Presenters

International Keynote Speakers

Jordi Pascual is the Coordinator of the Working Group on Culture (WGC) of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) for the Institut de Cultura (Barcelona City Council). The main aim of the WGC is the progress of the "Agenda 21 for culture - an undertaking by cities and local governments for cultural development" (agenda21culture.net). Jordi is a researcher in cultural policies and local development with a BA Geography (1992) and MA, European Cultural Policies and International Cultural Relations (1997). He has previosuly worked as a Researcher at the Autònoma University of Barcelona (1992-1996), then at the Interarts Foundation (1996-2000) and Institut de Cultura - Barcelona City Council (2000-2003) and as URBACT researcher on culture and urban regeneration. His publications on cultural policies and local development include:
• 'Local cultural strategy development in South-East Europe. Building on practice and experience' (Policies for Culture - European Cultural Foundation)
• 'Culture, connectedness and social cohesion in Spain' (Canadian Journal of Communication)
• 'Third system: arts first! Local cultural policies, third system and employment' (Interarts Foundation - European Commission)
• 'Sustainable cities demand culture. Key ideas on the Agenda 21 for culture' (Urban Futures, Municipal World)

 

Jude Bloomfield is an independent researcher in urban cultures, cultural planning and citizenship, specialising in multiculturalism and interculturalism, and a translator and poet. She taught modern European politics and history at University College London for eight years and is currently a research associate of the International Cultural Planning and Policy Unit, De Montfort University, Leicester. She is methodology advisor and life stories researcher on the Comedia, Joseph Rowntree project The Intercultural City - Making the Most of Diversity. Her most recent publications are Planning for the Intercultural City (Comedia, 2004) and Crossing the Rainbow, (ietm.org, October 2003) a study of the multicultural and intercultural performing arts in nine European countries. Forthcoming publications include Intercultural Innovators - Learning from Life Stories, research report Comedia and Rowntree Foundation, 2006 and Researching the Urban Imaginary: resisting the erasure of places in Weiss-Sussex G. & F. Bianchini eds. Urban Mindscapes of Europe, Amsterdam: Rodopi 2007.

 

The Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Associate Minister for Local Government, New Zealand.
Nanaia Mahuta is a Maori New Zealander of Waikato-Maniapoto and Ngaapuhi descent. She is currently the Minister of Customs and Youth Affairs, and Associate Minister for Local Government and the Environment in New Zealand. Since being elected to Parliament Ms Mahuta has been a member of the Regulations Review, Electoral Law, Transport & Environment, Maaori Affairs, Education & Science, Local Government & Environment Select Committees. In 1999 she was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary for Education and Local Government. She joined the New Zealand Labour Party while studying at Auckland University and in 1996 was elected as a Labour list MP. Since 2002, she has represented the Tainui electorate which has a broad geographical spread, closely aligned to the Tainui confederation of tribes of Waikato, Maniapoto, Raukawa and Hauraki. Employment, Housing, Health, Education and Treaty Settlements are the key issues facing the electorate. Maaori and Iwi in the electorate are continually finding creative solutions to age-old problems and long-term sustainable opportunities that involve Maaori, Local Government, Central Government, business and community sectors.

National and local speakers

Local speakers will include:

Penny Hutchinson became Director of Arts Victoria in November 2000, leaving a partnership at BDO Nelson Parkhill. She had previously worked at the Department of Management and Budget and the National Companies and Securities Commission. Penny has been on a number of government boards, including Medibank Private, Federal Airports Corporation, Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian String Quartet. From March to September 2006 Penny was Acting Deputy Secretary, Sector Improvement Group within the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Colleen Marion, Founding Chairperson and CEO, Western Suburbs Indigenous Gathering Place Association.
Colleen Marion was raised in the small outback town of Augathella, in southwest Queensland. Colleen moved to Melbourne in 1971, a single mother raising five children. During the 1980s, Colleen worked in various State and Commonwealth departments including several years at Baltara Detention Centre as a youth worker. Her passion for children and young people's rights and wellbeing has continued to grow over the years. Colleen once said, 'Having been brought up in a large family in remote Queensland, living in a tin hut, I loved the fact that our family spoke our language, hunted our own food and lived traditionally. All aboriginal kids should experience that lifestyle'. Colleen's ongoing passion for her people is exceptional and is the force behind the success of The Gathering Place. Her determination to see improved outcomes for the Indigenous Community, particularly the young people, has been the catalyst for significant improvements, all of which can be attributed to Colleen's involvement. Colleen's work with and achievements in the Victorian Aboriginal Community have recently been acknowledged by Save the Children Victoria's White Flame Award (2005) and NAIDOC Victorian Recognition Award (2006)

Dr Martin Mulligan is Deputy Director of RMIT University's Globalism Institute.
Before joining the Globalism Institute in 2004, Martin worked in the innovative Social Ecology program at the University of Western Sydney where he developed new courses in areas related to ecological thinking and environmental education. He is interested in ways exploring how a deeper 'sense of place' can bring together concerns for the environmental and social sustainability of local communities. His current research interests includes sense of place and community well-being in particular Victorian communities; community development strategies in Papua New Guinea; the recovery of local communities in post-tsunami Sri Lanka; strategies for nature conservation in the post-colonial era and the social history of ecological thought and action. He has just published “Creating Community: Celebrations, Arts and Wellbeing within and across Local Communities”, an ARC funded report on a three year research program in Victoria that was prepared in partnership with VicHealth.

Glenyys Romanes is currently the Manager of Community Relationships, Department of Infrastructure, where she is leading the project 'Train Stations as Creative Community Hubs'. Between 1999 and 2006, Glenyys was a Labor politician, serving Victoria as Member for Melbourne Province. During the 1990s, Glenyys was a Councillor of the City of Moreland and Mayor of Brunswick City Council. This experience highlighted for her the importance of remaining in touch with the concerns of residents and the local community and was a continuing focus for her work as a parliamentarian. Glenyys' political and professional work interests include social justice and equity, public education and public transport.

Professor John Wiseman is Director of the McCaughey Centre, VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of Mental Health and Community Wellbeing, School of Population Health, University of Melbourne. Professor Wiseman has worked in a wide variety of academic, community and public sector settings and published numerous books and articles on public policy, with particular focus on alternative local, national and international responses to globalisation. Between 2003 and 2006 he was Professor of Public Policy at Victoria University. Between 2000 and 2003 he was Assistant Director, Policy Development and Research in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet. Prior to that he held the position of Associate Professor of Social Policy in the School of Social Science and Planning at RMIT University.