guy with blue nail polished toes and I loved it. It just felt like everybody is accepted here and there are so many fascinating stories. I love the diversity and the land itself.We moved for the coastal region mostly. We all love the beach and Byron and we’ve just discovered Yamba now. Having Lismore as our town centre with so much culture happening, Norpa and the gallery…is great. I feel like Lismore has been good to me. It’s supported me and I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing.”Making Waves - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rToDb0dRc

You might know Busara O'Reilly as the owner of Ghetto BABE Street EATS, in the Star Court Arcade on Lismore's CBD. She's also worked at Benchtop Espresso and Alphadale 561. What you might not know about Busara is the incredible and harrowing story of her life - growing up in poverty in Thailand, before coming to a better life in Australia.Busara spoke to Denise Alison of Humans of Lismore about her life to bring your this week's Sunday Profile.Busara - “ I was born in Phuket, Thailand to a Mafia father who was shot by the Police. My Mum was his 5th wife. He had all sons and I was the only daughter. My first memory from my childhood is running along the beach and I could hear gunshots. I always thought it was a recurring dream until many years later, I asked my mum about that memory.She said, ’Do you remember that?’ I was 2 years old and she was carrying me, we were running away from corrupt Police who wanted to take over the Mafia industry. My Dad was a drug lord and ran the red light district. He was a very bad man. My Mum was a drug mule without really knowing that she was.They killed off my whole family. They went to America and killed my brothers, all my six brothers were shot and killed. My father's first wife ran away to a temple and became a nun so she survived. My mother also became a nun so they couldn’t touch her there. I was given to my Grandmother up at the Nakon Patom at the age of 2 and that’s where I grew up.I lived with my Grandmother and Grandfather and we were really, really poor. There were 20 people living in our house. My grandparents, my aunty and uncle with their 5 kids and their grandkids as well. There were curtains separating the rooms.PovertyThe house would often flood and we would walk along planks to get to our beds. I only had 2 sets of clothes. It was so horrible.My grandmother was a fisherwoman and she was really nasty to me because she hated girls. She is still alive and she loves me now but back then I was a burden. My grandfather used to craft things for the locals. When my mother left I didn’t see her for two years. She didn’t come back for me till I was 4. I was left for two years with my grandmother who didn’t love me.She would go fishing early in the morning and leave me outside all day. I remember it being dark and cold and she would leave me on this plank of wood outside the house with a bowl of rice and fish sauce.That’s all I ate for 2 years. I was left all day on my own all the time so a lot of bad shit happened during those days. From 2 to 4 years old I was fending for myself on a daily basis. I got taken by some village boys and they did stuff to me. I remember coming home one day, I was 4 years old and I was bleeding everywhere.My Grandad cleaned me up. In Thailand, we used big pots of water to shower but because I was so sore and dirty I jumped in the whole pot. My Grandmother saw me and hit me quite badly after that.That was tough. I remember my mum came to visit me when I was 5 and she gave me a doll. I was so angry and broken by that time I threw the doll on the ground. I wanted nothing from her.She said ‘In a years time I am going to take you to a better life, we are going to Australia.’ AustraliaWe came to Australia when I was 6. I had really long hair and before I came she cleaned me up and shaved off my hair because I had nits.I remember crying all the way to Australia because all my hair was gone. I arrived here in 1986 and I couldn’t speak a word of English.My mum would say ‘Say hello to Bill’ which is my stepdad and I would say ‘Say Hello Bill’ I said ‘Say’ in front of everything.I had to go to language school in Fairfield, Melbourne. I went to Fairfield Primary School and everything was amazing.I was here in Australia, I had a stepfather who absolutely adored me.My favourite colour was purple so he painted my room purple. I had a real bed. This is the land of the free. This is paradise!That’s why nothing gets me down anymore I just say to myself ’Just get up, you’re not dead so get up.’ That’s why I have this drive.Having 4 kids and running businesses, I’m living the dream. Going through that and surviving, I could have become a prostitute, I could have been kidnapped or killed along with my father.I changed my name from my previous father's name to my now stepfather's name in 1996 which is O’Reilly. LismoreI came to Lismore 13 years ago with my ex Peter. I met Peter in Melbourne. He was a cute Chef and working for my best friend.I was a waitress and we ended up together. We became pregnant with Dexter when Pete’s father was dying.He said I’m not dying until I meet my first grandchild. Dexter was born prematurely at just under 32 weeks. When Dexter was born Peter’s father had already been in hospital, so sick, and we couldn’t leave the hospital with our baby for 8 weeks because he was so tiny. Pete’s Dad was still hanging in there.We got out of hospital after the 8 weeks was up, flew to Kyogle the next morning and took Dexter to meet his Grandad. Dad died the next morning.If Dexter had gone full term he would never have met his grandfather.Pete's mum was now on her own after being married for 45 years so we decided we wanted to be closer to family and make a life for ourselves up here.We didn’t want to live in Kyogle, coming from Melbourne. I had always been a city girl except for Thailand but I forget about Thailand now.I had never seen cows in the street before, no traffic lights and only one cafe. I got dressed up in my finest clothes and trotted down the streets of Kyogle in my high heels with my bright red pram and all I saw were cows on the road.I was on the phone crying to my friend…I can’t see any shops, can’t see cafes and there’s cow shit on the road.I had no car, a baby, everyone was in mourning from Dad passing, I had no friends, my first baby in this country town and I was keeping it together but missing Melbourne.I thought, Ok we’ve made this decision together, pick yourself up, you’re here. We stayed in Kyogle for 6 months before moving to Alstonville for a year then Goonellabah.Work in LismoreAt that time the Quilky’s had just taken over The Richmond Hotel in Lismore. There was a sign up, Head Chef and staff wanted and they had just built Miss Lizzies so that’s how we met John and Carol. Pete built their kitchen and we were there for 4 years.Pete as Head Chef and I was working there as well. Five years later we had Alphadale Restaurant and then 5 years later we opened Cafe One One Four in Keen St.We split up not long after due to the pressure of the business. During those years we had 3 more children. Two years after Dexter we had Suki. Six years later we had Jackson and 18 months later we had Pixie. I took a break from One One Four for a couple of years and I decided to open my own place. This is my industry, my passion and my town. I’ve had this dream for a long time.My new partner who is amazing invested in me and decided it was my time. He wanted to support my dream. He custom-built everything in this cafe to suit me.Ghetto BabeHe came up with the Ghetto Babe name because I am the ghetto babe. It’s in an arcade, we are going to make the laneway into outdoor dining and because I grew up in a ghetto it suits.I’m also a Hip Hop RnB girl so I play 90’s RnB tunes constantly. This is the food I grew up with. All the women in my family were cooks or chefs so it’s in my blood.I’m in South Lismore now and loving it. Cute street, we know all our neighbours, all homeowners and we’re a tight-knit family.I feel like this is me giving back to the community that has always supported me. I love this community, I love Lismore.”Busara - 3 years later, with an updated life journey:“Ok! Stepping back in time, coming off the 3 years I’ve been here. It’s been extremely hard. I’m the mother of 4 beautiful children I share with my ex-partner, 2 teenagers and 2 still in primary school.It’s been tough without a business partner or life partner. Also without parents or family and my Melbourne mates. I haven’t had the support of family but I’ve had support from my community and a great circle of friends here. The community of Lismore have been my saving grace so I’d like to say thank you firstly to my community for supporting me throughout the 17 years I’ve been here now.I feel like I’m pretty much a Lismorian. Can I say that now? I used to be a Melbournite but now I feel very much a Lismore girl. During those years I’ve had businesses in town. The first restaurant was 561 Alphadale with my ex, then we opened Cafe 114 which is now the Benchtop Cafe.After the father of my children and I separated I worked at a local hotel in the restaurant. It was hard working for someone else after having my own business but I was grateful for the work. The owners were pretty much like my parents as I don’t have my parents here. Things went down there though which weren’t good.There was an incident in that job that wasn’t good and the outcome wasn’t fair and I had to leave. I didn’t want people to say poor Busara.I’ve worked really hard and I need to be strong for my kids. I didn’t want people to say..Let’s support her because she’s Asian and a single mum. I fought it quietly and then I opened this (Ghetto Babe Street Eats).There have been many times the town of Lismore has kept me sane. There are so many good people in our community. I’m a mother, a business owner and a woman so I can’t fail. I’ve worked too hard. I’ve been picked up by Gathar Catering since COVID. The second year of opening Ghetto Babe Covid hit.We stayed open the whole time doing takeaways and feeding the essential workers. I had to change my whole business within 3 days. I couldn’t get Jobkeeper or Jobseeker for any of my workers.I had 7 staff before Covid but they all went because of uncertain times. My car had just been stolen as well.They had crashed it in South Grafton and blew the car up. People were giving me lifts to work then when Covid hit, no more lifts or cabs so I was walking to work with my son. It was the hardest, darkest time.During that time my Nanna whom I loved so much passed away. I wasn’t able to see her in Melbourne due to Covid. She saw the news and believed the world was ending so she starved herself. Two weeks later my aunty died.Only 10 people were allowed at her funeral. If you read my first story on HOL you will see my Thai grandma was so cruel and abusive to me. She would beat me with a bamboo stick when I was tiny. When I first arrived here in Australia my English nanna Dorothy O’Reilly took me in and she showed me kindness.She gave me so much warmth and love. She would make me cups of tea. For me, not to be able to pay my respects and say goodbye to her just broke me. That’s what Covid did to people. We weren’t allowed to be with our loved ones. My Nanna arrived here when she was heavily pregnant and 3 kids, one of which was my Dad on board.She changed me from an angry little person to someone who believed that there is still goodness and love in the world. I really miss her.  I’m still here, I have 3 staff and I’m about to get a liquor licence. I’m going strong. I’m not going anywhere.I want to give it my all. I’ve lived in this country almost my whole life. I love this town so much and I love the people who make up this community.People need to know that racism is still happening in our town. It’s happening behind closed doors. I want to protect others who may not be as strong as me. I’ve copped heaps but I’m never giving up.At the end of the day, Lismore is where I want to be. Be kind to each other.”

At 89 years of age, Samuel Todhunter has lived through the Korean war, the Vietnam war and spent his whole life working in the aviation industry.Last week, he received an Order of Australia Medal for his service to aviation – and it’s something he is passionate about, still working in Lismore as a flight instructor at the Northern Rivers Aero Club.Why fly?Sam: “I was born in 1932, in Margaret River in Western Australia. It was a small country town and dairying and timber were the main industries.“It was circled by big jarrah trees and the horizon was wide. Whenever we went to the beach, there was a vast horizon and you could see sky – and at the time, the Korean war was on.“I had the urge to fly airplanes when I was there at school. I went to school in Bunbury – it was strict and top class. Then in 1949 I graduated and jobs were available for anybody and it was a great opportunity to be absorbed into the airforce then.“I moved into the Postmaster Generals Department (PMG), as a cadet draftsman and did engineering. But in 1953, the Korean was just ending and I thought, I’ve had enough of this - and I had the opportunity to go flying.RAAF“I’ve been in aviation since 1954. I joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1954 after seeing pictures coming out of Korea.“I remember seeing the 77 squadron, the commanding officer was Lou Spence and I admired him. He later got killed in Korea.“I graduated from the RAAF in 1955, then spent about 18 years in the RAAF.“Then I trained on Dakotas at Fairburn RAAF base, and I did an instructor’s course in East Sale RAAF Base in Victoria.Then I had a wonderful tour at a weapons training establishment at Edinburgh in South Australia.“It gave me an opportunity to fly a wide variety of aeroplanes and I spent four years there.“It was really great flying. I flew planes like the Canberras, the Meteors and Dakotas.NRAC flight instructors: Bill Kiernan, Nathan Parker and Sam Todhunter.Qualified flying instructor“I was a qualified flying instructor and was doing the air core training with cadets who had been given the opportunity to get flying experience, to get their private pilot’s licence.“Then I went up to Amberley, flying Canberras and training staff on the operational conversion unit. That had one commanding officer and two flight commanders – each with his own flight line maintaining the aircraft .“It was about a four month course to endorse people on the Canberra.Vietnam“Then I went to sixth squadron in Camden and spent a year in Vietnam flying Canberras.“I came home after separating from my family for over a year and thought I’d had enough of this about wanted to get out and enjoy civilian life.Papua New Guinea“I had an opportunity to become an air safety inspector in accident and incident investigation, over in Perth. That suited me, because I was a West Australian.“Then I had an opportunity to go to Papua New Guinea. The Civil Aviation people were still running the place, so it still had its independence then.“With the public service was still running the place with local people on staff, I had a couple of interesting and enjoyable years.“Then I moved across as the assistant director of operations – and oversaw the flying , air traffic control and air worthiness operations as well“That was a great experience.“When we moved over to Papua New Guinea, we left my daughter at university in Perth. She didn’t like that.“My son did his final year in Port Moresby and became a navy cadet. I taught him to fly up there. So that gave him an opportunity to get selected into the naval academy as a cadet.Australia“In 1981, I came back to Australia and there were not many job opportunities, because I had so much experience by now.“I moved in as an airways surveyor in a Canberra central office. It was excellent work but my wife and I didn’t like Canberra.“When I came back from Vietnam, we were planning to settle in Perth but it didn’t happen that way – so we thought we’d go there now.“So, I resigned, we got out and had to pay our fare and move ourselves back to Perth.“Then a friend and myself started an aviation business called Avwest. There were great opportunities in those days and it was a great experience.Family“But my wife and I had two children. One was flying with Ansett over in Sydney, living at the Gold Coast and commuting for flying tasks to Sydney - and my daughter was in Melbourne.“They were not coming over to the west, so we felt we better go to the east coast, so we moved over to the Gold Coast in 1997.“Seven years later my wife died.“After my wife died, in 2004, I’d go back to Perth and spend about six weeks there with the school and charter business we had there, doing the work for free.“It kept my hand in with flying and flying training.Murwillumbah to Lismore“Then, instead of travelling over to Perth, I thought I’d get Murwillumbah Aero Club going as a training school“That’s when I happened to meet Bill Kiernan from the Northern Rivers Aero Club (NRAC) in Lismore in 1998.“Bill said ‘why not come down to Lismore’ and that opened another door with me and I started training at NRAC.“Until young Nathan Parker came along and moved in, we were doing a hell of a lot of flying and flying training here, for recreational and commercial licences.“Now, after being overseas for a while with Singapore Airlines, my son has come back and owns the house next door to me now.Satisfied in retirement“I’ve very satisfied with my life and my achievements and where things took me to.“It just seemed the forces at work brought me to the right places - and brought me to Lismore.“Most of the time I was in the RAAF, I was instructing and training people – and has set me up to keep going.“Since I retired from the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) in 1988, I’ve been flying voluntarily, still instructing people in my retirement.“Now, I still have a hand in training at NRAC.“Nathan mainly does the R Aus recreational aviation training – which is the bulk of the work here. I do the instruction on the VH aviation going through to commercial licences.“VH is the signature on every Australian airplane.“These days, you can learn to fly far more cheaply through recreational aviation in Australia.“It’s great because the restrictions that used to apply from the Civil Aviation safety Authority (CASA) have been removed to a large extent.“The safety element is still there, but they do provide an excellent administration. So, most of the flying that’s being done in Australia at the moment amongst general aviation people, is recreational.Read more about Nathan Parker: Nathan's Wings Award sets his aviation career flying even higherScared?“Strangely enough, I’ve never been scared when I was flying – even operating an airplane in a war time environment.“I was also very fortunate I’ve never had an engine failure in my life.“I always enjoyed flying. I enjoyed the theory of it. I enjoyed instructing on it. When you are in a plane, all you are concerned with is flying the airplane properly and do it well.”

