https://www.radyo-filipino-australia.com/interview-archive-2016.html

https://soundcloud.com/anmmuseum/deborah-ruiz-wall

An interview commissioned by the Australian National Maritime Museum

What is the architecture of our thinking?

It was once pronounced in the 1970s that ‘everything is political’, and of course, we can also say in the same breath, in the first decade of the 21^st century,  that ‘everything is cultural’.

Or, deeper still, from my own outlook, ‘everything is spiritual’.

Even within our sphere of thinking, we set boundaries, with the effect of promulgating inclusion and exclusion. Hence, the occurrence of difference and the ‘uncommon ground’. Understandably.

But is this not a natural state of affairs beyond which we simply draw upon unreachable ideals? Perhaps. However, I see the world we live in as malleable, much like clay continually being sculpted.

Inner and outer world

My hope is to draw wider humanity’s curtain of consciousness to facilitate awareness of our common ground, to bridge the gulf between our inner and outer world. I believe this is within the realm of possibility.

Our world is not static. We have the ability to sculpt our world back into a wondrous paradise — our original face. We continue to develop, grow and evolve.

Love

My question always is: ‘who governs our development, and who benefits as a result’?

Therein lies the question of materialising love and thus, committing to a fair share of the earth’s resources.

The notion of ‘self’: atomistic or collective?

Often these days, I hear the word ‘mindfulness’ that some people in search of a better world hope to instil in others to help heal psychological affliction.

I think we need, particularly in the developed world, to find our collective self to discover the missing link between the ego and humanity’s SOUL.

Peace

Peace is what we all seek. Creative, not dormant peace — peace that shapes the contours of our continuous becoming as a material and spiritual being.

Oneness

If I drink from the mystical vessel of Creation, no need to even begin to wonder.
I would know for certain that we are ONE entwined treasure of the breath of Life’s story!

Experiencing life

Living life in the head alone is a prison. To live life in the raw broadens our vista.

Openness to mystery

Thought must be unleashed as an open-ended question. Not uncompromisingly black or white. Life is not neutral. Light has shades and shadows, often not blindingly clear.

Choice

We make a choice. We choose our walk. Insight comes from an outlook that seeps from within. Wisdom hides there. She appears when you seek her. She shows the path.

Values

Joy leaps in our hearts each time we choose life over death, creation over destruction, courage over fear, adventure over hesitation, joy over sorrow, work over sloth.

Faith and hope

…And perpetually holding on to faith and hope out of love for all of creation, paying homage to the grace we have received that allows us to contemplate how to be, how to become.

(A few lines to enlighten readers on the evolving architecture of my thinking)

As if two world wars were not enough

to ponder on who we really are

after we fling a gaze at the stark ashes

that stare us in the face from a delusion

that a war could be waged —

a war that would end all wars!

We come face to face today with a world war

of another kind, a war within our collective self,

and we have begun to run, run, run the race

against time to find the elusive cure to inoculate us

against the unseen enemy within.

We clutch at straws to survive the final fatal blow

that strikes at anyone at random — young or old,

rich or poor any time, any place,

the tentacles of globalisation now truly

manifesting outreach to the ends of the earth.

We can’t afford to look away from the call

for a global cease fire, because a more pressing threat

to our earthly survival confronts us,

and deep down we tremble at the thought

of the uncertainty of life that has befallen us all:

what on earth is the new ‘normal’?

Our impaired vision borne out of pride

has shattered the borders we have constructed

against each other, and the time has finally arrived

for us to nod and acknowledge the entwined

web of our destiny, and heed the call

from the mystical abyss to draw the archetypal curtains,

open our eyes, see the broader horizon awaiting us,

sing at last from the same song sheet, and walk together

to recover a paradise lost.

Thoughts explode from the depths,

I know not where,

my blindfold ripped from my eyes,

our constructed world is a mess,

a house built on sand,

when the tsunami of flood struck,

when the merging fires ravaged bushland,

turning greenery to lifeless ashen black,

when the unseen killer virus struck,

wreaking havoc on our ordered disorder

of life on earth, a wasteland of free will,

what is left standing but a mirror

of the roots of the choices we have made,

and we have just began

to scratch the surface of our undoing.

who are we, how do we spawn the birth

of a new dreaming, a deeper listening to

the yearning of the Spirit

within us, to be One.

The burning bush

The burning bush in our sights.

Too close for comfort,

Dancing flames encircling our hearts

Terrorizing our souls,

The roar of nature’s fury

Redefining eternity,

Engulfing my shrinking imagination.

Where will my Dreaming dwell

When the barks of trees

Are reduced to ashes,

When thunderous silence replaces

The sweet tweets of songbirds,

When my vision of a verdant landscape

Is erased by a fiery formidable wind?

