My name is Russell Darnley. I grew up in Sydney, at Coogee to be precise. The banner image is from a place just south of Coogee beach where I often went with my grandfather. The ocean was the edge of the world for me as a child. Ships came and went, they were our link to what lay beyond. Oceans are effectively borderless and touch every continent. This was an early realisation.
I attended Coogee Public School, later Randwick Boys HS and completed my formal education at the University of Sydney. I began teaching in 1971. While at university I paid my way by working as a Television Camera Operator with the University of Sydney Television Service, and a Parks and Gardens worker for Randwick Council.
My time at University was one of social and political change. Conscription and our seemingly pointless involvement in the Vietnam War, radicalised many young people. I was active in the struggle against war.
I taught until 1980, working in Belmore, Lithgow and Balmain high schools. From 1980 till 1985 I worked in educational consultancy as the Project Officer for the Disadvantaged Schools Program in the then NSW Department of Education (now DET). In the early 1970s I also managed to teach briefly in the UK and take several trips in Europe and S E Asia.
Between 1984 and 1987 I completed a Certificate 4 Course in Bahasa Indonesia through Sydney Technical College and in 1984 co-founded Asian Field Study Centres Pty Ltd, an Australian company conducting field study programs for students visiting Indonesia. This project made it necessary to maintain a house in both Lilyfield, Sydney and Ubud, Bali. I also coordinated a team of writers in producing the book, Geografi Australia, for Indonesian secondary schools and worked as a consultant in areas related to Australia’s relationship with Indonesia.
My time in Indonesia gave me the opportunity to consolidate knowledge of the language and the country’s many regional cultures. This also afforded me the opportunity to travel widely and work on several Indonesia related film and television productions.
In 2000 after a considerable period of reflection and study, along with further travel in Egypt, Turkey and Greece, I became an Orthodox Christian. In the end what precipitated my decision was meeting the Monks from the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, near Bombala. My Orthodox name is Maximos.
After the Bali Bombings of 2002 I returned to Australia and was awarded the OAM for my voluntary work following the bombings.
I was a writer and researcher on the Le@rning Federation’s (TLF) LOTE2 and Studies of Australia 2 & 3 projects. A quick overview of my work is most easily seen on the Lutheran Education Australia website. Most recently I scoped, researched and wrote interactions in Indonesian for the TLF’s MALL Project, (see final report) conducted in association with Learnosity.
A particular interest of mine is the restitution of cultural property, taken under many guises and in many different times of change. The world’s most celebrated cultural property dispute is the issue of the Parthenon Marbles (mistakenly called the Elgin Marbles). This unique collections of carved marble sculptures is now accommodated in the British Museum. In Athens a purpose built museum awaits their return.
I’m presently completing a series of 30 short stories on Australia’s relationship with Asia and Melanesia.
In December and January 2009-10 I made my first return visit to Indonesia since the Bali Bombings of 2002. I returned again in 2010-11.
In 2010 I completed work on a 1:1 laptop action research project as part of the Digital Education Revolution initiated by Australian Government. This project explored urban processes operating in the Sydney CBD, Darling and City West areas. I teach History and Geography.
This Blog is now archived by Pandora
PANDORA, is Australia’s Web Archive, a growing collection of Australian online publications, established initially by the National Library of Australia in 1996, and now built in collaboration with nine other Australian libraries and cultural collecting organisations.
I didn’t know before that Australians were in the Viet Nam war.
By: Chrissay on December 27, 2009
at 11:56 am
When I have the time I’ll write a little more about Australia and the Vietnam War. It’s probably sufficient to say that it was during the cold war and Australians were easy to convince of the ‘Domino Theory’. In a nutshell, this meant that if Vietnam fell, then other Asian countries to the south would each successively fall to Communism and Australia would be the last domino.
The Domino Theory was a simplistic notion, first advance by Eisenhower when, in April 1954, he said:
“Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the “falling domino” principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.”
Fear continues to be an instrument in the political tool kit of many of our leaders. We only have to look at the manner in which it was used by the UK and USA leadership to justify the invasion of Iraq.
By: maximos62 on December 29, 2009
at 3:03 am
Dear Mr Darnley,
The National Library aims to build a comprehensive collection of Australian on-line publications by identifying and archiving online publications that meet our collecting scope and priorities. PANDORA, Australia’s web archive and access to archived titles can be found on the Library’s web site.
If you could provide an e-mail address to discuss archiving your blog that would be greatly appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Caitlin Prescott
By: Caitlin Prescott on September 8, 2011
at 11:44 pm