Denise Alison of Humans of Lismore spent the afternoon over a cuppa chatting to fourth-generation beekeeper Frewoini Baume, to bring you this week's Sunday Profile:Frewoini:“I was born in Ethiopia and came here to Australia with my sister when I was 6 years old. Of all the places we could’ve ended up, we ended up in Australia and of all the parts of Australia we could’ve ended up, we ended up here in the Northern Rivers in little old Lismore. So lucky! So, so lucky! I think I’m definitely one of the luckiest people in the world. To grow up in a community like this is so good. You are surrounded by role models, people who you really admire and look up to, people who are active and who are engaged and encouraging in your life. It’s one thing to have that in your family but to have it in your community too, that’s just on a dreamland level.We picked up English pretty quickly because Mum and Dad were so organised and they made sure they were really educated about the process. Dad was also studying to be a Primary School teacher at the time.Our Primary school teachers had little Amharic Dictionaries on their desks so they could figure out what we were saying. On the first day of school, it was only my sister who was supposed to be going. I went along and was ready to go to school too.We walked my sister in on the first day and in I went as well. I didn’t have a bag or lunch because I wasn’t meant to be going. My teacher, Miss Banks who is absolutely amazing and taught me to read and write at school, she was like… Just let her come in. Dad brought in my lunch later and there I stayed. I really enjoyed school. I went to Coffee Camp for Primary School and Trinity for high school and I was honoured to be School Captain at both schools. The school is fabulous.Fundamentally school can be just an educational institution and you can see it as a chore but you can make it so much more than that. I’ve had amazing teachers who were so encouraging of me doing further studies or researching areas I’m interested in and doing extracurricular activities.That’s what makes your school experience unique to other peoples, is by adding your interests.The great thing about the 2 schools I went to was, not only did they give me a high level of quality education but they also provided me with good morals and values and ethics to be able to go out into the world with a lot of courage and a lot of conviction and a lot of pride to want to make the world a better place.Mum always reminds us that it takes a village to raise a child. Anything I’ve done is simply a credit to both my parents and my family but also my community. They’ve been so dedicated and they instilled a lot of empowerment into me to think that I really can do anything which is definitely a driving force.I didn’t really know what I was going to do when I finished school. I went on a trip with some friends and their Dads’ to Darwin and that was amazing, to be exposed to that landscape. You can’t come back the same. I loved it soooo much.Since leaving school I’ve been working. I love my jobs. I’m so fortunate to have 2 jobs that I really love. Bees! What can I say other than I love Bees and I can’t stop smiling when I say the word Bees. Bees really have been a repeating motif throughout my life.On both sides of my family, I’m a 4th generation Beekeeper and my family in Ethiopia were also Beekeepers. I remember the morning that my first swarm arrived. My Mum had dropped my sister off at the bus stop and she honked the horn from the carport.She said.… You better go outside because some sort of God has been listening to you. I walked out and there was the smallest swarm of bees on a tiny Banksia and that’s how it started. I’m in absolute awe of Bees. I’m obsessed! Dad’s always saying, those poor Bees, you never leave them alone (laughs). It’s true!I’ve been Beekeeping in the Northern Rivers for 11 years now. I’ve been a part of lots of Beekeeping groups. I’ve attended Beekeeping conferences. All my school projects related to Bees. My friend reminded me of a time when we were trying to raise money for an endangered species.Everyone was doing like Sumatran Tigers, etc, and she said…You were there going, we need to do Bees. I listen to Podcasts about Bees, I watch Youtube videos on Bees. In 2015 I was the far North Coast Lions Youth of the Year. My 5-minute speech was about the importance of Bees in this world. Since finishing school I’ve been working with commercial and recreational Beekeepers in my spare time. This last season I’ve been helping people who are interested in starting their Beekeeping journey. It’s so fulfilling watching people become just as obsessed as me. I work at Santosha Mushroom Farm and for Flow Hive who have very generously taken me on. I feel like I’ve peaked way too early in my workplace. As young people, born into a climate crisis and an ecological crisis, when you are entering the workforce, you really want to make sure, or it’s more important to you, that the companies you are working for mirror your ethics and values.For me, definitely having environmental protocols is really important. There will be companies that say, Sometimes you need to separate your work from your ethics but there’s no room for that. That’s why I’m really glad that I love both my jobs. I get to enter the workforce with these kinds of people, people who are my idols and I look up to every single day. I just have a high standard for life now. I’m doing my 3rd instalment of my Beekeeping course which is a Cert 3 in Beekeeping through the Department of Primary Industries. It’s the highest qualification you can get in Australia to date but they are working on a Cert 4 which will be exciting.This week is all about Queen breeding and looking at the genetics of your Queens. It’s all so interesting and I love it. People think Bees, honey, you see this little box with Bees flying ion and out but it’s the biggest misconception. They are just fooling you. Inside is the most complex systems and so difficult to understand. Everyone in my family is quite crafty. Both my parents went to Art school, my sister does collages. Growing up my parents encouraged us to pursue and do arts and crafts but to also have a deeper appreciation for the Arts and their role within our society.We went to a lot of art galleries, a lot of music performances, music festivals and Mum also taught us how to knit, how to sew so we can make our own clothes.We’d have stalls at the markets with our stuff. I did music in my HSC and I love it. Music is definitely what my parents and a lot of my friends would want me to pursue but Bees have got my heart.I love Lismore, I absolutely love it. It’s a very accepting town and I think it’s a town with a lot of potential. Lismore has a lot of community members who are so invested in the community and various parts of it.Even just looking at Claudie Frock and her dedication to the Arts, you and your Humans of Lismore page that you’re running, Maddy Rose Braddon and all her climate action, so many good people. The moment I think I really appreciated that I was able to be brought up here was in the floods.The way everyone came together and were so willing to help. The methods that they applied so that it was so effective, efficient and organised. Everyone was so looked after and it was amazing. I have a little exhibition at Claudie’s gallery under the Conservatorium. My works are called Eco Prints. It’s a way for me to go out, check what my Bees are on, take a sample of that plant, make a print of it and be able to document what my Bees are on throughout particular times of the year. Those prints are mounted onto board and coated with my own Beeswax. They may have some drawing or stitching.They are presented in honeycomb frames which also come out of the hive. Bees go through different stages in their life. The very final stages when we see them is when they are out foraging, collecting nectar and pollen. When they die, they usually die out in the field but some die in the hive.The Bees wait for them to dehydrate and then fly them toward the front of the hive. I collected those dead Bees and I made a necklace. It’s about a poem called The Necklace which is a really old poem and it explores the importance of the role of Bees in providing the sunshine and providing the golden, wonderful things that they provide for us in our life.The necklace has petals from Zinnias dipped in wax in between the little dead Bees. At first people don’t quite know that they are Bees until they go really close. What I’m really trying to get at is, if you have a personal relationship or an intimate connection with a particular thing, your ability to then go out and destruct that natural thing is a lot harder.If you are close to it, you have a level of empathy towards that thing as a living being. It’s trying to get people a little bit closer to nature. There’s Honey Bees, Native Bees, there’s Solitary Bees and it’s this whole diverse world which is all so important.Just because they don’t produce honey doesn’t mean that they are not important. Flowers all need to be pollinated in different ways. Macadamias, for example, need the native bees because they are so much smaller and can get into the tiny flowers.I look at Covid and I think it can be really easy to get bogged down in what’s going on and when you are a young person who is passionate about things, your Politicians who are meant to be your leaders and your representatives aren’t representing what your points of view are, it’s really disheartening. It can be really easy to go…Oh well, that’s that! kind of thing. I think the fact that there’s no room for, Oh well, that’s that! At this point of time is a real instigator to keep on going, maybe a lot harder than we may have otherwise gone. The world is changing and definitely, you see our response to Covid. We took on professional advice. We did exactly what they said to do, everything worked, people complied and the outcome was good. That’s exactly what we need to do for the climate crisis.What Covid has proven, is that it’s not a lack of scientific evidence or a lack of knowledge or a lack of funding that’s stopping them from acting on Climate change, it’s really just a lack of political will. In some ways, it’s gutting to think they don’t care but in another way, it’s also quite enlightening. That particular demographic of people who just so happen to be leading our country at this particular time don’t find it important when there are countries in such worse situations doing way better on this issue.To see our impact of our actions on migration and rising sea levels all due to our temporary selfishness. You don’t get any more unempathetic than that. It definitely goes to show that it’s about attitudes and values and perhaps the social fabrication in society for that demographic not evolving as quickly as they might be for other generations or communities within our country.I do think that it will be ok and I do think that you have to be hopeful. Hope gives you the opportunity to imagine a better future and that’s exactly what we need to keep on doing.I suppose my life could have ended up in a completely different way. I had the great fortune of not ending up that way. This is the product of having access to education, having access to health care, having opportunities and having a community who are dedicated and supportive.While they feel like fundamental things that everybody should have, they’re just not.” 

Mimi Zenzmaier:“I grew up in Richmond, west of Sydney. Back then it was a sleepy little rural town. As a child, I was really concerned about suffering in people and animals. I use to have these thoughts…Why are we on this earth only to suffer death? It was a big deal for me as a child when the reality hit that we are all going to die one day.  In my teens, I lost a couple of close family members and it affected me deeply. That’s when I really began my search for meaning, I wanted to find sense in all this.When I turned 18 I saw a tiny ad in the SMH paper wanting people for a pilot program to companion the dying. I immediately applied and got in. I finished the course and worked in St Vincents Hospital on the North Shore as a spiritual and emotional companion. That was the whole pre-curser to the Death Doula. I’ve been working in this end of life area as Death Doula ever since. The role is so similar to a Birth Doula except there’s a lot more joy with one and a lot more sadness with the leaving. We tend to know how to welcome people but we don’t really know how to say goodbye. That’s a big thing for our culture to get on board with, simply because it’s inevitable.In my 20’s I applied at a funeral home but they told me to go away and get life experience first and then come back. The 2nd time I attempted to enter the funeral industry, I went straight into the modern funeral industry which is profit and shareholder driven. It’s a conservative, male industry so if you’re a younger woman you don’t really fit into that lifestyle. Alcohol is a big thing. I went to Uni and started drinking (laughs), got a Bachelor of Communication and then I did a Cert 4 in Funeral Services. I went back and they still said no. I went off and did other things, journalism and some nutrition work. I came up here to the North Coast and did a Bachelor of Naturopathy at SCU. It was all kind of just stuff to do because I wasn’t doing what I really wanted to do. Finally, I got a gig up here with a funeral home. It wasn’t necessarily local based and thinking about local people. Some of the stuff that happened there we could have done a lot better. I’d say, couldn’t we offer this?… and the response was always, Mimi, you’re crazy, we’re here to serve our shareholders and make money. They told me that by being emotionally invested I was unprofessional. Over the years I’ve realised those people shouldn’t be in funerals. You have to have a response to people’s suffering.It was there that I learnt about the huge gaps in care of our deceased and also the care of families, the ones that remain with the huge grief and really nowhere to go. I started to investigate alternatives to the funeral approach and found a huge scope to create more healing opportunities for families going through great loss. When I flagged the ideas that I had after thoroughly researching NSW Public Health guidelines, I found that we could create time and space around families needing to come to terms with the massive shock of the death of someone they loved, and that wanting to spend time with their person was completely normal, perhaps dressing or caring for them after death as they had done before death was also quite legal.There was so much opportunity for healing rituals all the way through to the final disposition and everywhere I looked in the modern funeral homes there was no willingness to come on board with a more gentle procedure. So I created them all with Sacred Earth. I began by offering myself as a guide for families who wanted a home funeral. Everything from the paperwork, after death care, cleansing and dressing and the laying out of the deceased, to emotional comfort and support through listening, creating sacred space with candles and flowers around the bed of their loved one, anointing with sacred oils, offering last words, finding meaning, etc.After 3 or 4 years it became apparent that I needed to find a physical location to continue. Work was growing and some families needed to be in an intimate caring space with their loved one, away from home.Being a Lismore girl for the last 25 years, I looked everywhere in the shire for a place to set up but the Council was not helpful. At one interview I was told: ’we don’t want any more sadness in our area’. I was dumbfounded.I said, Sacred Earth is not causing sadness, we are supporting healing in grief and loss. I ended up having to give up setting up in my hometown as I hit so many roadblocks.Anyway, this beautiful space in Coraki came up, we gathered the forces of people to invest to buy this large and beautiful historic block of land and here we have created a true and perhaps the only Funeral Retreat in the country. We have built (out the back of the Earth House) Australia’s first purpose-built family vigil room. We and our community are so proud. We have also moved away from beige chapel walls. All our furniture and lighting has been recycled and repurposed. All furnishings have been gifted or handmade by someone who loves what is happening here.Everything in this big place has a story. We have the beautiful Sanctuary which is the beautiful old Anglican Church with many reminders of our eternal nature, to the familiar vibe of the community hall “Brandon Hall” which was originally where all the community dances were back in the day, all the weddings, the naming days, everything was held in this hall. Every neighbour here has a story about this hall. Behind the hall, we have the Earth House, natural body care area, the last place we go on this Earth before we return to it (The Earth). Every hand that has created this has worked with love and respect for our vision. We are a hub for all the Death Doulas on the North Coast - the “Northern Doulas” People can come to meet a Doula with the skill set they require, at any time of life. We also run public information and experience days, open houses, morning teas, paint a coffin day, Day of the Dead and special commemorations like loss of a baby or suicide loss. We run as a social enterprise, educating and calming people around fears of death. We love and believe in community. We all thrive if none of us are struggling or left behind. We offer all manner of community services: many are completely without cost.One thing I always thought, even before I had the concept of Sacred Earth was, when my Mum dies (she’s 93 and well thankfully) but when she dies I thought, who’s going to touch my Mum? Who’s going to wash her and dress her in the clothes I want. I thought it’s going to be a man and because I knew the men from where I worked who said to me: ‘It’s just a job Mimi’. I just felt I should personally look after all women. Women always looked after people in their dying time traditionally. It’s only 80 years that we’ve had the funeral industry in this country. Before that, we all died at home. We were kept at home for a few days while the neighbour dug a grave in the cemetery where we would transport them in their homemade coffin by horse and cart. The women would be cooking and serving after the death, the kids would be running around and it was so normal that no one had this fear of death. By removing it and sanitising society, we fear what we don’t know. We are really excited that the Coraki Community Gardens are setting up on our block as well. This has been due to the incredible hard work of our local community and we feel so blessed to have been chosen as their preferred site.I’m 52 and I have 3 children, two girls and a boy. I home schooled and my eldest girl is now at Uni doing a combined Law/Arts degree. I still live in East Lismore but I feel very grateful to the Richmond Valley who have been so supportive. Everything I do except to come here is in Lismore. We don’t have a Doctor in Coraki. All our elderly have to travel into Lismore. I’m very happy to be doing all the things that fill my heart with joy. I love dogs, I love dog rescue and I also work for Northern Rivers Wildlife Carers. I do all the things I love.”

