February 2018 - Clover Hill Diaries - Join Me and Be the Change

Catherine Marriott – a woman who stood up when she knew it would do the most good

I first met Catherine Marriott in early 2012. She reached out because she saw we shared a vision we both wanted to turn into a reality. We wanted to help empower rural and regional Australians in the agriculture sector to share their story and provide them with the tools and knowledge to do that.

I have never met anybody like her. She thinks deeply about every decision she makes. She surrounds herself with an ever-growing network of agriculture’s best and bright minds. First and foremost she cares deeply about people, she consults, she listens, and she always goes with the decisions she believes are best for women, agriculture and rural and regional Australia. And that means she does what’s best for everyone in this country

She joined me at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in 2012 where she helped me run two events that connect young people in rural Australia with young people in our cities

We shared a room – she declared she didn’t sleep a wink – I snore louder than her mother.

She is a professional photographer, she took our photographs. We couldn’t afford to pay her, yet she insisted on paying for half that room where didn’t sleep a wink.

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Catherine Marriott congratulates Jordan Kerr at the Cream of the Crop Awards in 2012. Note MC Stephanie Coombes

I can understand if it happened a while ago (which is what’s been reported) why Catherine made the decision now. I can only envision how much heart and soul went into her decision to make an official complaint. She has phenomenal support from her amazing family . She would have thought about the impact on the Rural Women’s Award, the town of Broome, her workplace everyone and everything she has ever touched.

Let’s not forget the self-care. These things don’t go away. Catherine is a woman with an incredible legacy. She has achieved so much in such a short time and I am confident will achieve so much more. The last thing agriculture and anything she has made a reality needs, is for her be known first for being ‘that woman who finally made Barnaby realise it was time to do the right thing”

Men and women everywhere are standing side by side to support this brave, brave woman with the hashtags #standwithMaz #solidarity4Catherine #strongwomen

Join us and help people everywhere have the courage to stand up when it matters and when it will do the most good.

Barnaby Joyce has jumped off the cliff of no return

I have followed the whole Barnaby Joyce debacle shaking my head. Here is a man who claims to represent the best interest of farmers and agriculture. Yet so little of his ideas of the “best interest” for farmers matched mine. I will admit there were parts of Barnaby’s style I did admire. But when it was revealed that the WA woman who filed a sexual harassment complaint against the former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce for inappropriate behaviour was Catherine Marriott and he described her comments as “spurious and defamatory” I realised I couldn’t forgive him for anything .

Catherine Marriott (affectionately known as Maz) is agriculture’s darling and she deserves to be. She is integrity personified. I am 100% confident if Catherine made a complaint, that complaint is 100% valid. Barnaby you will never convince agriculture that Catherine would make a “spurious and defamatory” allegation.

The court of public opinion is hammering Catherine for not taking her allegation to the police. Lets be real women all over the world. I for one would do something but the last place I would walk into is a police station.

Catherine is a giver. She cares deeply and she supports others who care deeply. This kind of generosity has a ripple effect for others. She inspires. She uplifts and she encourages others to do the same. They become catalysts for better leadership and contribution to the rural sector. All those who personally know Catherine, know how much courage it took to do this. Lets not judge Catherine. Lets talk about how women can stand up without the stigma and the public scrutiny that making a complaint to the police generates.

Some key points from ABC News article Barnaby Joyce sexual harassment accuser wanted Nationals leader held accountable

Former WA Rural Woman of the Year Catherine Marriott said she never intended for the issue to become public

Ms Marriott said she asked National Party to undertake a “formal and confidential” investigation

Barnaby Joyce previously called her allegation “spurious and defamatory”

Catherine Marriott said she made the complaint because she wanted Mr Joyce to be accountable.

In a statement, Ms Marriott said she never intended for the issue to become public and had asked for the National Party to undertake a “formal and confidential” investigation into the incident.

“I requested that … to ensure there is accountability in relation to the incident I raise, and to prevent this type of inappropriate behaviour towards women in the future,” Ms Marriott said.

“This complaint was not made solely to address the incident against me — it is about speaking up against inappropriate behaviour by people in powerful positions.

“I will await the outcome of this investigation before determining any future action or commenting further.”

Ms Marriott is a former West Australian Rural Woman of the Year.

