IWD (and a storm)

No, not IED. Despite the military storm occurring in eastern Europe. IWD.

Darwin celebrated International Women's Day on 8 March and I attended two IWD events, both via my Department of Education colleagues. The first was a Sunday evening concert by the Arafura Music Collective, in the foyer of the NT Supreme Court building. A bit of geography: the Arafura Sea is to the north of Darwin.

Here's the Supreme Court from the outside. The white wedding cake on the right of the photo is Parliament House.

The Arafura Music Collective is a group of professional musicians in Darwin who perform both baroque chamber music and modern (serious) music by local — particularly First Nations — artists. The first part of the concert was baroque, during which the true horror of being without a cold beer on a tropical Sunday evening dawned on Ken. Being a government building, no alcoholic drinks (or indeed any liquids, which I too found a problem in the heat) were permitted. I loved the baroque program, Ken less so. The beer problem may have exacerbated his lack of enthusiasm for 17th century lute music.

The second half of the concert was more modern, with some beautiful singing — albeit difficult to appreciate at times with Ken muttering about cold beer. Kidding. Sort of.

On Tuesday 8 March I was invited to an IWD lunch at the Casino by our GM, who is also my line manager. The Mindil Beach Casino is quite a nice place, if you like that sort of thing, and is set in a lovely location. Here it is from the front entrance, from the beach, and from a lookout near the museum (all taken on one of our weekend bike rides as we whizz past).

I enjoyed the lunch. The food and company were pleasant, and the speakers were interesting. Helen Clark, the ex-New Zealand prime minister and first female head of the UN Development Program, generally has a lot to say of value, even if this was by video from across the ditch. COVID, you know.

Another speaker (by video) was the NT Government Minister for Education, who is also the Minister for Women. She was talking by video because ... she has COVID.

Three speakers followed in person — woo hoo! One speaker is a local media personality, who talked about her early years as the child of teachers in a remote community; the second speaker talked about being a child of Vietnamese refugees in Australia and the benefit this gave her when, 30 years later, she was able to act as legal representative for a group of Vietnamese people during the Cambodian genocide trials. The third speaker, who is a highly esteemed academic in this part of the world, talked about the long-term trauma that many women (in particular) may experience from 'coping' during the years of the pandemic, and how this is likely to play out in society. I do like it when eminent people don't talk about themselves, as tempting as it must be.

These are the five colleagues I work most closely with. We all report to the GM (in blue).

IWD, IED. I could write something about the unrest and turmoil of the world to introduce this little video but instead I'll just share 44 seconds of the evening sky from our balcony last week. I particularly like the contrast between the storm clouds and the blue sky ... any metaphor or analogy is up to you.