Local author Sean Doyle wrote the book Night Train to Varanasi - India with my daughter. Sean speak to Denise Alison of Humans of Lismore about his life and inspiraton. Sean Doyle:“I was born in Newcastle in 1962. My ancestors on my fathers side are Irish from the area of Limerick. I think it’s sort of Angela’s Ashes country.They really corner the market in bleak. Irish Catholicism is a lot darker than the others. There’s a lot of pain, alcohol, poverty from my fathers side. Also very much the same from my mothers side, catholic but hailing from Scotland and Finland mainly.Again alcohol, domestic violence and some madness. It’s a pretty dark family background to be honest with you but things had picked up by the time I arrived. I do have family connections to this region that pre date me significantly. My Grandma spent some years in Casino as a girl in the 1910s. She married in 1926. She remembered singalongs around the piano and lots of card games.My Uncle was a Marist brother for 20 years. He taught at Trinity in the 50’s. In the 80’s my mum lived in Kingscliff and I loved visiting when I came back from Asia. She would give me all the food I love and pamper me.I could be a boy again which was really nice. I was very close to my mum. When I was 3 we moved to Cairns, mainly because my father wanted to get away from his older brother who were both working in the family business which was, not surprisingly…alcohol. We moved to Cairns in 1966, mid summer.I spent all my years in Cairns. I loved it as a child because I could just lay in nature. This was mid 60’s and it was beautiful but when I hit my teens I was pretty much bored. It was a small pond. I didn’t really value the values that surrounded me living in a country town at the time so I left very soon after I finished Yr 12.I went to Newcastle then on to Sydney Uni and studied art for 4 years where I got an Honours degree in Literature. I had a great time living in Enmore, Newtown, that area. I really enjoyed those years.My mate Tony and I took our bikes to Melbourne. We had planned to go cycling in Tassie.It was early 1981 and my girlfriend had dumped me. I was feeling sorry for myself so the trip was a good thing. Tony had a Penpal as lots of us did did back then. She was a girl living in Melbourne and they had arranged that we would stay with her for a few days before Tassie.Through her we met a group of people I really clicked with. I met some great people, a girl I had a crush on and a guy called Vince who really inspired me just by being who he was. I told Tony I didn’t want to go to Tassie, I wanted to stay where I was. He was ok with that and went on to Tassie. He had a great time and then a bit later Vince and I hit the road cycling. We took the train from Bairnsdale, cycled the highway over to Mt Hotham, down to Bright and on to Wangaratta. They were unsealed roads which made it a tough ride then but glorious country.I got back to Sydney, met a girl and we were living together before long. She was my girlfriend for 5 years. We travelled together.My girlfriend had family connections in Sri Lanka and her father organised some great connections over there. We had a week staying in Colonial Raj luxury with servants who wore all white.The drinks trolley would appear with everything you wanted and then the magnificent meal would come out. We were very spoilt. We went on to India which was a whole other level of experience. Just recently I had an event in Bangalow with my daughter Anna. We both spoke and I asked the people in the audience if they’d been to India.At least 40 out of the 50 people put up their hand. I asked who loved it and lots put up their hands. I asked who hated it and a lot of the same people put their hands up..and so do I.That’s India! It takes you to heaven and hell, like nowhere I’ve ever been.The Northern Rivers is rich with fellow India lovers, I guess partly to the hippy background of the Aquarius festival but also the alternative values the hippie movement brought along.So back to our trip. I was in South India for 2 months with my ex girlfriend Amanda and they were very challenging times for me. I saw very disturbing sights.Amanda went home after a month and I stayed on but didn’t cope very well with the pressures and the challenges such as the poverty and the attention. I was 22 and I was not sufficiently grounded in myself to be able to handle the attention.At that time there were far few foreigners around and when you are alone people are more likely to approach you, which normally is fantastic.Nowadays my preferred mode of travel is alone because you are more accessible to the place and the people but that was too much, too young for me back then. I met some pommy backpackers in Madras and we went to the cricket to watch the England test match in Madras which was wonderful. The Indian crowd were particularly lively that day and the England Batters were doing very well.Because I was with the pommy guys we’d cheer whenever they hit a 4 or a 6. People assumed I was a pom and the people around us started pelting us with bits of fruit. I walked out like a fruit salad and had to basically find the nearest cow to lick it off.I went back to Sydney and I just couldn’t get India out of my mind. If I met someone who’d been there I would want to talk to them about their travels. After 2 years I flew back alone into Delhi. I hadn’t been to the North before.I arrived at night, checked into a hotel, got up and walked out onto the street the next morning and felt like I’d come home. It was an incredible feeling that I’d never had before… or since. It was overwhelming. I was completely unprepared for that.I had a wonderful couple of months in India at that time. I was young and in my prime. I went to Nepal that trip as well. The following year in 1987, I met Micky who became my life partner. Micky is from Copenhagen in Denmark originally. I had first met Micky in 1982 when I was with Amanda. Micky was here in Australia visiting a friend, Julie. I met Micky in a terrace house in Camperdown on August 2, 1982.Micky immediately enchanted me with her passion, her enthusiasm for life, the fact that she had travelled, because at that time I had not been overseas.I just wanted to listen to her adventures forever. We were both with someone else at the time but in 1987 we travelled together in Asia.We went to Denmark eventually, we went to the Americas where I worked in New York illegally as a night guard one block from 42nd street which was a little scary. During that time I started writing travel content. I worked on the Equadour guide book then later I wrote about the centre of Australia for another publication. Micky and I travelled more. In ’89 we were in Latin America then back to Europe.I went back to India at the end of ’89 where I had a full on experience of getting bitten by a venomous snake and I nearly died. That was at Pushkar in Rhajistan.The snake bite took me to the edge of my existence. It was a Russells Viper. Back then about 10,000 people a year die of snakebite and now it’s much higher.” SnakebiteThe snake bite took me to the edge of my existence pretty much. I had met some kids at the temple, I had a pair of binoculars and they were really enjoying looking through them.It was sunset and by the time I was walking back to town, which wasn’t far, it was dark. I stepped on a snake and he got me good. It hurt a lot.I was lucky in that the owner of the hotel where I was staying, basically saved my life by getting me to a hospital in time and finding a hospital that would take me first of all.One didn’t want to because they thought I’d die and they didn’t want the admin hassle of getting the body back here.They said no which is an interesting lesson in what your life is worth. They couldn’t take me at the private hospital because they didn’t have the anti-venom.We needed to find a hospital that had it… Meanwhile the time is ticking by. Eventually we did, it was late in the day. I’d passed out and there was a Nun, Sister Rosa beside me and when I woke up she was still there praying.She had stayed with me and prayed all night. I woke up in the morning which was pretty nice. We went looking for her when I went back to India with my daughter Anna. That was a powerful experience that led to my first book, Beyond Snake Mountain, which was published in 1991 in India. It sold out and got some nice reviews.In 1992 we found ourselves in Europe again. I was teaching English in Barcelona. We stayed for 9 months just before the Olympics there and by then Micky was pregnant. We returned to Denmark and Anna our first child was born in November 1992.We came back and lived in Sydney and 3 years later our second daughter Tessa was born. We lived in Leichhardt for a time and I was working from home. We didn’t have a lot of money. Family life was challenging so after some years, in ’97 we separated. Micky came up here with the girls and I didn’t at that point. I was concerned that I wouldn’t get a decent career going and I needed to do that. Shortly thereafter I entered publishing which I’m still in. It was a painful period for all of us. I would take my 4 weeks annual holiday one week at a time so I could see the girls during school hols. We decided we would have a joint holiday with the girls in Brisbane. Micky booked a hotel on the river and Anna organised the sleeping arrangements and guess what? Micky and I are in the double bed so of course, the next thing after a 4 year separation we were back together.I had started a new job so I couldn’t leave. My family came down to the Central Coast for a few years where I worked in Sydney 4 days a week then home for 3 days.We planned to come back to the Northern Rivers because we all loved it. It felt like the right place for us so my boss at Finch Publishing let me bring my job up here.I ended up buying a company called Link Manuscript Assessment Service. I’ve been running it since 2007 and we’ve help many authors get published.I work from home now. I’ve gone back to writing, following the trip I took to India with Anna when she finished high school. The book has just come out, Night train to Varanasi, published by Bad Apple Press and I’m really excited about it.It’s wonderful to be able to celebrate two great loves of my life which are India and my daughter and through her my family in general. India embodied life’s wonder to me and Anna embodies life’s preciousness to me. It’s really nice to have it out.I’ll also be appearing at the Kyogle Writers Festival, not in the main program as I found out too late for that but they are running a series of side sessions called Front Up’s.I’ll be doing some signings of the book. I’ve had some events in the region which have been really supported.Lismore Library have been amazing. Lucy and Peter just went the extra mile. Book Warehouse have been supportive and are stocking the book. LismoreAs I said, I moved from Sydney to the Northern Rivers in 2005 – one of the best things I ever did. My family and I nestled into the soft, voluptuous undulations of this glorious region of the Great Southern Land, and have never looked back. It’s a special place, not only for its astonishing beauty, geography and biota.It’s a great climate too, barring the odd flood and sweltering summer, of course. I like Lismore for many reasons. It’s real. It’s not about how you look or what you’ve got, it’s about who you are.It also has incredible diversity for its size. We have the Remembering and Healing ceremony each 24 April where people from more than 72 countries and 12 religious faiths attend. It’s amazing!This is part of its realness too: closer to the coast, where the big money kicks in, the demographic is a rather dull monoculture whereby everyone around you is much the same as you: white and wealthy, with the accompanying values and baggage.In contrast, Lismore comprises all levels of society, and great diversity of race, culture, lifestyle and gender/sexuality.We also have a lively artistic scene! In tune with the region’s recent history, our values are human – based on people, not profits.The vibe is warm and friendly, and the locals are a wonderfully accepting, non-judgmental bunch. The heart pumps with vigour, the soul is full of love. May it be ever so!”  

Charlie and Dot Cox are a Lismore couple who have been in love for over 70 years. They are also amazing gardeners and have won many competitions over the years. Denise Alison of Humans of Lismore spent the afternoon over a cuppa chatting to this beautiful couple to bring you this week's Sunday Profile:Dot - “I was born in Maclean but we came here when I was a baby. I’ve lived in Lismore all my life. On the 2nd April, I’ll be 88. Before I was married I was on the telephone exchange and our home where we lived was where the BWS is now near Central. That used to be houses.I worked until I married but in those days married women didn’t work. I used to do housework all around the area for other people. If I wanted a washing machine, I’d go and work for it. I worked in Woolworths and Kmart and did all sorts of jobs in between kids. We had a dairy farm too. I met Charlie when I was just 16. I was friends with his sister before we met.”Charlie - “ I’ll be 89 on 9th July. I was born in Lismore but we lived at Cowlong which is out near Macleans Ridges. I was there till I was 17 then we moved to Tregeagle. Mum and Dad were dairy farmers. I met Dorothy and we got married. We married young on the 19th of November 1950. I was 18 and a bit and Dot was 17. People got married younger back then.We lived with Mum and Dad for 3 years then rented a house in South Lismore for 3 years before building our own home in Nielsen St, East Lismore. Right up until a few months ago it was a beautiful home and was kept immaculate but now it’s a mess from the people renting it.Anyway, we only lived there 3 years and we bought the farm in Booerie Creek. We ran the farm for 53 years. We didn’t dairy all that time but we did for many years.” Dot - “It was a catch 22 situation where Charlie couldn’t stop home and work the farm until the farm was paying for itself. The farm wouldn’t pay for itself until he could stop home and work it. Charlie was a traveller for Vita Brits and a cigarette brand. He never smoked.”  Charlie - “We have 3 sons and a daughter. There’s Terry, Christine, Stephen and we lost a little girl when she was 5 months old. Her name was Sharon. After that, we got a little surprise and that was Ron. Our daughter lives at Bowen, one of our son's lives at Stanthorpe. Terry lives at Lagoon Grass and Ron lives at Jiggi.We have 8 grandkids and 5 great-grandkids ageing from 1 to 22 years old.” Dot - “Sharon died from cot death. The doctor said she’s sicked up her milk and more or less drowned from it. I was still breastfeeding her. It was so devastating. The sad thing was we never ever got a photo of her. We didn’t own a camera at that time.Our friend came out to take photos the Saturday before she died actually and she was sleeping the whole time. Charlie’s mother used to say that baby is a little angel, she’s just too good. My friend said I’ll come out another day and get her while she’s awake so we never got a photo of her. I loved our farm. We had 2 1/2 acres of garden on the farm and we really loved it but as Charlie said, we couldn’t keep it up. We had divided our farm up and given it to our children. We kept a 4-acre block for ourselves. Anyway, it broke my heart when we had to sell up and I was not happy for a long time but now I’m happy.” Charlie - “Once I retired our garden just kept growing. I had a tractor so I could get rocks. In 1997 we won the Champion of Champions Garden of the year. We’ve won a lot of prizes over the years. We bought this house in East Lismore 9 years ago.When we bought it there was no garden at all. Dot’s just about to plant her veggies.”Dot - “I always love to have a Spring garden with all the Annuals in it. I think I’ll still try and do that until I cark it. We are getting old but we are still so busy. Next week we are out every day of the week. I have a judges meeting. I retired from garden judging last year but they still invite me as an advisor. Tuesday I’ll be playing cards, Wednesday we are going out. Thursday we have our Lismore Garden Club meeting and Friday we catch up with old neighbours where we used to live.I used to crochet but my silly old hands shake. They don’t shake or ache (shows me) until I pick up and want to do something. Charlie has to peel the pumpkin for me now. I thought I was getting Parkinson's but they are steady all the other time. We travelled around Australia in 1988 for 15 months. The reason we did that was because Charlie got cancer and had to have a kidney removed. We didn’t know how it would go so we both retired, me from Kmart and Charlie from Kirkland's Buses. We didn’t have much money and we weren’t on the pension or any benefits.We ran out and got jobs picking grapes. We worked for a family called Andrissci. They lived in a little town near Mildura. We ended up picking for them every year for 10 years. Those 15 months were the greatest time. We loved everything and had a wonderful time."Both Charlie and I reckon we’ve had a very good life.”Charlie - “We were never well enough off to travel overseas but we loved the outback. We weren’t interested in going to Sydney or Melbourne so we’d go bush. We did that for years and years. I remember working for Kirkland's driving people with all their suitcases out to the airport, and they’d be going to China or Bali or wherever.I’d say, have you ever been to Ayers Rock or the Kimberley's and they’d say no. I couldn’t believe all these Australians who’ve never seen their own country.” Dot - “It’s magic out there. We were lucky when we did you could still do everything. We are lucky we’ve seen so much of Australia. We used to get frustrated because we couldn’t take a flight over the Kimberley’s or a flight over the Rock so we used to walk it. We did everything.We would work 6 days and have Saturday off. A group of us workers would go travelling on that day to the wineries and pick up a bottle of plonk and some cheese so through the week we’d have a wine and cheese night. When we were working in Central Australia, we were living in Dongas, pruning and winding the vines on. The weeds were coming up and I’d say what are those weeds Charlie? He didn’t know, they were thick weeds.They were Marijuana plants sprouting from the seeds of the pickers smoking while they worked. We’ve had some adventures. We’ve been to Tasmania, Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Island and we’ve had a trip to New Zealand. We did 67,000 kilometres on our Australia trip and we reckon we could do that again without crossing our tracks. So much we haven’t seen.When you have someone good to travel with, it’s fun."We are still very much in love.My friends laugh because I still call him my lover."When I was young we used to have an autograph book. Somebody wrote in my book, May your life have just enough clouds to make a beautiful sunset. I thought that was lovely and that’s how it’s worked out for us. We’ve had lots of ups and downs and as you can see, we’ve never been rich but we’ve never been poor."We have been rich in what matters.”

