Somerset lifetimes 2019 Semester 1

Journey ALUMNI – A REWARDING

A REWARDING JOURNEY OF RECONCILIATION AND RESPECT Reconciliation action and sustainable development are the driving forces behind former student Jack Lewis’ (Class of 2001) town planning business. A love of people and place planted the seed for a journey to seek meaningful action, to learn and incorporate our country’s rich indigenous perspectives into land use planning. Jack, a proud Somerset alumni is grateful for the opportunities he was given at the College, “One thing I loved about my school was the importance on following your passions, support from teachers and the motivation of your classmates having that same love of learning.” Graduating in 2001, he relocated to Sydney to pursue his passion in geography and completed a Bachelor of Science (Applied Geography) with Honours from the University of New South Wales. Jack recalls a significant day when he spent the morning surfing the point break of Merimbula before heading into the mountains for a snowboard in the afternoon, “I thought, where else can I do that? It was amazing.”

Looking at a map, Jack saw the next logical place to move was the South Island of Aotearoa/NZ where he could continue his love for surfing and snowboarding and study a Masters of Planning at Otago University. Here Jack was exposed to the importance placed on learning and understanding the concepts of ‘ Kaitiakitanga ’ and indigenous concepts of land stewardship. “New Zealand legislation places a large emphasis on the cultural considerations and a longer term view, to ensure everyone benefits from appropriate development – We even did papers that required us to stay at a marae for a week, ensuring you learn Maori waiatas/songs and notions of stewardship from different perspectives,” he says. Jack met Jessica and the couple moved to Broome in Western Australia where he accepted his first job post‑university working in local government. His experience in Aotearoa/NZ showed him how different cultural planning in Australia was, “Although Broome has a rich multicultural history and strong indigenous leaders, the way in which land use and planning is carried out seemed like something straight out of the East India company/colonial government system.” Expecting their first child they moved back to South East Queensland and were drawn to Noosa continuing to work for local government, “My interest has always been connection to people and place, with the aim of respecting the environments and stories people value” he says. The couple sought to find out more about the unique indigenous stories in the landscape that they love working in, recreating and raising their now three children (aged 10, eight and six) on. Jack’s discovery was shocking. Indigenous people were forcibly removed from across the State’s south east and relocated just an hour and a half from Noosa to Cherbourg in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Even worse, Indigenous people in Cherbourg up until 1988 weren’t allowed to leave the community without official clearance – the mission was set up for the indigenous population to die-off respectfully . The 2016 Census then revealed that Cherbourg is the most

A Rewarding Journey

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