What is your connection to Brimbank?
I have been the learning and teaching leader at Mother of God school in Ardeer for the past 12 years and I have been a resident in Sunshine for 17 years. I grew up in Geelong, and enjoyed a ‘big country town’ lifestyle where we knew and looked after each other. My dad was one of 14 children and my maternal grandmother was one of twelve, so I grew up with my cousins in a very close extended family. I still think of Geelong as home as my siblings and extended family still live there. Torquay and the Surf Coast beaches are the places where I most feel at home and relaxed and I have a dream of maybe one day being able to retire down there and enjoy the relaxed coastal lifestyle.
What is your favourite place to visit in Brimbank?
I have many favourite places to visit in Brimbank, I love the natural places like Brimbank park, Organ Pipes national park and the Kororoit creek trail. I am especially lucky to live very close to Parson’s Reserve and enjoy the old gum trees and the bird life that live in them. I love the vibrancy of the restaurants in Hampshire Rd Sunshine and the new green spaces along it. As a vice president of Sunshine Heights Cricket Club I also spend quite a bit of time at Balmoral Reserve in Derrimut and love what Brimbank council have done to improve the public amenity and participation in this space. I’m hoping that some of these great ideas will eventually be implemented at Parsons Reserve.
Can you tell us a bit about your journey in teaching and what you have been able to achieve?
I did my initial teacher training at Aquinas College in Ballarat and then taught for four years in Geelong. I moved to Melbourne in 1988 and began teaching at Holy Eucharist in St Albans, which was a large school at the time and very culturally and linguistically diverse. I was very privileged to be involved in a home visit program for the prep students that I was teaching and got to meet their families and get a deeper insight into the strengths and needs of migrant and refugee families. It’s where I really developed my love and commitment to teaching in the west of Melbourne. In 1991 I was awarded an International teaching fellowship and lived and worked for a year in a rural part of Nova Scotia in Canada. About a quarter of the students at the school were from the neighbouring Indian reserve and I quickly became aware of the effects of institutionalised racism on those young people and their life aspirations. I was able to return to visit these communities in 2019 after almost 30 years and express my gratitude for the wonderful journey of learning that began in that year in relationship with those people. I also became painfully aware of my own ignorance about Indigenous people in Australia and resolved on my return to do something about that. That experience began a lifelong commitment to working for reconciliation and social justice for Aboriginal people and also involved me marrying into an Indigenous family and I now have a 15 year old son with a proud Indigenous heritage.
What are you most proud of in your career so far?
Some of the things that I am most proud of have been my work in school reform and social justice such as The National Schools Network, The Innovative Links project with Victoria University and the Standpoint project with the wonderful Professor Brenda Cherednichenko and Associate Professor Tony Kruger who sadly passed away last year. My great friend and mentor.
I am also very proud of the community at Mother of God school. We are a family and community school where the adults work together for the benefit of all of our young people. It is the most beautiful and special place I have ever worked. I have been very fortunate to have been enabled to follow my passions for equity in education especially for those who continue to be most disadvantaged in our community through the leadership of principals Gerard Broadfoot and Assunta Iacovino and collegiality of Deputy Principals Matthew Shawcross and Marie Dorazio. I am very blessed.