According to Dylan Morris, owner of Taco Love Bros, he makes the best tacos in town. He and his brother Jordan opened a taco joint on the corner of Cathcart and Conway Streets in Lismore, near the Ballina/Wyrallah Road roundabout). Read more about them opening.Denise Alison of Humans of Lismore chatted to Dylan about his life before and after Taco Love to bring your this week's Sunday Profile. Dylan - “I was born in Ipswich but my family moved here when I was a baby. We always lived around this area. I have 3 older brothers and a younger sister. I’m 28 now. My family wasn’t particularly well off just like a regular Lismore family. My siblings all started getting jobs early, like trolley pushing and small jobs like that which encouraged me to look for a job. One of my mates was working for Mr T. Meats, the butchers at East Lismore. I was always harassing him to get me a job. Obviously when your parents are struggling financially it encourages you to work. At 12 I had my first job just washing trays, etc. They closed down and I went to the Lismore Square. I was always on the hunt for that butcher job after school. At 15 years old I decided to hit the boss up for an apprenticeship at Lismore Country Meats in Lismore Central. That was the first year of Year 10 so I told my dad I wanted to do an apprenticeship and I left school. Doing that apprenticeship, you know it brings out a lot of character, having to find your place in the work life, having to step up basically. In a butcher shop you learn a lot about personality. You can’t just be quiet in a corner. I finished that 4 year apprenticeship when I was 19 and went travelling through Europe. I met a girl called Jessica on the first leg of that trip in London. After that I was in love. I had to come back to Australia, save and move to Canada which is where she was from.I packed up my troubles and flew half way across the world to set up a new life. I stayed for a year and then did the back and forth to Australia. Jessica came back to Lismore too and worked in Cafe Cappello for a while. We had a great time together. It’s not the cheapest thing to move countries. You have to do it though. You don’t want to live your life wondering. I worked in a restaurant over there for 9 months of the year. That was a great experience.  We returned to Australia and stayed for a year. Winter over there was really harsh. -40 degrees in the middle of Winter so for a little Aussie boy it was a bit chilly. We went back to Canada and things didn’t work out. Jessica stayed there with her family and I worked my way home.  Soccer was my main sport growing up so when I returned I started playing Soccer for Nimbin which opened my world up to a whole bunch of community who are now pretty strong in my life. Nimbin can have a stigma about it and consequently I didn’t go there for ages but when I did, being part of that community is actually quite beautiful. A really good bunch of people.  I got a job at Hayters Hill for couple of days a week at the butchery and the other days I would do the farmers markets at Byron, Bangalow and Mullumbimby so I got a taste of the Northern Rivers. Markets are way more face to face and first name basis. I loved it for 2 years but sort of got over waking at 3:50 in the morning to drive over there. I bought a van thinking I might travel and work my way around different butchers. The van blew up so I lost my money. I ended up going to Cairns where my Mum lives to hang there for a month. There’s a FB page called Travelling Casual Butchers and they posted work in Coffs for 3months. At that stage my brother was living in Urunga. I posted on Gumtree looking for accommodation and this woman had a self contained cottage to stay in the hills behind Coffs. All I had to do was mow the lawns for free rent. I work in Coffs, reconnected with Jordan and when that work ended we came back to Lismore and moved in with my Dad.  I did more work with the butchers under Centro which I’ve come and gone from over the years. I know it so well. I was mucking around with a cut of meat and took ingredients home to make tacos…not your average taco though. I served it to my Dad and my brother and I knew that something special was happening. It was so beautiful. From then on I’ve been sharing it. We set and sold them all over the place.The first one was at Nimbin Soccer field making tacos for the spectators. We basically just wanted confirmation that everyone was enjoying it as much as we were. That night we went to Casino and away we went everywhere we could. We got into Byron Markets and Clunes shop and that kicked us off.  We do home style cooking to get those flavours through our beef and pork. It’s all old school cooking served quick. It all comes back to the butchers. That really helped out this dream because I was working there 2 days a week and they trusted me. I was able to do a lot of prep and cooking of the meat there after hours.There’s been a lot of local help and that’s just through growing up in a town like this where you connect with community. I wouldn’t be able to do this anywhere else.  I always knew there would be a business opportunity in Lismore but didn’t know what it was but when it came I knew this was it. We were walking town looking for a home base and we came across this place. It wasn’t advertised as a food premises but it felt like home to me. We came in the back garage and it was purposely built as a butchery.It had an inbuilt cool room not function but it had the structure. It was perfect. We could do most of the reno’s ourselves. Local town planner Will helped us out a lot. He did the DA. It was tough going, there was so many road blocks on that DA. We had no money and Council wanted us to do so many things, even kerb and guttering on the road. They wanted us to put a carbon filtration unit in which was $20,000 so we were coming up agains all these blocks.It was a lot to manage and it took months. You can see the dream so you get up in the morning and keep pushing. Eventually it did pay off. The people with the power don’t know your vision. They don’t know how good this shop is for the community. It’s humble and home grown. It’s a special space.  Julla did the artwork. We started here on the spot with a food van with a Pop up Taco sign. All the tradies and mates helped. I love the quote, Your passion is what saves you from the world. I have some passionate people working with me. I love the challenge and eventually I’d like to be involved with events that promote the community. We also want to have live music.Dad’s making planter boxes for cactus and flowers and we’ve planted Marigolds out here too.”  

You may have seen Deepak Khuller familiar face volunteering at Lismore Regional Art Gallery. Deepak moved here after living and working internationally in Paris, Tokyo, Bangkok and Shanghai and now contributes to our diverse community. Deepak was interviewed by Denise Alison of the Humans of Lismore.Deepak Khuller - “ I was born in New Delhi. Delhi was a more liveable place than out is now. It’s an ancient city which has been populated for many centuries and has been capital of many civilisations so there’s a lot of great history and architecture to Delhi.The population has exploded since I was a little kid. We were lucky that we had gardens, alleyways filled with trees and compounds full of grass. There was always outdoor games with lots of kids so it was a great childhood with lots of love and affection. I think that still sustains me now. We moved when I was about 15 to another part of Delhi. I have 3 older sisters. We had a pretty liberal upbringing. My family isn’t really religious but they follow the festivals as they come along. There would be pomp and show, colours and the incredible food that goes with different festivities. They were all beautiful. Every month we were celebrating something. I fully enjoyed it all.I was pretty good academically at school and sport. When I finished school I did an undergraduate degree at Delhi University in Computer Science. It was quite an achievement because mine was the first batch who graduated from Delhi Uni in Computer Science. I had Physics, Maths and Computer Science as my subjects. I wanted to do more so I decided to go overseas for studies.In 1989 I landed in Australia. A friend had arrived here and I thought why not? Australia is the lucky country. I was studying in Perth and I realised the course wasn’t at my level. I had gone beyond that course. Money was short as an overseas student so I studied full time, worked very hard and saved $7,000 in about 6 months. I lived very poorly and worked cleaning escalators and scrubbing 80 toilets at night.I couldn’t tell my family at home because this wasn’t something you did coming from where I came from. I also knew I wouldn’t get any money from anywhere else. When I arrived in Australia I had $800 in my pocket and my first semester at school paid off. That sum of money was big then. My sister who lived in the US paid my semester fee. I enrolled in a new University in Melbourne called VUT and got into their Graduate Diploma in Computer Science with the money I saved. I topped the University in the Grad Dip so the faculty gave me a scholarship for Masters and I topped the University in Masters. They then asked me to stay as a PhD student and made me a senior tutor so I had my own room at the VUT faculty. It was quite daunting to get up and teach students, some the same age as me. I was starting to feel like a professional student and I wanted to explore a bit more. The opportunity came from Monash University at that point. They used to have a computer centre and they were looking for someone to write a computer centre handbook.This was 1994. I wrote the handbook which was very well regarded in the academic circles. From there I started managing their mainframe computers. The book had a life of its own and got a look in by a company in the USA. They approached me and asked me to come and work for them which started my career in the corporate world. I stayed with them for 5 years and got to travel, Auckland for 18 months, Brisbane for a year and Bangkok for 6 months. I started work with a telecommunications giant called Alcatel and stayed for 13 years. I had the best career with them. I was the HR Director in Japan for a year, I managed Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar over a few years. In 2009 I became a global Director which was awesome and I moved to Paris where I stayed until 2013. I was very lucky and very happy. I got to live in some amazing places and travel the world. It was fantastic. There was a time when a camera saved my life in PNG. It was a Saturday morning. I had a team and we were in a curfew environment. It was curfew till 6am so the other hours we could be out and about. I was taking some people to the National Gallery there. We parked in the carpark which was empty and I started walking toward the gallery doors.I saw this guy hacking at the bushes with a machete so I thought he was a gardener working. My 2 other colleagues were behind me. My colleagues yelled, Deepak watch out! I turned around and this guy was bearing down with the machete about to attack me.I made a dash but was on gravel and slipped. I had a camera in my hand and I threw at him. He ran off with my very good Canon camera but it saved my life. I had been in a relationship from 2000 to 2011 but it fell apart due to all the travel. When I came back here in 2013 I thought I would pack up and move back to Paris, then I ran into Luke.I was living in Surrey Hills and we met at the local gym and went for a cup of Chai. We started seeing each other a bit but nothing serious. I had a house in Alexandria and my tenants were moving out. Luke was in his place in Surrey Hills and I asked him in 2015 if he would like to move in with me.Relationships are complex things but we were both at a stage where we could bring our unique selves to the relationship. You have to be together for a little while before you know whether it works for you or not. I’m 53 now so 7 years ago we met. Luke was already over big cities. I always thought I was an urban dweller. All the major cities I’ve lived in, I lived in the heart of it all. In 2014 I had my first ever trip to Lismore.That was my first Tropical Fruits. We came and stayed at Max’s house who was a friend of Luke’s and we loved it. We loved the party, loved the town. It had a great vibe, was multicultural and diverse. It had a great cafe culture, it was accepting and it was wonderful to see that regional Australia was celebrating 30 years of Tropical Fruits. Not even main cities celebrate something like that so it was all very positive. The house was amazing and I fell in love with it.Life went on and then Dec 2017 we decided to return to Lismore for New Year. We came back to Max’s place and at that point I said to Max if you’re looking to sell I’m keen to buy. Long story short, in February he called and by May it was ours. I left my job in Sydney, Luke sold his apartment, I sold my house and November 2018 we moved to Lismore. We could not be happier.The things we thought would work for us are working way better than we expected. There’s a great art world here which was a big attraction for both of us. We both love art and Luke is an amazing artist. I really admire his work. My ex was a wonderful painter as well and I have collected art for 30 years.Luke and I both came from very different sides but we think alike. Lismore has taken me back to my childhood where I had a garden, close to nature and I adore that. We have a beautiful garden we’ve planted and we have done big renovations to our home.I was the only son in a patriarchal culture. My parents are devastated that I moved away to live my own life. Mum is very stubborn and has continued to make life more difficult for herself and Dad. It puts me in a very awkward situation because she always throws the guilt back to me. She cannot stay happy even though there is nothing in life that is unhappy.I feel very strongly about wanting to take care of them. I go twice a year and try as much as possible to see them. It’s always the same from my mother…If only you were here, everything would be ok. It’s very tiring and puts a lot of strain on me. It clouds my joy in life at times. My coming out story was pretty horrendous as well. My parents belong to a very different generation so when I came out to them it was a very rocky road all the way through which has never abated.My sister who is a Trump supporter dobbed me into my parents basically. I had come out to her thinking, she is in America, has been there for a long time so will be supportive. No! She was the other way around. I had to rush to India to talk to my parents. There was 21 days of hell. I had to hide my passport because my dad was going to confiscate it and not allow me to leave. My sister tried to thwart my relationship here by sending very wrong things to the Immigration Department after she found out I put my application in based on my de-facto relationship with my then partner Ross. The department called me saying that my relationship was not genuine because they had received her letter. We could prove it and did. She never apologised.I let it go for 25 years and then last year all hell broke loose. She’s the apple of Mum’s eye so I get more trouble from her. It’s never-ending and I just want it to finish. I try to understand and be generous but it’s hard. I still go twice a year and have been doing it for decades. There’s a lot of complexity there. My 2 sisters in Delhi are wonderful.When I came home from my last trip last year which was a difficult time, I was worn out from the stress. Luke picked me up from Ballina airport. That afternoon the doorbell went and I was thinking..no, I really don’t feel like visitors. The door opened and there was this woman holding the tiniest little pup (Ramu) and I burst into tears. Luke had bought Ramu for me so it was a wonderful moment. (Ramu just featured on Dogs of Lismore.) I feel very grateful I have so many wonderful things in my life…travel, career, friends, partner and family despite whatever goes on. I still have my 2 sisters who are wonderful. Here we are! We love the community here and who knew that the house would come with so many wonderful things attached.”

While most of us agree that planting trees is good for the environment, Southern Cross University researcher Dr Kevin Glencross has spent more than half his life finding out just how beneficial it really is.Dr Glencross has worked in the Northern Rivers for almost 30 years, and owns a small farm where he has been replanting in the upper reaches of the Richmond River.He’s actively involved in Southern Cross University research on replanting forest ecosystems, with particular expertise in carbon sequestration, biodiversity services, timber plantations, sustainable agriculture, food systems, agroecology, ecotourism and agroforestry. He supervises PhD students, works with undergraduate students in the field to expand their experience, while also running research programs in Australia, China and the Asia-Pacific specialising in rural livelihoods, protected area management, sustainable agriculture, natural resource management and restoration of complex ecosystems.“Here around Southern Cross University Lismore campus, most of the area was covered in sub-tropical rainforests before Europeans arrived, but that forest was very quickly cut down. A lot of the timber that grew in those forests was then exported out as high-value timbers like red cedar, rosewood, some of the pines,” he said.“They cleared those trees, grew grass, but we never thought to put trees back. Now things have run full circle - the dairy industry has shrunk dramatically and there’s a lot of land out there that’s underutilised. My PhD research looked at ways we could put trees back into the landscape, and also look at them as a potential resource. Could we re-establish a timber industry and do a much better job this time around?”He says while people understand that planting trees has a whole range of benefits, there has been little data from this region to support the kind of changes tree-planting can make, in terms of taking carbon from the atmosphere and storing it.“Part of my research brief has been to understand more clearly what’s going on, and account for the capacity these forests have to store thousands of tons of carbon in the tree’s timber, the canopy, the leaves, and also within the soil and the debris pool,” he said.“And in these flood-prone environments, not only can we store carbon, but these trees help keep the soil in place up in the valleys, up in the catchment and stopping that from running into our waters, and losing that productive soil. This can help mitigate the economic impact of these intense floods as well. This vegetation not only has ecosystem value, but human value as well, for timber, food and shelter.”Dr Glencross also project manages, designs and supervises large-scale forest restoration operations for the public, for private enterprise, NGOs including the UN, and Community-based groups. He works his own land while also running a consulting business, and has had more than 25 research publications in national and international journals since 2008. His recent projects have included a lot of time working in Vanuatu and Fiji in the South Pacific, helping locals to rebuild some of their industries.“Vanuatu had a very vibrant forest industry right up until the late 80s, then like a lot of the tropical world, that forest resource was completely harvested. So now one of the greatest places in the world to grow trees, is actually importing wood from New Zealand. "There’s huge opportunity to re-establish their own industries, including producing coconut oil, nuts and tropical fruits and coffee and so on.”Dr Glencross says he has a huge appreciation of the wealth of knowledge and understanding and depth of connection that Indigenous communities in each area have with the land.“The kind of research I do is very much a two-way relationship and I get to work with people who have this incredible connection to the land, who need support and scientific understanding to help them promote their cause and have their voice heard through a scientific lens,” Dr Glencross said.“This is a mechanism for a type of reconciliation with the land that we share – so it’s not only solutions for the threats that face us, but also part of a process of re-establishing a much more sound and sustainable relationship with the landscape.”For students who want to pursue study in forestry, agriculture and science, Dr Glencross encourages them to take the opportunity to hone their intellect at University while also getting out into the world with hands-on experience and research.“No matter where you find yourself, there are opportunities to really engage in life and in study that’s really meaningful to you to find where your niche is,” he said.“I’ve been able to explore an area that I’m really passionate about with the support of my family, and what I love about my research is getting out there engaging with the environment and engaging with people outdoors and on the ground.”

