Cameron Tero

This thesis recounts and considers stories from a group of Western Australian humanitarian practitioners working in activism, international development, medical work, and disaster assessment. The thesis is also about story as something that we ‘do’: a potentially transformational act for recording and passing on memories and knowledge, for grieving, for resisting existing narratives, for connection with others, and for discovering layers of meaning in the stories of our own lives.

In its first half, the thesis traces how particular features of narrative research were brought to bear on the project as it unfolded. It highlights how ethical and dialogical encounter lies at the centre of this narrative research endeavour, the way in which narratives are shaped by and shape those who tell them, how the metaphor and practice of mapping has added depth to this project, and how embracing uncertainty can be an asset.

The narratives of the practitioners that were produced during the project, and the considerations that flow from these, are the backbone of the second half of the thesis. These multi-layered narratives and considerations are heavily ‘textured’, in that they consist of multiple elements that are woven together to show the challenges and contingencies present in professions from which mythical narrative accounts commonly emerge. The narratives bring a particularness which complicates and deepens understanding of practice; giving expression to experience and ideas for which it is often difficult to find tidy description. This narrative work is a pathway to these deeper understandings.

It is against this backdrop that the thesis also illuminates a series of co-existent and sometimes contradictory realities in the theatres of humanitarian work. The narratives in this thesis are riddled with much that is never fully settled: illuminating the intricacies of self- interest and service, vocation and lostness, common humanity and plurality, the centrality of imagination and remaining troubled by suffering, locating hope within intractability, and the gift and burdens of uncertainly and disruption. These challenges lend themselves to the type of open-ended examination inherent in narrative; the individual and collective sense-making that is at the heart of narrative practice. This thesis demonstrates the importance of such practice in the complex zones of encounter into which practitioners venture, providing a method for expressing and wrestling with the contradiction and intricacy of the work that will always be present; for remaining humane in the face of that which practitioners can never solve.

Overall, the thesis deepens understanding of humanitarian practice in its many iterations by presenting these textured stories, to consider them and to illuminate their roughness and their entanglements. This series of detailed narratives and analyses are valuable reflective materials for current and future practitioners, and for educators and leaders who prepare others for such work.

This presentation poses questions about the intricacy of what it means to be a ‘humane practitioner’. Drawing on recent research with of a group of Western Australian practitioners working in international development, disaster relief, remote medical work, and refugee rights activism, this presentation examines how narratives from various iterations of humanitarian work illuminate the contingency and ambivalence present in professions from which simplistic and often heroic narrative accounts commonly emerge. The exploration of these narratives seeks to search out a language for the set of paradoxes that come with living and working in the complex zones of encounter which characterise much humanitarian endeavour. These include a wrestling with intractable political and development challenges while finding meaning in individual acts, expressions of feeling powerless in situations where people objectively hold much privilege, questions about the role of westerners in complex non-western environments while still choosing to continue to be involved, and the struggle to find vocational and relational identity back at ‘home’. Drawing also on the work of Behrooz Boochani - Iranian poet, journalist, and former immigration detainee - the research explores the way in which humanitarian endeavours and the narratives emerging from them provide an opening to frame humanitarian action as a series of relational and ethical encounters. These encounters produce much contradiction and opportunity, including an invitation to remain troubled, interrogate our blind spots and motives, turn to others that might previously have been obscured, and to resist taken-for-granted systems and regimes of practice.

This project came about because there are so many interesting stories to tell about community work. We wanted to provide a place to keep some of these stories that would make them accessible to people all over the world. This site provides a jumping off point to learn about community work from the point of view of practitioners and participants, as well as to reflect on the reasons projects are carried out and the differences they make. We hope that much of it will be enlightening and motivating, and make a contribution to the way community work is done and thought about, now and into the future.

What Matters Most is a classroom resource about one of the major challenges facing the global community. Well over a billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day; nearly two billion people still live in slums; a child still dies of hunger-related causes every six seconds. Nevertheless, there is also cause for hope – over the last 20 years the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen in every global region, and the number of children dying globally from poverty-related causes has reduced by more than a third.1

All’s Well? is a resource book for upper primary teachers — packed with lesson ideas and resources to bring the world of water to the classroom. All’s Well? helps students become aware of the tough challenges the human community faces regarding water, as well as looking at possibilities for hope and change. This book gives teachers the tools to bring rich global learning experiences to the classroom — increasing knowledge, fostering new skills, questioning values, and encouraging realistic action for positive global citizenship.

This paper explores the concept of intergenerational exchange as a vehicle for community building in Australia. Drawing on document analysis, focus groups, and in-depth study of four intergenerational programs, the research examines the benefits and constraints of intergenerational exchange and the relationship between intergenerational programs and their potential to foster resilience, enhance social connection, and build individual and community capacity. Findings reveal that in intended and unanticipated ways, young and older Australians benefit from intergenerational exchange. The multidimensional nature of intergenerational exchange promotes broad social networks and a means for developing substantive relationships between the young and other community members.

This guide book was put together over 2006 and 2007 using some of the latest research about what makes mentoring programs work well. It is detailed and easy to read and understand, and gives practical ideas about planning a program, and training mentors as well as finding useful resources to make programs run well. It comes with a handy CD that contains material useful for getting a program off the ground. The authors of the book have worked as both researchers and practitioners and brought a wide range of mentoring experience to the task.

Initiatives designed to support young people’s engagement, participation and civic involvement with community have grown in popularity in Australia over the past decade. This is coincident with an increased emphasis on communitarian aspirations such as building community, promoting civics and encouraging social capital (Bessant, 1997; Botsman & Latham, 2001; Brennan, 1998; Harris, 1999). In this new policy environment, young people’s social problems, issues and needs are largely seen as a reflection of their declining levels of inclusion in civic life, a loss in community, a failure on the part of local associations to encourage social cohesion at the local level and a growing distance between the generations. According to those advancing this style of social policy, something has gone awfully wrong with the social fabric, community participation is dropping and different generations are becoming cut off from each other. The answer is often seen to be in interventions that develop social capital, build community capacity, encourage partnerships, support community enterprise, and strengthen democratic and civic participation. Precisely what this means, or how it might be achieved in youth practice settings, is not clear. Intergenerational practice has emerged as one general approach that may help put substance to aspirations for bringing young people into closer contact with others in their community. Although as yet not a significant part of the Australian policy landscape, the field of intergenerational practice has gained considerable support in the United States and is growing rapidly in Europe.