After 30 years of a broad and stimulating career, it can be challenging to find professional learning that feels energising. But for me it’s often about much more than learning a particular new hard or soft skill; it’s about seeking opportunities to be newly engaged, to be with ‘my tribe’ and be freshly inspired by conversation, by books and new perspectives. Primarily my job is being a storyteller for our school, and helping others tell our stories too, so what better place to be immersed in this ancient artform than at a writers’ festival?
In August I headed to the Northern Rivers region for the annual three-day Byron Writers Festival, which is held on the lands of the Arakwal Bumberbin peoples of the Bundjalung Nation. I have been to the festival many times over the last couple of decades and it’s always such a fantastic few days. Held outside in half a dozen enormous marquees at the Bangalow Showgrounds, the festival featured over 100 sessions and 160 authors, journalists, teachers, poets, academics, activists and performing artists, on panels and in one-on-one conversations.
Each year there are the crowd favourites like (this year) Trent Dalton, Jane Harper, Richard Flanagan, Melissa Lucashenko, Kerry O’Brien, Julia Baird, David Marr, Bruce Pascoe and Bob Brown. But more importantly there is always a broad selection of writers and thinkers from all over the country and overseas, who offer insights into the driving force behind their work, their processes, research and passions. I attended 15 sessions featuring some of the above writers but also many others, including Meg Keneally (yes, daughter of Tom), Kris Kneen, Charlotte Wood, Nova Weetman, Sue Higginson MP, Ashley Hay, Mandy Nolan, Peter Singer, Benjamin Stevenson, Ailsa Piper, Meena Kandasamay from India, and Caoilinn Hughes from Ireland, to name just a few.
I gained much from listening to discussions where rewriting history from female and First Nations perspectives was a recurrent theme: ‘Women Make History’, ‘Feminist Literatures’, ‘Rewriting Colonial Myths’, ‘History: Facts & Fictions’, ‘Life on the Page: Writing Memoir’ and ‘Cultural Touchstones’. For me there were also persistent questions around how we want to live in this world, given the state we are in—a real winding back to basics with many panel sessions and conversations that explored humour, pain, loss, altruism, the exceptional power of creativity, and what it means to seek and nurture grace.
I felt that the deep-dive discussions really reflected the theme of the festival, From the Ground Up, and provided much food for thought. In her book Bright Shining: How Grace Changes Everything, and in conversation at the festival, Julia Baird spoke about grace in all its forms, encouraging less obsession with trivia and more on seizing opportunities and moments of love, and focusing on what truly matters: ‘[Grace] is the ability to see good in the other, to recognise humanity, to tolerate difference and to continually plough lives, conversations and public debates with a belief that people can change, and that what we fight for is joy and beauty, as well as equality.’
The Byron Writers Festival was again a richly beneficial professional learning experience. It’s a privilege to be in the company of some of the greatest minds from across a variety of literary sectors; to listen and learn. I think if we reimagine what’s possible with professional learning, it can be so valuable to our working lives.
By: Gabe Bonney | Content Creation Manager | Ascham Community Engagement