Tattooist Stevi Lee Alver opened the doors to her own tattoo and piercing shop, The Ink Atelier, in Goonellabah late last year. In this week's Sunday Profile, she answers some of the burning questions we had about her life, her passion for tattooing and the experience of getting a tattoo. Read more about Stevi Lee opening her shopWhat tattoos do you have and when did you get them?Stevi Lee: I have various tattoos from tribal to Japanese, cover-ups and realism. Most of my tattoos were done in Australia and Brazil but I have also been tattooed in south-east Asia. Most have been done by fellow artists. Most recently by Kate at K. T Tattoos and Mac at Iron Mind, both who I've worked within the past. What inspired you to like tattoos – family, friends?I've always been drawn to tattooing. When I was a kid I thought it was a kind of magic taking place, some kind of alchemy. I had my first tattoo at 17. It was an off-the-wall-or-nothing-at-all type of studio. So I ended up with a big tribal dolphin on my left foot. I'm not too fond of it these days although it does represent a certain time of my life and a certain curiosity. I remember asking the tattoo artist what it would take to get an apprenticeship. What do you like about being a tattoo artist?I love to create. I've always been a creative but to have a career creating is amazing. The dynamic and collaboration with clients are also very rewarding. Every day is different, it's never boring. Why did you open your own tattoo shop business? I've always dreamed of having a studio and saw an opportunity to start something different in Lismore. In the beginning, I was apprehensive about starting a business but I had good support from my partner, my friends and Kate at K. T Tattoos.(name your shop, location and your availability, how clients find and book you)The Ink Atelier is in Lismore Heights, 405 Ballina Road, we're currently open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am until 5pm. Most client's book via Instagram @the.ink.atelier or Facebook @the.ink.atelier.lismoreWhat else have you done in your life and career?I am a registered nurse. While at studying nursing, I worked as an artist for a gallery in Broome. I also have a background in creative writing, predominantly fiction and poetry. What are your plans for the future?At this point I'm not thinking too far ahead, just trying to stay on top of the work for the week ahead. A second artist, Brett, who specialises in large-scale Japanese and traditional tattoos, will be working Saturdays.I've also taken on an apprentice, Griffin, who is extremely talented. He’s in the process of becoming a licenced tattoo artist and learning the ins and outs of infection control, cross-contamination, managing clients and general shop life. Once he is accepting clients, we might look into having guest artists feature at the studio.What are the most common tattoos people ask for/ that you have done?This is a hard question. I think, perhaps, memorial tattoos are the most common tattoos. They're all different but have a similar sentiment. Where are the most common places people want to be tattooed?It depends on the design of the tattoo. You want the tattoo to fit, flow, and compliment, the body part. Placement is essential and often discussed at length with each client. How long does getting a tattoo take?Sessions are anywhere from 30 minutes to 6 hours. Bigger, more involved tattoos can take several 6-hour sessions to complete. Do some tattoos last longer than others?Yes. Finger tattoos don't usually last long. They often fall out after a couple of weeks, particularly on the side of the finger.What is the process of doing a tattoo?We start by discussing the design concept, size, placement. We then find a suitable time and date, the client then pays a deposit. The tattoo is drawn up before the appointment. When the client arrives, they check over the design and complete a consent form. If needed, final tweaks are made to the design. We make a stencil and apply it to the skin. Again, the client reviews the design and placement and agrees to go ahead. While the stencil is drying the station is set up using an aseptic technique. We make sure the client is comfortable and then start the tattoo. Are tattoos reversible? What’s the process?Some tattoos can be removed via laser. Others can be covered up. It depends on what the client prefers. Sometimes laser is recommender before the cover-up. What should people consider before getting a tattoo?Think before you ink! Design and placement, it's worthwhile taking time to think about this before committing. Most importantly, people should find a professional, licenced tattoo studio and an artist that suits the style they want. Is getting a tattoo or tattooing addictive?Almost anything can be addictive. There is something extremely satisfying in watching a tattoo come to life on your body. So, yes, I would say it is addictive. Does it hurt? Where hurts the most and why?It does hurt, generally not as much as people first think. Different people experience pain differently. Some places can be excruciating for one person and almost ticklish for the next. Throat, ribs, sternum, back of the knee, over the kidneys are all sensitive. Arms and legs hurt the least. Why do people do it? People get tattoos for different reasons. To mark a transformation. For sentimental reasons, names, dates. Memorial tattoos. As a form of self-expression or individuality. To rebel or even to fit in. 

Being in the top job through floods, fires, drought and pandemic wasn’t easy – but that’s what Lismore’s former mayor Isaac Smith has dealt with during the past four years of office.It’s been one week since Isaac officially resigned as mayor and left Lismore City Council. He’s looking a bit more relaxed as he moves into the next stage of his life as CEO of HART Services, after over 12 years of serving a tumultuous term in public office.“Being mayor through the biggest flood, fire, pandemic and budget crisis is ridiculous,” Isaac said. “I’ll laugh about it one day hopefully. I was there, I was chosen, I did the best I could - and if you can say that, you have to be happy.”From his achievements to his disappointments, Isaac talks about his life, the difficulties of trying to get things done on an adversarial council - and Lismore’s future challenges.AchievementsDuring his term on Council, Isaac sees some of his achievements as being the creation of the first floating solar farm in Australia, and the first kerbside recycling service.“Those projects made a huge difference,” Isaac said.“In the end, my term has been one of recovery from disaster and finding a new foundation for the councillors of the future to build on, fixing two generations of systems that were not keeping up.“It was about fighting disaster and modernising council – those are both things that won’t be remembered much, but it’s about improving my city for decades to come. I’m ok with that.”Isaac and Councillor Elly Bird after the 2017 floods at Helping Hands.Lismore ladIsaac was born in Lismore and has always lived in the region. He went to Southern Cross University and studied media and communications, then taught at SCU for seven years.“I enjoyed talking to people and teaching them about websites,” Isaac said. “Unis were fun places then and you could be philosophical not just pump out results. I believe in free education for all. I loved being there, but being a casual academic was hard work.”Now separated from his wife, Isaac married and started a family young. the couple have four children – one is now studying to be a primary education teacher.ChristianIsaac grew up in a Christian family and said it’s formed the direction he took in life – and why he has always had a focus on social justice.“I practice empathy and try and understand where someone is at – not to just judge them,” he said. “On council, I sometime had aggressive angry people come to me demanding answers. I always through this could be the only time this person approaches council in their whole lives.“I might hear this ten times from different people, but this might be the one time in their life this person has tried to do something. So, I practice empathy and I listen to them and help them.”Jobs Isaac’s first job in Lismore at the age of 14 was at Crazy Prices on Molesworth Street, then at the SpotEx surf shop on Magellan Street, the Spar on Wyrallah Road, and he collated newspapers at the Northern Star.“I spent ten years working in retail, then after I left the university, I started working in community services in disability - assisting people and running small events,” he said. “I worked for Daisi and Social Futures, before I joined council in 2008.Why politics?“I wasn’t political and my family wasn’t either – but a couple of friends said to me I should go into politics and I said they should get stuffed, but it planted a seed in my mind. Six months later I thought what does it take to get into politics?“At the time Jenny Dowell was on Council as a councillor and I spoke to her and she advised me to find a group I could align with – she didn’t push me in any particular direction.“Even then it was clear that was the only way to get things done - it’s a struggle to be independent. I jumped into the Labor Party and got into Council the next year.“I was number two on Jenny’s ticket in 2008 and I’ve been on council for 12.5 years. When Jenny retired, I ran for mayor and was popularly elected - which was a special thing when the majority of people in the city vote for you – and that led to a tumultuous term.Why Labor?“In 2007, It was John Howards last term. The Tampa crisis and the refugees and social justice issues really upset me.“In the past, I had voted National, Labor, Green and Liberal – but I wasn’t wedded to anything until I joined the Labor Party.“I felt comfortable with the local people there who made a difference, but I always felt uncomfortable with the party machine. The Labor party to me was middle ground - not too far to the left and I felt I could so some good there.Party politics “Even though I was Labor, I always voted for my own conscience. In my eight years with Jenny on council we often voted together, but often we didn’t - and we never held that against each other.“I have encouraged that myself - local government is a place you can agree to disagree. Sadly, that’s missing in politics at State and Federal level and its disappearing at local government level.”Obstacles“The biggest obstacle I faced in my term was the disunity in councillors. What started as a progressive council became a difficult one to manage.“Unfortunately, the left and the right joined together and those us in the middle were overrun with issues - and that tied things up and slowed things down continually.“That was always a big disappointment for me and I still don’t understand how the far right and the far left agreed on all these things, it made no sense to me.“I did the best I could and we worked together to get the numbers to get things done.“My biggest disappointment in my term is not having a collaborative group and I think that discontent flows to the public. The greatest negative impact on community was from people who will tear others down and work with someone else to make something bad happen.Judgement“I think we need to be more accepting and curious. There’s too much judgement and people approach issues with strong opinions, backed up by a few people on Facebook who told them they were doing the right thing.“There’s so much easy access to quick keyboard opinions. In the past you would get more info and make a considered opinion. It was clear to me from the early days on council that councillors came in with their minds made up.“My hope for the new council is that people come in and want to collaborate and work with each other, because that’s what I didn’t have in my term. I had an adversarial council.”Personal attacks“Most people are aware I had to go to court to protect myself and my family from attacks, lies, misinformation and harassment. There will always be people who think it’s appropriate to act like that and they justify their own actions with personal opinions.“I think people need to be more curious about how and why people made the decisions they did - My vote is just one vote on council - the mayor doesn’t have any secret powers or access.”Council debtWhen Isaac joined Lismore City Council in 2018, Council already had a large debt that had been building up for years. That debt has seen now council make some big changes. So where did the debt come from?“The debt problem was not caused by the last mayor or general manager,” Isaac said. “In the 60s and 70s, Lismore as a city grew rapidly and rate pegging was locked in.“But our road network doubled in the next 20 to 30 years and the maintenance and costs doubled too - but we only had 1% indexed rate rises, so we went backwards every year.Structural changes“In my term on Council, we addressed that and made structural changes. The changes started in previous general manager Gary Murphy’s term, then finished by Shelley Oldham.“They were systemic changes 40 years in the making for council.“Hopefully it will be decades before any councillors have to make the difficult decisions we did again.”Rates and the SRVThe high cost of Lismore rates are often complained about by local residents and last year Council voted against a proposed rate rise – the Special Rate Variation. It was heralded as a way to make the extra money needed to fix Lismore’s road network.“It’s been in our plan to do it for a decade because we have assets that need to be maintained – but the SRV didn’t get through and subsequently we have cut services to the city.“We cut staff and had to reduce things we do - like less mows on lawns and less new roads being built. You can’t supply services with less money.”FloodsIn 2017, when the Lismore levy overtopped and flooded the whole CBD, it was one of the biggest flood disasters many people in the town had lived through. Isaac had become mayor in late 2016, after Jenny Dowell left council and had only been in the role for six months before the flood arrived.“It devastated town the way no flood had since the 1989 flood - and we had forgotten what it was like,” Isaac said. “The clean up and mental recovery was long.“It took us more than three years to get quick release funds from the State Government to fix roads and bridges.“We had to use what money we had to get it done and hope the flood money would come through. Our community wore at least two million out of the budget to do it.”“The flood put us in a hole – we were already underfunded and were cutting from the budget every year. Then we had to recruit a new general manager, and Shelley Oldham cam and found a huge debt.“Since then, we have made changes that will help us in the future and that has perhaps demonised us. People want to find someone to blame, but it is not something you can blame one person for.“Then, in 2019, the drought was biting across country and it hit us hard then.“Our dam was dropping and the situation was exacerbated by the fires - they hit us first in our area, then the rest of the country. It was a massive challenge and business is still recovering from it.Roads and infrastructure“Most of the complaints I get are about State roads and there is nothing we can do about that. The State Government control the legislation and give us a small amount of money to maintain them.“We have the second oldest sewer system in NSW - the only one older is Sydney CBD.“Our sewer system was laid down over a hundred years ago in the CBD and we’ve had to renew a whole storm water and sewer system in our city.“We’ve just built the South Lismore treatment plant to replace infrastructure and residents are now paying that off.“People say to me the Ballina rates are cheaper than Lismore. I say yes, they would be because Ballina has been built in the last 20-30 years.“If you move there now there is no infrastructure to bebuilt in the next 20 years, so your rates will be low and 40 years from now when it will need to be renewed, those people living there then will then have to pay for it in increased rates.Goonellabah Sports and Aquatic Centre (GSAC)Another piece of infrastructure which has brough strong criticism from the community has been the Goonellabah Sports and Aquatic Centre (GSAC)“GSAC was approved before I started in 2008,” Isaac said. “But it should not have been built. It was not costed or planned well. The business plan wasn’t there and it was costed at a quarter of the end cost. It was always going to lose money and that has now cost council two million dollars a year. It will be cheaper in about four years when that loan bill is paid off.“It is in the right place though and hitting the right market. People who use the youth programs love it. I had more complaints about it being closed during Covid than anywhere else.”Lismore Regional Art GalleryAnother polarising piece of infrastructure has been the Lismore Regional Art Gallery.“We need history, culture and galleries as well as speedway,” Isaac said. “The gallery was built with through grant funding and fundraising. It is well supported and well used and liked.“More than a third of council budget goes on roads, a third on parks and gardens and planning, administration costs about 25%. Art gallery spending is less than 1% of the budget – and that in turn brings millions into our community and creates an interesting space here.“It does more for our city than the tiny number of potholes the spending would fill.“When people say to me, I don’t like this -what they mean is I don’t use it. The Friends of the Gallery raised money to build it and they deserve to have it as much as the city needs speedway or football.”TraumaticAt the time leading up to the flood, Isaac had been working for HART Services and was juggling the role of mayor with his job. In order to focus more on the council role, he resigned from HART but stayed as a casual until the need for more money to pay bills later took him back to working there.During the flood Isaac said he worked long hours and was exhausted physically and emotionally.“I had to keep going,” he said. “I was up early doing national media, checking emails, talking to residents, setting up a recovery centre and going to SCU where people wereliving, working with relief organisations and the SES - all that on top of council duties.“One night I’d been at the Uni and the Salvos were feeding people and when I left, my car wouldn’t start and I started weeping. I still remember that – it still affects me.“There were lots of moment like that in the flood, but I kept going because so much needed to get done.“Helping Hands really helped and as a city, we did such a good job of helping ourselves that the state government slowed down their relief.“This was in my first six months in council – and that stress could also have affected other councillors too because the relationships deteriorated. The aggression and animosity between councillors was noticeable and it was evident it wasn’t going to be an easy term.2021 and futureAs Isaac moves into his full time role as CEO of HART Services, he is picking up again from where he left off when Covid hit.“Just before Covid hit, I told HART I wanted the job and that council elections are coming up and I wasn’t standing again – but then the elections were cancelled due to Covid,” he said.“HART allowed me to juggle the two jobs, but there was too much work and that wasn’t fair to HART and my career, so I made decision to resign at the end of 2020.Biggest challenge for future council“Our biggest challenge is growing,” he said. “More people moving here from capital cities – but the problem is no one wants the growth around them. The irony is that the people who moved here in the 80s and 90s for a better lifestyle are the ones stopping people moving here now.“To me, the city needs to grow and we need more units and duplexes and townhouses to accommodate the future. If you don’t want that, you have to move to the hills. I understand why people want to stop development - but not wanting it is not a rationale.Solutions“We have to find practical solutions to make it work. That is the challenge on the back of Covid. Lismore is going to boom and we need to have services, institutions and a mix of art, culture and sports.“People will come and work here and we need to meet that more sustainably – so we need more environmental considerations around the use of power and collecting water - but people need to let things happen around them and not just be against everythingTrade offs“There are always trade offs we do need trees, but we have amazing countryside around us and there are more trees here now than 20 years ago.“If we chase perfection, we lose sight of the goal. We have to help people change and collaborate.”