Where is the place I can call home

when the flaming red sun has crowned

the sky like a ball of fire foreboding a tragic loss?

Covid-19

The enemy within

Treasure each precious moment

we spend with the people we love,

the ‘other’ becomes us, even the unloved,

covid-19 pandemic’s global proportion

has brought us together to face the enemy within,

the need to walk hand in hand

to expel the fatal threat to our collective survival

imposed by the unseen, time out in our isolation

to reflect on the pointlessness of geopolitical

and biological wars, the quest for total control,

the vandalism of nature, our fatalistic faith

that the market economy will solve all our problems,

the practice of modern day slavery,

the marginalisation and disempowerment

of our fellow human beings.

Lest we forget the story of stories,

the return of our original face!

Fear 

Empty space,

retail shops look like a ghost town,

people hiding in their nesting places,

running away from deathly pandemic,

once in a while, the harbinger of Death

visits the earth reminding all souls

of the fragility of material life,

forgetting when they emerge out of the womb

that what fundamentally matters

are the footsteps they choose

to take till their last breath.

What is LIFE? What is DEATH?

Why are we here? What is the bottom line?

After the storm that struck fear

in our hearts has gone,

will they return to the landscape

of forgetting?

Stillness (Sleepless in Newtown)

Darkness is not void.

Fertile shadows of my mind.

The sound of silence roars.

I am here and not here.

In between spaces of fullness.

I declare my Love.

The Universe speaks.

The Nameless.

It is mutual.

Surge of waves invade my head,

the sky at Wentworth Falls lake mirrors my unease,

my desire to escape a chattering mind.

I’m mesmerised with an effervescent stillness,

an uncanny pause pulling me inward,

drawing me into a stream of consciousness

lost in vacant space.

Acclaimed Australian chef and restaurateur, Kylie Kwong declared her vision for the 2020s — food as a “force for positive social change”!

A decade ago, she had no Indigenous friends and did not know how to connect. The challenge for her came when world-renowned chef, Rene Redzepi from Copenhagen asked at his keynote speech at Sydney Opera House why he was not seeing native ingredients in the dishes being prepared in the restaurants.

Now what she related at ‘Each for Equal’, International Women’s Day celebration 2020 yesterday (4 March 2020) at Yerrabingin, was a turning point.

She had since met her first Indigenous friend, Aunty Beryl Van Oploo, a Kamilaroi woman. It was Aunty Beryl who introduced her to the traditional way ingredients were used. Kylie learned to adapt native ingredients to her preparation of Cantonese dishes. Aunty Beryl introduced her to Clarence Slockee, a Bundjalung man who is a bush-food horticulturalist, educator and performer. Kylie now works with Clarence and his business partner, Christian Hampson, both directors at the Yerrabingin native rooftop farm at South Eveleigh. Kylie will use a lot of the plants from the rooftop farm at her new eatery which will open soon.

Aunty Beryl Van Oploo celebrating a 21st century fusion of ancient culinary traditions: Aboriginal and Cantonese in collaboration with South Eveleigh Ambassador, Kylie Kwong 

Bundjalung man, Clarence Slockee with Kylie Kwong

Kylie’s entry into the food industry began when she worked as an apprentice for celebrity chef, Neil Perry at Rockpool and Wockpool. Prior to working with Neil, she worked for six years in the advertising industry. She later became the Head Chef at Neil Perry’s restaurant and eventually ran her own business, Billy Kwong at Surry Hills and Potts Point for nineteen years. She employed sixteen females and eighteen males from diverse cultures. Her years of experience in the food industry taught her the importance of cultures.

Her next journey in her new eatery will be culture management that will embody the values she believes in: “equality, inclusion, and diversity”.  This approach will trickle down with her attention focused on the Head Chef and floor manager to run with these values so the rest of the staff will feel empowered.

Another keynote speaker, the founder of OzHarvest (ozharvest.org), Ronni Kahn AO is taking her company global. She has grown OzHarvest to become Australia’s leading food rescue organisation after the law was changed making it safe for companies to donate surplus food. Her main message yesterday was: leadership today needs to serve. Look after each other. Choose the right people. Prepare nourishing food with love.

Aunty Beryl Van Oploo with OzHarvest founder, Ronni Kahn AO

When journalist, Caroline Baum asked Ronni why she was wearing a spoon earring on one ear, she explained,”There are three things people do when confronted with fire: run away, write an angry letter or, run to find a bucket, a glass or a teaspoon. I want to proclaim the Order of the teaspoon.”

Little things make things grow, that is, even a teaspoon of change makes a whale of a difference.

 (L) — Aunty Ali Golding, Kylie Kwong’s mum, and Aunty Beryl Van Oploo: three guests at Yerrabingin making a ‘culturally diverse collective individuality’ fashion statement.