This week's Sunday Profile comes from the Humans of Lismore Facebook page and was written by Denise Alison, who interviewed Scott and Kristen, from Mayfields Market Kitchen who run a home based business cooking delicious meals for the masses. They also serve yummy breakfasts at the Farmers Markets and are regulars at the Lismore Carboot Market. ScottScott: “I was born in Somerset where they make cider and grow onions. Dad was in Aviation and got a job managing Bahrain airport which at the time was a major hub. We moved to Bahrain when I was 3 and lived there till I was 11. Dad then got a job working for Swiss Air so we moved to Cypress for the next 2 years. We went back to the UK and I lived in Bournemouth and eventually to Hertfordshire in London’s north.When I finished school I did a years working visa here. Dad was working for British air space and was selling aircraft called the 146 in the region of Australasia. The 146 are extremely good for short take off and landings. I think they only use them for cargo now but it was perfect for Hamilton Island.It was also known as the whisper jet because it was super quiet. He’s travel to Australia, Vanuatu, New Zealand, etc. They wanted him to open an office in Circular Quay so we all got a 4 year visa so I lived here for 4 years.I got a job working for Ansett in reservations and had the time of my life. I made loads of friends who are still friends now. When that time ended I had to return to the UK which was traumatic to say the least. By that stage I knew I loved Australia and wanted to live here.England was such a contrast which I found depressing and miserable, however that’s when I landed my first job in a kitchen. I took whatever I could so I started out as washer. I told the chefs I wanted to learn what I could. I’ve always loved cooking but was sort of put off because all the chefs and people in that industry lived a pretty hard lifestyle. The Chef’s took me under their wing and saw that I had a natural ability, most of which I owe to my Mum, like most chef’s do. In that period Mum and Dad managed to emigrate to Australia permanently and the bracket came up for last remaining relative. I immediately applied and I got it.My parents moved to Tasmania. I went there for 2 months and went back to Sydney to see my friends. One of my mates lived in an apartment in Cronulla above some girls who had an Antipasto business. He took me down to introduce me and one of those girls was Kristin. We knocked on the door and this smell of roast lamb poured out. She asked if I wanted to stay for dinner and I basically never left. That was 2003. KristinKristin: “I was born in Monto just above the Darling Downs in the Burnett district. My father had a dairy farm there as did Mum’s family. We were the original settlers of that area . I still have a lot of family in that area. We lost our farm in the 1969 drought and moved to Gladstone.My mum was disabled. She contracted Polio as a 16 year old at boarding school in Yeppoon. Mum was strapped to an iron frame for 18 months, all these awful things that did to her. My grandfather heard of a guy called Kjellberg (pronounced Schellbay) who was a Swedish Doctor. He had set up a clinic in Townsville where he stayed for many years. It ended up being like a tent city.People were coming from everywhere to be treated by him because the Swede’s do Osteopathy and Chiropractic as part of their practice.When Mum went to Kjellberg she was practically in an iron lung. She was paralysed from the neck down and they said she would never so much as feed herself again. She stayed for 9 years and at the end she was paralysed in one leg. She was probably the most full on woman you could ever meet.She went from a real horse woman, farm girl to being the Arts and English mistress at the local college. She was the head of the musical society, the light opera society. She did children art classes in the afternoon and adults art classes at night so I had to learn to cook from an early age. Mum was a brilliant cook and my inspiration.We were looking for ingredients back in the 60’s for Indian curries and Mexican food which was unusual back then. I started cooking family meals from the age of 9. I moved to Ballina after I finished school then onto Sydney where I stayed for nearly 37 years. My first restaurant was called Pipi’s in the old original Manly Hotel. It was licensed for 350 people. My beautiful dad had died. He was such a lovely, cuddly man. We went up to Airlie Beach and I more or less started the Airlie Beach toad races which are still going today. (laughs). I went back and worked in various restaurants in Sydney including Sailor Thai.I worked at The Rockpool and Doyles at Watson Bay. I worked for 5 years in Rozelle at an award winning restaurant in the Sackville Hotel. I got a bit tired of hospitality and the hours so I got a job working for Kerry Stokes as housekeeper and cook for 4 years in his big mansion in Double Bay. That was interesting. From there I went to Montreal and worked in my friends beautiful jewellery shop. Not long after I moved to Cronulla and met Scott. We spent a little while with a cafe in Kenilworth near Eumundi but cafe’s were not really our thing as we were used to restaurants so we bought in Ballina. My friend Terry Lindenmayer had The Eltham Pub so we had jobs to come to. My sister lived in Bungalow and had a jewellery shop called Peek a Boo. We loved this neck of the woods and always felt very at home here.We took over the Eltham from Terry in 2005 and stayed on till 2009. We then took over the kitchen at Dunoon Sports Club so we left the Eltham. We used to drive past the Eltham and see how busy it was so we went back and helped out the new owners for another year.The Eltham Valley used to be called Mayfield so that’s where our name came from. The Eltham Pub used to be called The Mayfield Hotel. We started working at the markets and I was selling relishes. After about 5 years we started doing breakfast and we started the Wednesday night dinners. We’ve also done the Mullumbimby Farmers Market for many years which is a beautiful market. Everybody thought we so on the ball for Covid doing dinner deliveries. We started it online from home and now we cap it at 50 meals. It’s gone from strength to strength. We’ve been doing some gigs at The Rappville Hotel which has been so much fun. We’ve done a lot of film catering lately. We did the catering for the ABC production of Deadlock.We’d arrive at Shelley Beach with our little old van. They are all standing there in the dawn light waiting for this big food van to show up and we rock up. They were like .…Huh!! At the end though we got a standing ovation as we drove out.We love Lismore. At first we were unsure moving here from Ballina but we were welcomed with open arms. We made so many more friends. It’s real here. We used to come into Lismore and think the edges were a bit rough but it’s fantastic. We have the best cafes and it’s a community thing. That really came together for us with the whole Bentley thing. The whole community working together. These hills are home."ScottScott: “That’s what Lismore means to me…Community, more than anything else. We’ve been supported so well by the community. The amount of places I’ve lived around the world and this is the first place my roots have gone down..This is home.”

Mim O'Grady is a local teacher and artist who has a long history of doing wonderful work with our Indigenous community. This week's Sunday Profile comes from the Humans of Lismore Facebook page and was written by Denise Alison, who interviewed Mim and found out more about her life. Mim O’Grady: “I wasn’t born here but I’ve been here for the last 25 years. I grew up in Greenwich, Sydney. My Mum is Dutch / Indonesian and my Dad is Dutch and they both moved over here away from their families after the war. Our family unit was just our family, that’s it.People often ask me about my Dutch roots but to be honest with you, I feel more connected to Australia and I actually feel more interested in Australian history, especially our local Aboriginal Australian history than I do finding out about my Dutch heritage.I left school and studied teaching specialising in special education. In my last prac I decided I wanted to go and teach out west because I understood that there was a fair chance that you could be posted anywhere and I really wanted to experience being a teacher way out west. I did one prac out west and I also did a prac working with children with special needs.Both those pracs sort of formed where I am today. I went out to Bourke and volunteered in a school. I really enjoyed it so I applied for a job in Bourke. I don’t think they get too many people applying for jobs in Bourke. I got the job at the same school which is where I asked to go.The Mother Teresa Nuns had a Missionary station there so I did a lot of voluntary work with them. It was just before the whole town of Bourke was locked up and barricaded off. My experience in Bourke was great. The school I taught in was predominately Aboriginal children and I guess that’s what fuelled my interest in Indigenous culture.I came back to Sydney, worked in Special Ed for a while, had my family and moved up here to the Far North Coast. I never wanted to stay in Sydney. I have 2 children, separated from their father and met my partner who has a daughter as well. So we have 3 kids. There are some others. My partner had an interesting past (laughs).I worked for about 15 years with young children with special needs and their families at Summerland Early Intervention. That was a beautiful chunk of my life, working with other great Educators, Therapists and Paediatricians. I developed a whole toolkit of skills working with families where there’s complex needs, using a strength based approach rather than looking at the things families are not doing well but looking at the things they are doing well. Innately, all parents want to do the right thing for their child but sometimes the complexities in their life are so overwhelming that other people might look at that and make a judgement. They are just doing the best they can at that point in time.There is a transition to school program based at Goonellabah Public School which supports Indigenous children in the year before they start school. The reason it’s Indigenous specific is because it’s through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy funding. I’ve worked here for 10 years.I work for the YWCA and the criteria for that funding is that all children who access that program need to be Aboriginal children. Also they need to come from families where there’s complexities. The children still go to pre-school and daycare centres for their socialising but this is extra.Sometimes Mum is a single mum or not much family support, limited education or transport. Sometimes the children might have been removed and be in the care of Grandparents. Ice is a big problem, not just in the Aboriginal community but the whole community. There’s always been problems with alcohol and drugs but ice just takes it up a whole level.The aim of the program is to support the children to be able to self regulate in a classroom setting. We work together with the families.The YWCA offers a great program called the Hippy program which trains and employs Indigenous workers to then go and work with Indigenous parents to help those parents in their role as the first teacher of their child. A big part of Goonellabah transition is working with the community who then support us to share culture.Research shows that if children feel culturally connected and strong, then their success at school is far greater.I’m not an Aboriginal person of course, so I rely heavily on some of the Elders and Knowledge Keepers that we’ve built relationship with, to share language, stories, artwork and local stories of this area. Aunty Dorrie who sadly passed recently was one of those. We’ve developed good trust with local families.We were part of a program called Growing up on Widjabul-Wyabul country, Bundjalung nation where we worked with the Elders Council. We got to know Aunty Thelma James, Aunty Dorrie, Uncle Gilbert, Uncle Micky, Marie Delbridge and more.For me…that’s been such a blessing. It takes a long time. You get to know the mob, the families, generations. The grandparents or the great parents come in and yarn with the kids or tell stories. I play music too. I’ve play in a couple of bands. I’m in a duo at the moment. We live on 8 acres out of town and my partner grows roses. We have about 200 roses.I have 2 grandchildren and 2 step grandchildren. I’m part of a group of people who organise social events and the un-plugged nights at Rous Mill Hall which has been pretty quiet due to Covid. I’ve been learning as much as the children. I feel a great privilege to have worked alongside some of the Elders and Knowledge Keepers.Uncle Gilbert comes every week and works with the children.My mission is to paint portraits of Elders that I know like Uncle Billy Smith who busks downtown. I asked Aunt Dorrie if I was able to paint her portrait.She said, that’s alright, as long as you make me look pretty. She gave me her permission and her blessing to enter it into the Hurford Portrait Prize. The original photo I used to paint the portrait was taken by Denise Alison, Humans of Lismore.”

It’s not every day that someone designs a tea towel to celebrate the contribution a person has made to their community – but that’s exactly what happened to Lismore’s ex-mayor Jenny Dowell.If you do own a Jenny Dowell tea towel, especially the yellow one – consider yourself lucky, because that was the original print run edition and are now considered collector’s items. It sold out so quickly that more print runs were done after.“A market designer wanted to make one as a tribute with proceeds going to a charity,” Jenny said. “So, I collaborated with her and chose the charity Dirty Laundry Day – which raised awareness about domestic violence towards women.”The popular former mayor has held a high profile for many years and is renowned for helping the community in volunteer roles - she is now also an actor, book reviewer, mayoral mentor and on multiple formative committees.RootsJenny was born in rural Victoria, in Beaconsfield as the eldest of four children. She went to high school, then at 17, went to teacher’s college in Geelong. She started teaching deaf children in Melbourne, then went to La Trobe University to do Arts and Education Degrees when she was 21. while still working as a teacher.“I was interested in teaching speech to profoundly deaf children and the university wanted a tutor to teach teachers how to work with them,” Jenny said. “Then I went on to lecture at universities for 10 years.”Jenny and RonShe was 29 when she first met the man who as to become her husband - Ron.“He was living with a friend of mine and asked how audiograms worked,” Jenny said. “It turned out to be a date and we quickly hit it off and were married a few months later.”Fast forward a few years and while Jenny was working at university and teaching at schools, Ron was working as a public servant in Victoria.Lismore“Then he applied for a job as tourism lecturer at Southern Cross University in Lismore and got it,” Jenny said. “So, we came up to Lismore.“I felt like I’d come to a foreign country,” Jenny said. “We rented and settled the kids into school and I did canteen work. I knew about three people here but we met people through the community.Jobless and busy“I was jobless and applied to do some teaching, but it was like moving from another county and I needed to get my qualifications recognised, so I became a volunteer driver with community transport and took elderly people to doctor’s appointments.“It was a way to meet people and keep busy and be useful.“Then I got some teaching work at Wilsons Park School, then a permanent position for 14 years with the Education Department working with Aboriginal children.Drive for justiceAs she was growing up, Jenny’s family were conservative voters, but jenny said her drive for justice grew as she did.“We were not a rich family and I had a big drive to believe in what was fair,” Jenny said.“At university, I became involved in social justice issues and it was a natural progression towards wanting to make the world better place.”Why move from teaching to politics?Jenny’s political journey began a council meeting at Caniaba in the late 1990s.“In those days councils moved around and did rural meetings,” jenny said. “At the time I was a volunteer at the Lismore neighbourhood centre and we had the needle exchange there – it was a great health initiative. We needed to move location, but some councillors didn’t want the syringe program to go there too.“I was horrified that councillors could be swayed by residents who didn’t want it, so a group of us went to the meeting. That was my first look at Council - and I was not impressed.Why join the Labor party?“In 1998, Joy Matthews, the mayor of Maclean, was running and I believed that to make a change, don’t criticise unless you do something. So, I rocked up to her campaign office and helped her door knock - but I didn’t join the Labor party till a few years later.“A few years later in 2003, I decided to run on a Labor party ticket for election in Lismore. So, a year before election, I started going to council meetings and saw councillors sleeping, or not having done the reading, or asking questions I knew the answers to because I had read the business paper.“I realised you didn’t need to be Einstein to do the job, so I challenged the people above me on the Labor ticket and asked for a ballot for the top position. Then the people who were top of the ticket said we think you’d be fantastic and they stepped down.“That’s when I needed people to get to know who I was - so I door knocked 3,500 houses that first election - through summer, after work - to get my name out there.”Councillor to MayorAnd so, Jenny was voted into Lismore City Council as a councillor in 2004. Then in 2008, she ran for mayor. She then spent 12.5 years on council, with eight of those as mayor.“The year I was elected onto council was a year that there was a good relationship between all the progressive councillors like Vanessa Ekins and Simon Clough - they all worked together and backed me for mayor,” she said. “If there had been a split vote, John Chant would have won.“I would love to see that happen again this next election.“The conservatives will never do that – I have a philosophy about it. It’s because their parties are generally headed by men and their egos won’t allow them to do that.”CancerIn 2008, after a routine mammogram, Jenny was diagnosed with breast cancer. She received the news four days into her elected term as mayor and went on to have a mastectomy and six months of chemotherapy.“Through it, I missed one council briefing and I never missed any meetings,” she said.“Having a distraction was good – and a lot of ginger to stop the nausea.“A meeting day at council would take me through until 11pm – so I would go home and have a 20 minute nap. Occasionally I would lay down the floor of my office and have a little nap. Chemo takes it out of you. It wasn’t easy, but I just got on with it.“My first council photo was taken a drain hiding under my robes - and I wore a wig when I lost my hair.”She got the ten year all clear from cancer in 2019, and said her chance of getting cancer again is the same as if she has never had it.”Women in politics So, as a female in the top job in local politics, did Jenny ever experience sexism?“Yes, there was some sexism from some of the older men, but it wasn’t too bad,’ Jenny said.“The culture within Council at the time was set by the general manager and both Paul O’Sullivan and Gary Murphy set good cultural tine so I didn’t feel I was getting less information or spoken down to or treated differently or diminished in any way.“When I was mayor, I was elected as head on NOROC – I was frequently the only female in a meeting and that didn’t occur to me till I saw a see of greys and dark blues and I was wearing a red jacket. Then, I realised I was the only woman here.“One of the mayors there was telling an off joke and the other guys were staring to snicker a bit. he saw me there and said I’ll tell you fellas later, it’s not a suitable to tell in front of a lady.“I said to him if it’s not suitable to be told in front of a lady, it’s not suitable to be told at all. he was suitably chastened.”Where are the women in politics?“When I was on Lismore Council, the most we had were three women out of 12 councillors,” Jenny said.“The NSW average is the worst in Australia, with less than 30% of councils comprising of women“I am now a mayoral mentor and mentor 18 mayors - and some councillors around the State. One of them is the only woman on her council and she’s having a tough time.The more rural a council is, there tends to be less women – it’s often retired businessmen and farmers on council.“We need to change things to get to 50% of councils made up of women. Not just for tokenistic reasons, but women are in touch with a different area of community like health,education, support services. they think about the community in a broader way.“Men traditionally come from a business or a farming background, not community or public service sector.“A lot of men would say we are here for the rate payers. I would say no we are not. We are here for everyone – people in private rentals and social housing too.Slow change“Things are changing, but too slowly. More women are getting elected but women who are putting up their hand are not going on the top of the ticket – they are just filling the numbers and have no chance of getting elected.“I met a woman at a meeting who said to me that she was listed number four on a ticket and realised too late she didn’t have a chance.“When women do stand they will get elected if ethical and well known so it’s about nominating in winnable positions. When women vote for women, women win, Its true.”“I ran sessions for 12 years before elections just for women telling them how to get elected and what they needed in their support teams to get elected – but change is veryslow.Trolls and social media“One of the drawbacks is the treatment councillors get and social media has a lot to answer for.“Some councillors are put through the mill by trolls. If you stand up and speak out, keyboard warriors often make your life hell. people then think why would I put myself through that.“I was an early adopter of social media and I was careful to post to friends, not in public places and I deleted and reported some people. It’s about working out your boundaries and working out who you will engage with - -otherwise you could spend all your time monitoring social media.Time spent on the jobJenny Dowell is widely known as the mayor who was very visible and always available when people needed her and would attend more than 20 official events every week – and up to eight in one day.She didn’t have another job when she was the mayor, but she said many councillors are balancing other jobs with their council role and often pay a financial cost as a result of it.“On Council, there’s no super, holiday pay or sick leave but you pay tax on the money you are paid,” she said.“When I was on Council as mayor, I treated the job like a 24 hour job and would work 80 to 100 hours a week and would receive more than 100 emails a day.“There are hours of reading to do as well. They say as a councillor you can get away with 15 to 20 hours a week of your time – that would be a minimum.“As a mayor, people would invite you to attend event and my rule was if I was free I would go – if a ‘better’ one came up I wouldn’t change it.”Jenny would fit in at least one night a week to spend with her husband Ron, and she said he was fabulous at understanding how busy she was.“It was the best job of my life. I didn’t think it was anything other than a huge privilege to have it. It wasn’t always easy but I wouldn’t have swapped it for anything.“I had a purpose and a fulfilling job to do and had something new to do every day and met amazing people.“In 2016, I didn’t want it to be thing that defined me – and I stepped down – not wanting to stay too long as mayor.”Contentious fluoride politicsWhen it comes to contentious council politics, Jenny said the one of the biggest issues in her term was the introduction of fluoride into the water supply. With a widely divided community on the issue, Jenny voted for it.“Councillors voted for what they thought as individuals and I voted true to myself and voted for it – and I bore the cost of that,” she said.“I had death threats, I was assaulted – it was a difficult one.“Councillors so the best they can when they make decisions. I’m happy for people to say to me I don’t like Jenny Dowell’s decision on fluoride , but she explained to me why – people can live with that.“But people get angry if they see decision made and they don’t know why. That also leaves a space in the debate for rumour, untruths and to circulate. Council needs to be clear on why decisions are made.”Council financesJenny said she would never publicly criticism council, but that council’s dire financial position was due to local government’s being starved of funds they previously received from State and federal Governments.“Councils don’t get enough money we have a hundred taxes in Australia and local government has access to only one of them and that’s land rates,” she said. “We have to go out with a begging bowl and councils have to provide more services that they ever used to.“State government has already handed lots of jobs to councils as its agents, but they don’t pay them for – like health inspections. State Government either needs to take back those jobs or pay councils to do them.”Thespian, book reader and fitness loverJenny found time for herself through her love of reading books and would read every evening. These days, she does a monthly book review for the regional Library and still reads about three books a week.“I could not survive without reading,” she said. “When the kids were little, it was my escape and I always had reading time – it allows you to get into another world.She walks, jogs, runs and keeps fit and now she’s retired, she’s involved with Lismore Theatre Company and acts in local plays.“It was always a dream to act,” she said. “When I retired, I rocked up and got a stage role in the production Hedda Garbler. I wanted to be in one production a year and last year I did two – including cage Birds, Steel Magnolias and The Vagina Monologues.”Volunteer workHer list of activities these days is long – she is a mayoral mentor to other mayors around NSW, chair of the Conservatorium board, Northern Rivers regional Development Australia board member and six committees.She volunteers with Lismore Theatre Company as media officer, as a Relay for Life survivors and carers coordinator, Red Cross Tea Rooms volunteer, Northern Rivers rail Trail Committee member and Park Run director.She is busy – but she says it doesn’t take up as much of her time as being a mayor did.She gardens, saves and grows seeds, is in a photography group.At 70 years old, she is still going strong and says she feels really good and is looking forward to more acting, reading, writing and a busy, productive life.

This week's Sunday Profile comes from the Humans of Lismore Facebook page and was written by Denise Alison.Patrick Healey - “ My dad was a Sand-miner and we grew up in lots of places along the East coast of Australia so I don’t really have a home town per se. The place I loved most was Port Stephens. It was very beautiful. My dad’s family is originally from Ipswich and my Mum’s family is originally from Lake Macquarie.I went to lots of different schools, really small schools. Back then we lived in these tiny towns so your grade would be your desk rather than a big classroom with 30 kids all in one grade. I think that had a major influence on my life because it made me really cooperative. I ended school in Raymond Terrace High because Nelson Bay only went to Year 10. I did Agriculture in my last years. My dad was quite conservative. He was a real fishing, hunting, traditional sort of bloke and he was quite pleased I studied Agriculture.When I graduated high school I moved down to Newcastle for a year and worked at BHP Blast Furnace No. 4. The guys there were amazing and I was really young but on my first day they sent me off looking for fallopian tubes. I walked all over BHP that day asking…Do you have any fallopian tubes? And they didn’t (laughs).They were really protective older guys and at the time kept saying… Don’t stay here so I didn’t. After a year I’d saved enough money to move to Canada which was to be my one or two year big adventure but I ended up living in Canada for over 20 years. I lived in Banff then I moved over to Vancouver and I worked in the Arts.HIV AIDS came along and I ended up the General Manager of the Pacific Aids Resource Centre, at the worst time, when people were dying and there were no drugs. I worked in that role for 10 years from 1980 to 1990. It was really small when we started. We had about 20 food banks and it grew to 750 food banks. We had trouble keeping up.That kind of politicised me in a lot of ways because we had a conservative government in British Columbia who were very anti doing anything about HIV AIDS. I became good friends with Edoud Lavalle who was the President of the NDP (New Democratic Party of Canada) and I ended up the official agent of it.I got really involved in the community, worked for a magazine and the NDP and after 10 years I was burnt out so I went and worked for a union where I became Chief of Staff of the Labour Union. I did that for the next 10 years in Canada and the United States. I built the Member Resource Centre in Pasadena which was the first one ever built in the States. I was asked to come to Australia which was kind of ironic because that’s where I started. I came out for one year which turned into two. All that time I had a lover but when I came out to Australia I ended up with an Australian lover I took back to the US with me and he hated it there. After a couple of years he wanted to come back here so we moved to Melbourne because he was a research Scientist with CSL. I got a job two weeks after landing in Melbourne with the Melbourne Theatre Company as Director of Finance.My lover and I decided to separate and I wasn’t sure what to do, whether I go back to America or what so I decided to go on a big trip to Africa. I went to Botswana, Zambia, South Africa and Zimbabwe and the day I returned to Australia I saw this job advertised at NORPA in Lismore. I applied and a month later I was living here in Lismore.I managed NORPA for 5 years and then Dad became ill. He’d been sick for a while but it was nearing the end and my Mum’s elderly. I had been driving down every weekend for months to Newcastle but it was becoming too much so I decided to quit my job and move down to be with them. My dad died two months after I got down there. I have an awesome sister who was very close to my parents. She took it really hard when Dad died. I got a job as the General Manager of Regional Arts NSW. I operated out of Newcastle and Sydney. A month after Dad died I had a stroke. Actually I had two strokes, a small and a large one. I had been here in Lismore for New Years. I went back to Newcastle and I didn’t know I had it.I went to work and my assistant said …You’re crazy, there’s something horribly wrong with you. I felt no pain and I went to a doctor who after CT scans said..You’ve had two strokes. That’s when I realised I couldn’t remember the days before. I had no memory.I had to leave my job because basically my job was writing grants which is important in the Arts. I thought I would have to retire, what with no short term memory. Twenty percent of people who have strokes don’t have the facial features with it. It depends on where it hits the brain and mine was deep where the memory is. I have no recollection of three whole months.They gave me drugs which helped a bit. 6 months into it my Doctor suggested antidepressants, not for depression but to help my brain. That startled me.I read all the literature and decided against that because I didn’t want to get addicted to them. I decided to get fit. I decided to walk. It was right in the middle of COVID-19 so there was no gyms open, the world was in chaos and my Mum was really sick as well. I walked 10kms every day and I lost weight and felt better.The gym opened in Newcastle so I went along. After a couple of months I felt good. Prior to the stroke I was a smoker, a heavy drinker, all those things that can lead to a stroke, I did it all.Mum got really sick so we sold her house and it took some time to find it but we found her a great place and she loves it there. I decided to come back to Lismore and found this job here at CASPA before I moved up here. I feel like this is my home town.I was nervous because I was worried about my mental capacity and my short term memory but I started here three months ago and it’s worked. It’s been a year since my stroke but I feel like I’m 98 percent here. Essentially I recovered. I’m single now. I was Mary Poppins my whole life. I was with the American for 20 years and the Australian for 12 years so I decided, there’s only one life so I’m going to have some fun. That’s part of my main mission. (laughs).I also used to have a house here when I was working at NORPA which had a lawn and a garden which I loved but I came to resent the mowing and the work because I never had the time. Now I have a three bedroom apartment at Lismore Heights so when I go to Hervey Bay this week I can just close the door. I kind of got the life I wanted. I have a lot of friends here in Lismore. It’s a friendly town. I love that. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, it’s friendly.”  

From his days as a graphic designer, to being involved in the Queer community, Girard's Hill resident Luke Atkinson now brings his creativity to NDIS clients, running local art classes. This week's Sunday Profile comes from the Humans of Lismore Facebook page and was written by Denise Alison, who interviewed Luke and found out more about his life.Luke Atkinson: “I was born in Parramatta, the youngest of 5 children and grew up on 5 acres in Kellyville, north west of Sydney.I had a great childhood, roaming the bush, riding horses and motorbikes and spent a lot of time drawing as a kid, always 'making something', either from clay dug from the ground, or using Dad's tools down in the shed.After school I studied Fine Arts for 2 years, then I completed a Graphic Design Degree at Randwick TAFE. I worked weekends and holidays while I was studying as a picture framer. I also worked as an Usher at the Theatre Royal for Cats and Les Miserable. I must have seen both productions hundreds of times!I was a volunteer workshop artist for Mardi Gras, working under the guidance of the late David McDiarmid, a hugely talented artist who's artistic legacy is vital in the history of HIV/AIDS in the gay community of the late 80's and early 90's. I remember David telling me on my first day 'just make anything you want!'. and that’s what I did.I made two fairy bread outfits that myself and my friend Ross Bell wore in the parade. I carried a sign, 'We are two of hundreds and thousands!' and we threw lollies out into the screaming crowds. We were placed third in the costume parade contest and won $100!I feel very privileged to have been part of the early days of the Mardi Gras workshop. So many immensely talented artists and performers and my 1988 parade became my first of many.After graduating in Graphic Design I worked briefly for Mambo where I got to meet some of the iconic Mambo artists of the late 80's. It was lots of fun but after 6 months I got itchy feet and decided I needed a big change.In May 1990 I bought a one way ticket to London, thinking I would stay for 6 months or so, but ended up living and working there for 4 years. When I first arrived I worked in a gay bar in Islington called The Fallen Angel, which was the catalyst for staying longer than planned as I met my future boyfriend there and made tons of friends.Shortly after, I got a dream job as a designer for a music company called Atomic Records and my boss was Tom Watkins, who sadly passed away recently from cancer. Tom, at this time, was the manager for The Pet Shop Boys and Bros.It was an incredible time for me to be working alongside Mark Farrow, who designed all of the Pet Shop Boys records and CD's and at times I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't an imposter! I met Neil Tennant, members of Bananarama, Andrew Ridgely from WHAM!. I dressed and decorated old warehouses for record launches and got to go to some incredible parties. It was so much fun.After 4 years in London I started to yearn for my friends, family and some sun! Another London winter was on its way and the novelty of snow had worn off. I decided to return to Australia with my partner, Mark, and we applied for residency so that Mark could live and work in Australia. Sadly, after a year, Mark wanted to return to the UK as he too missed his family too much. We had 5 great years together.When life settled I got involved with the Sydney Queer community and volunteered for the Mardi Gras workshop again. I also worked as a DJ at The Oxford Hotel and the upstairs bar Gilligans, as well as having a timeslot on the Gay community radio station, OUT-FM.My busiest time was when I became a board member for PRIDE Sydney, whose aim was to set up a permanent community centre in Surry Hills.Our major Fundraising event was the PRIDE New Years Eve party which was held at the old Sydney Showgrounds, and each year we would sell up to 20,000 tickets. I designed the party posters and scenics for the halls and even managed to be in a couple of the big midnight shows!I continued my career as a graphic designer and eventually moved into publishing and magazine design, first working on Panorama Magazine, the inflight magazine for the now defunct Ansett Airlines. From there I worked at Fairfax, designing the weekly food liftout Good Living.I took a redundancy after 7 fantastic years, taking Art Director roles at other publishing houses, working on a selection of titles that included Gourmet Traveller, Belle, Vogue and the inflight magazine for QANTAS.Luke and Deepak.It was during this time that I met an extremely handsome and sexy man, Deepak. We both lived in Surry Hills and I would often see him at our local gym. We went out on a few dates and I was seduced by his wonderful smile, his amazing cooking and his passion for art and culture.My family embraced Deepak, making him part of our family and he managed to meet my mother before her decline. We've travelled to New Zealand twice, Thailand and last year I accompanied Deepak on his yearly trip to India, where I met his gorgeous sisters and parents.It was an amazing few weeks of food, family and culture. After two years together we decided that I should rent out my apartment and make the big move and live together in his terrace house in Alexandria. We had a wonderful time living there and we filled the walls with art and built a wonderful garden in the courtyard. It was the perfect house for dinner parties, of which there were many!Around 2013, Deepak and I decided to head north and go to the Tropical Fruits New Year. Friends of mine had been living in the Northern Rivers for years and I had already been to a few Tropical Fruit parties in the 1990's. We stayed with a friend in his big old weatherboard house and had a fantastic time. We returned a couple of years later and it was during this trip that something clicked for both of us. But more about that later!Around 2016, my career in design was coming to a natural end and after 25 years in the industry and way too many redundancies and magazine closures, another big change was needed.In 2017 I left Graphic Design and went back to full time study at The National Art School in Darlinghurst to do a 3 year Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The first year at the NAS was an amazing year for me.I'd had a rough time after turning 50, the career I loved was in tatters due to the collapse of the magazine industry and my mother was suffering terribly from Alzheimer's disease. I found my groove again in making art and I couldn't get enough of it!The location at the Old Darlinghurst Jail was just incredible and again found myself surrounded by an abundance of talented artists and teachers. I just loved going there each day and would often arrive before classes started so that I could squeeze in extra time in the studios.My aim was to refine my skills as a painter, but after being reintroduced to ceramics I decided that this was what I wanted to do. I jumped onto the potters wheel and started making!Towards the end of my first year at art school, life in Sydney became claustrophobic and unbearable. We were surrounded by over-development, constant noise, lack of infrastructure and found that we both wanted a change.So after a lot of thought I deferred from the NAS, Deepak took a break from work and we sold our Sydney properties and bought the beautiful old house we had stayed in a few years earlier. We just loved the neighbourhood and were immediately welcomed into the community by all of our amazing neighbours, who have quickly become our dearest friends.We have spent the last two years restoring this grand old dame, painting inside and out, re-landscaping, filling the walls again with all of our art, and taking a deep breath of fresh Lismore air! As Deepak often says, all the boxes have been ticked!We are closer to three of my siblings, one lives around the corner and two an hour or so drive from here and we have a growing number of Sydney friends now living up here. It seems we aren't the only ones to see what Lismore has to offer. We are busy seeing exhibitions at the fantastic Regional Gallery, theatre and live music at NORPA and there's always something delicious to eat at the many cafes in town.Dad was born in Wardell in 1925, and my Grandmother, Kitty Burgett, was born in Keen Street in Lismore in 1903. Her wonderfully named father, Haughton James Frederick Burgett, was the Crown Sergeant of the Casino Police, before being stationed at Lismore as the Lockup-keeper for fourteen years.Nana married my grandfather in Ballina and they ran a sugarcane farm along the Richmond River until their house burnt down, losing everything, so they moved to Parramatta. I've done some research since moving here and have found some interesting family stories. It's great to have a connection to Lismore.I feel so very lucky to have the life I now have, and to be able to spend time doing what I love. Deepak bought me a potter's wheel and I've created a studio space in the garage. I've managed to sell a lot of my work, which is very encouraging, and Pack Gallery Studios in Bangalow has a selection of my ceramics.When I'm not in the studio, Deepak and I are working in the huge garden looking after the dozens of native trees we have planted since moving here. In the last few weeks we've been gorging ourselves on white and black mulberries from the trees in the garden.Our mango tree is in flower again, and the citrus trees have been buzzing with bees. We often sit in the garden and just watch the changing light and listen to the birds. Talk about living the dream!We have a beautiful 18 month old dog called Ramu, who loves nothing better than his 'play play!' time in the garden, or chasing the Water dragons who laze nonchalantly around the pool.Lismore is a wonderful creative hub. We love the various festivals and food markets held throughout the year and it's so good to see the rich indigenous history of the Bundjalung people acknowledged throughout Lismore.Moving here two years ago was a change for the better and we know getting out of Sydney was the right thing to do.”Read the original story on Facebook here

You may have seen her busking outside of Lismore Central on Keen Street - Margaret the busker has become a well known face on the streets of Lismore. This week's Sunday Profile comes from the Humans of Lismore Facebook page and was written by Denise Alison, who interviewed Margaret and found out more about her life. Margaret: “I was born in 1952. We were living at Bowraville near Nambucca Heads. Mum was 42 when she had me by Caesarian which meant she had to go to Kempsey Hospital. We lived on a dairy farm. When I was 8 years old my father had an accident. I remember it was Christmas time and he walked in between 2 parked cars. One rolled back into his back. After the accident he couldn’t do the work on the farm so he got compensation and we moved to Coffs Harbour. "Spotted downtown - Margaret, one of Lismore's regular buskers regularly seen through Winter in her beanie and scarf - Densie Alison"I went to St Augustine's Catholic School in Coffs right through to Year 6. I was a very conscientious student. At the end of Year 6 I got a scholarship to go to St Scholasticas College in Glebe which I think still exists. It was a boarding college. I went on to do the school certificate and the higher school certificate. I was still a high achiever so instead of 6 subjects which was normal for the school certificate I did 7 subjects. I learnt the piano at school so because I had the interest in music I did 7 subjects along with English, Maths, Science, History, French and Latin. I got 7 advanced level passes in the school certificate. I really applied myself, maybe too much. After I completed my HSC I was admitted to the University in New England to do a degree in Mathematics. I only stayed there for 18 months and transferred to Newcastle College of Advanced Education where I completed my Diploma of secondary education in Mathematics. I started teaching at Evans High in Blacktown and finally got a teaching position in Kempsey. Fortunately I was given a position in Macksville which was only a 10 minute drive from where I was living in Nambucca.I don’t know what happened and I don’t know if it was because I was so conscientious, always doing the best I possible could, but, I got a stress problem. I don’t know what caused it but for 6 months nothing seemed real in my mind. I could read signs and not understand them. Nothing seemed real or made sense. It lasted 6 months. I couldn’t leave the house. Consequently I left my work which then made it worse because I thought maybe shame was making it happen. Nothing was real. It didn’t make sense. I aimed high, always had my head in a book, always worked to get the high marks and then this. I was 26 and I still don’t know what happened. I never did drugs or drink but maybe I just tried too hard, I don’t know. My next door neighbour at the time put me onto a group called GROW in Nambucca Heads which we also have here in Lismore. I went there and it helped. I left teaching and started tutoring. In my hometown there were two motels - the Blue Dolphin and the Nirvana where I did reception and cleaning.I married in 1974 and finished my Diploma. My first son was born in 1979. 13 months later I had a daughter and 13 years later I had another son.I’d never really been away but I went on a trip to South Australia and Western Australia. I recall travelling through Kalgoorlie, etc. The whole time we had a guitar in the car and I never attempted to pick it up and try to play it. When we got back something made me pick up a guitar. Everything I play, I figured out myself. I only know the basic chords. I remember writing down the songs at the time like ‘Hey Jude’ Slim Dusty stuff and all that. I wrote down the words and the chords where you put your finger dots in the little blocks and that’s how I taught myself. When we were in Casino I used to sit outside shops, mainly Coles and I got invited to a music function at the Gardens. I mainly did old style songs like from the 60’s. When I got to the function there was a mixture of guitarists, ukulele, mandolin and banjo players. I bought a music book with 40 songs that day off a lady. Sitting outside the supermarket people would give me little tips how to do chord progressions. I meet so many people and 99.9% of people are really nice. So many people have commented on my new hat today. I bought this top, hat and brand new shoes from an op shop and because I’ve got a big head this is the only one that fitted me. All winter I had to rug up as my son was worried about me getting Covid so it was nice to get a Spring outfit. My busking license works out about 50c a week which is so cheap. Lismore is my favourite town to busk. I lost my husband 2 years ago to chronic Lymphatic Leukaemia and cancer of the Oesophagus. We still have a property in Nambucca. I’m staying with my son who lives in Kyogle but my oldest son, my daughter and myself keep the property going. I have 11 grandchildren so I’m very lucky.”Read the original story on Facebook here

Before he was a priest, Lismore’s Catholic Bishop, Greg Homeming was a lawyer. His journey from lawyer to Carmelite monk, priest and bishop has seen him devote his life to study, prayer, self reflection and a desire to help people.With Christmas approaching next week, the Lismore App asked him what his message for Christmas was - and found out more about the life and history of the leader of the Lismore Catholic Diocese.Bishop Homeing inside St Carthage's Cathedral, inspecting damage from the recent arson attack.Read more about it: After arson, St Carthage's Cathedral now opens for massLeadership of the Lismore DioceseBishop Homeming was appointed as a bishop in Lismore four years ago. He said it’s a position he didn’t ask for and he’s still not sure why he was chosen to be the bishop, as he doesn’t think of himself as a leader.“I was just trying to mind my own business and not be noticed,” he said. “But it was God’s calling, so I came here.”His deep humility, intelligence and wisdom have led him to lead the Lismore Catholic Diocese with style that is about working with people, not commanding obedience.As a bishop, he said he’s like the CEO and chairman of the company. He’s in charge of the Diocese and can ordain men into priests.“In the Lismore Diocese, I have 26 parishes to run, over 40 schools, 13 aged care places, a soup kitchen and I need to keep them running,” he said. “The money to run them doesn’t come from church collections, as not and not as many people come now.“My job is to find out what God wants me to do and God will look after it.Family historyBishop Homeming was born in Sydney and studied economics and law at Sydney University, then became a lawyer in a law firm for five years.While his parents were Catholics, and he went to Catholic schools and church on Sundays, he said he was never overly religious.“My grandfather came to Australia from China,” Bishop Homeming said. “When he arrived, they took the last part of his name and turned it into part of a surname, so the name Homeming didn’t exist before that.“When I first had my calling to the Church, my family thought I’d gone mad, but when they saw I was so happy and flourishing they were happy about it. If I was to ever leave the church, they would all be devastated about it.Marriage?“I was a very shy person. I had friends, but nothing serious ever happened with girls. Many Chinese men don’t get married till later – and for me, Mrs Homeming never turned up.“When I got ordained as a priest, I said to my mum there’s a very lucky girl out there because she won’t have you as a mother in law. My father couldn’t stop laughing. This was family humour of course.Why the calling?“I was very happy being a lawyer and after five years I had started making money. I went to church as lots of lawyers did – you would see them there and realise who the Catholics were.“But I went to visit a friend who had joined the Discalced Carmelites - a religious order of monks - and from the moment I walked into the monastery and prayed in the chapel, I knew this is where I would end up one day.“I spent over two years trying to get the thought out of my head and then thought, if I join, it will be so difficult that I would only last a couple of months and I would get it out of my system.“In 1985 I joined the Discalced Carmelites and I still haven’t got it out of my mind. It just came upon me and took me.“My friend who I had visited is now married with children.Discalced Carmelites “While I was preparing to give my life fully - it takes six years to make the decision – I studied theology at the Melbourne College of Divinity, then did a Masters degree at Melbourne Uni, then was ordained as a priest.“Then I worked as a Carmelite for many years, giving spiritual direction, living a life of prayer.“In my own funny way, I was trying to help people then in 2016.“I had a message from the Pope’s ambassador in Australia, telling me that he was appointing me Bishop of Lismore - which I didn’t want – I never wanted to be a bishop.“I just wanted to be a simple Carmelite living a simple life of prayer. But because I had taken a vow of obedience to the Pope, I thought I’ve got no choice.“So, now I’m the bishop of Lismore and I was ordained in the Lismore cathedral on February 22, 2017.What do Carmelite monks do?“Discalced Carmelite men pray three to four hours a day. Mostly in the chapel - two hours of simple meditation a day in the morning and evening.“The life is very simple. Prayer started at 6am till 8am. It was hard when I first started but you get used to it. Then I would make breakfast.“The food there was dreadful, I thought I would leave because of the food. It was mostly meat and three vegetables which had been cooking for hours. If you didn’t finish it, it would come back the next day as deep fried vege balls, or all mashed up into a soup.“Most people watch TV, but we would only watch the news. I did a lot of reading. As a community, we would cook our meals, eat or shop together. There was a sense you had a family – not a married family, but a family of brothers living together.“There was less worry, greater simplicity and you begin to recognise what is important.“Most things that people worry about, except for survival issues, are not that important.Brown robesThe brown robes and sandals he wears to work each day are a reminder of his vows. it helps him identify with what he chose back in 1985.“It also means that what I believe is more important than who I am,” Bishop Homeming said.The Discalced Carmelites order began in 1180 in the middle east (Israel) and Bishop Homeming said back then, people wore simple brown tunics with an apron and hood.“For a Carmelite, the most important thing is your relationship with God. So much of the day is prioritised by prayer and you are constantly going to the chapel to pray at set times. It’s about struggling with God and towards God and whatever we learn there, we use to help people.“You help people relate to God because you are struggling with your own weakness and trying to get your life in order with the help of God. Other priests will be more focussed on educating, hospitals, caring for people working with the poor.”PrayerAs a bishop, he is a busy man and said it’s important he has quiet time each day to pray and find God.“My life is not mine, it is God’s,” he said.“Love is a relationship with another person, prayer is a relationship with God. Meditation can be a relationship with myself, but it can also be a relationship with God.Money“When I became bishop of Lismore, my weekly pocket money in 2017 was $23 dollars a week. But food is provided and you have somewhere to live. I actually find it difficult to spend $23 a week. When I first began as a priest it was $4.60 a week.“You get used to not wanting things and just having what you got and living simply and not buying things.“I have a house I live in – the old bishop’s house. It’s somewhere to live. Since I’ve been there, I’ve bought some books, a wok to cook in and a pot to put in the oven to cook stew."Inside St Carthage's Cathedral.A day in the life of a BishopBishop Homeing wakes up early by 4am, prays, has breakfast and is in the office by 8.30am. he works till 5.15pm, then goes home and prays.“Then I won’t even answer the telephone,” he said. “I have my quiet time, then go to bed by 9.30pm.Distractions“Contemporary life is a life spent looking for distractions, so it’s a choice to keep focussed on what your life is about when you live a life of prayer. If there’s no focus or meaning or purpose in life, then there’s no simple place for God in your life.Bishop Homeming inside St Carthage's Cathedral.The Catholic Church and the exposed historic child abuse When asked about what he thought about the Catholic Church and the exposed sexual abuse of children by priests, he said it was wrong and should never happen.“I didn’t know much about this until I became a bishop, but like any other Catholic I am ashamed of what happened and that the church didn’t act more quickly adequately,” he said.“I am ashamed of it and as a Bishop, I have apologised for the Church and must do anything I can do to help those who have suffered and to make sure it never happen again.“The sad truth is that the focus on the Church avoids the real issue -child abuse is out there everywhere in the world. Before we directed our attention to institutions, 85% of it happened in families – it still is and we need to do something.Heartfelt House“The biggest issue in Australia is that kids are not being loved.“I have been working with Heartfelt House - they help children who have been domestically abused and they have no one to turn to.“No-one talks about this issue– I go to my primary schools and see the kindergarten and year one kids – and see there’s something wrong – I can see it on their faces - they are not as spontaneous and introverted and I ask the teachers if something is going on at home. But they say you can’t just walk in and do something.“I would like to set up social housing so they can have accommodation and get support from school and local social services to help them.“I have the resources of the Diocese of Lismore to help do this and every year we can change the lives of at least one or two kids - that would be something.The problems of societyWhen asked what he thought were some of the main problems for people in our modern society, based on his own struggles, Bishop Homeming said the struggles are against the things that take away freedom.Freedom or slavery?“The real issue for people is that freedom means I can do and have whatever I want,” he said.“Sometimes that’s slavery. Freedom is not doing and not having – it doesn’t matter. Freedom is the ability to choose, rather than living in a way where my choices are forced on me – like listening to the media telling me I need to have and own the newest thing.“If people stop to think, they are not free, because they are conditioned.“I think many people don’t know what they really want, because most things once they get them don’t satisfy them.“A free person is satisfied with what they have. A person who is free responds not reacts; chooses life rather than tries to hold onto it – there’s a big difference.Difficulties“My difficulties can determine my life, or I can live a life in such a way that I acquire freedom from my difficulties so that they give me a view on life so that I can live.“One is slavery and one is freedom. What I consider as slavery, others see as freedom.Grateful“A person who has freedom is grateful for everything and expects nothing, so that whatever they get gives joy.“As Buddhists say – you don’t have freedom when you expect something, because you never have enough. It’s a treadmill of unhappiness and somehow we have to get off that treadmill.“You have to live a certain way and as you live it – life changes.Forgetting“In the midst of difficulties, we forget and only see what’s gone wrong, but if you recognise the good things of your life, it will change your experience and life can move from being a life of complaint to thanksgiving and joy.What is God?“God is the person who defines me and makes me who I am -and the one that I know by knowing myself and the one through whom I know myself.“God is bigger than a religion. I believe in the same God as Anglicans and Muslims believe in. Fundamentally we are all created by God and can all relate to God in our own way.“You will know if the relationship is correct because it brings a goodness to a person. If you love and are loved, I’ll know by looking at you, because it changes you. You become a better person.Message for Christmas“This year, 2020 has been marked by fires, pandemic and flood. As a consequence, it has marked many people.“It has brought about isolation, distress, mental health issues and this is the world in which we are saying ‘Happy Christmas’.“Like World War II, there’s never been a time when the world has needed God more than now.“In the Lismore Diocese, the whole area needs God and at Christmas, God wants to some to this place."At Christmas, in the midst of struggles and difficulties, we have to open to God because God wants to be part of it and suffer and walk with us as one who loves us and wants to be with us.“That gives us hope and we need to take time to look withing out hearts and see God is already with us – that will make Christmas a wonderful time this year.”Christmas Church services December 20An interdenominational carols service will be held tonight at 7pm at St Andrews church, with Bishop Homeming and the Anglican Bishop Murray, from Grafton Anglican Diocese. Nine Lessons and Carols this SundayDecember 24Mass will be held on Christmas Eve at St Carthage’s Cathedral at 5.30pm and midnight. St Carthage's Catholic Parish LismoreDecember 25On Christmas day, mass will be held at 9am in St Carthage’s Cathedral. St Carthage's Catholic Parish LismoreOther Church services can be found here: Church Services