I think Katherine Murphy from The Guardian sums it up nicely in her article In this mess of his own creation, Barnaby Joyce’s self-pity was repulsive

#standwithMaz #solidarity4Catherine #strongwomen

People forgive but they rarely forget

Forgiving someone is easy, but being able to trust them again is a totally different story

As Malcolm Turnbull prepares his apology to the survivors of Sexual Abuse I had a stark reminder of how the pain never goes away

When the CSIRO removed this stunning time lapse video of a cotton boll opening from their website I loaded it on ours

Yesterday this comment appeared

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I am confident you will agree forgiving and forgetting is great in theory, but in reality it’s difficult. Lets not beat ourselves up if we don’t achieve both. Forgiving allows us to move on but we don’t forget either, so we can take the valuable life lessons with us.

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Turning the anti-bullying conversation around

You can find this poster here

When we use the word anti-bullying, we are articulating what we don’t want. So in this instance I ask the question … what do we want?

The counter position to bullying is lost in the current conversations, which is the opportunity to recognise preferred behaviour.

It’s easy to be against and say no .. more difficult to be for and say yes
May be it’s time we got clear and created a turnaround in the conversation?

This above quote is an extract of a comment from reader Andrew on my post Is the Mean Mob Mentality Out Of Control. See footnote

I am confident we will all agree that Andrew makes a very valid point

When you Google ‘Modelling Anti-Bullying Behaviour’ Google Scholar offers a plethora of articles

Social science research tells us if we craft the message that signals preferred behaviour we get preferred behaviour.

Using an example I saw at boys school I visited in 2016. The sign in the foyer said “65% of men and boys interviewed think domestic violence occurs”

The social scientists tell us this sign models negative behaviour. The ideal sign would say “100% of men think domestic violence is wrong.”

Clearly the image at the top of the post is a great example of modelling preferred behaviour. See article here

Love other readers thoughts on how we rise to challenge that Andrew has posed

Footnote

Andrew’s comment on the original blog

Where I’m coming from is contrarian to many, so please read to the end.
This is not a criticism of what’s happening in general or the posts and comments here.

In grappling with the issue we are faced with in relation to personal attacks in social and mainstream media we need to call out bullying for what it is, and those carrying out that behaviour need to be held to account.

At this time I’m reminded of Sister Teresa of Calcutta.
She was asked to attend an “anti-war” rally, where the proponents would have obviously used her presence to leverage the PR.
Sister Teresa’s response was if you can explain to me what you are for, I’ll consider it.

When we use the word anti-bullying, we are articulating what we don’t want. So in this instance I ask the question … what do we want?

Using Sister Teresa’s framework … if we are anti bullying, what are we for?

The counter position to bullying is lost in the current conversations, which is the opportunity to recognise preferred behaviour.

We know what we don’t want but, have difficulty articulating what we do want.
When training dogs, we reward positive behaviour for the obvious reason, with young children we do the same when it comes to behaviours. Or we should.

So what behaviour do we wish to recognise as it applies to social and mainstream media behaviour?
It’s easy to be against and say no .. more difficult to be for and say yes
May be it’s time we got clear and created a turnaround in the conversation?

Persistence and Determination are all conquering

This week marks 12 months since I tore my hamstring off the bone – a very serious and rare injury. See backstory here

I had two options – surgery which had many risks and a long recovery period or very extensive rehab.

I chose rehab. I am very excited to say at this point in time I am a hamstring avulsion conservative treatment rehab success story. Very few people with this injury get the movement back that I have.

I have also learnt at lot about me. I always wanted to be fit but avoided gym classes like the plague. I always considered myself unco – the aerobic class would be waving to the left and I would be waving to the right and when I started fitball classes that is exactly what happened. But its one big family at my rehab gym and everyone laughed along with me and encouraged me and I have got it. Go me ( I may even start dance classes)

TRX, now that was another animal all together. No matter what my personal trainer said there was no way anyone was going to get me to hang from the ceiling.

Then I found out a fortnight ago that classes I was attending where going to become circuit classes and TRX could be part of the circuit. So I put my big girl pants on and booked a 30 min TRX personal training session and guess what I can now add TRX to one of the things I have mastered in the last 12 months

TRX is about trust as is balance. Me trusting that not only will the rope hold me as well as me trusting me. Balance remains the stumbling point. One leg trusting the other that it can hold me up. You should see me at night sitting in my lounge room watching Netflix or SBS OnDemand on one leg on my fitball lifting weights

The last 12 months has taught me talent and intellect come nowhere near determination and persistence as markers for success. I know success at the gym relies on technique combined with persistence and determination to get the technique right. I relish my technique being corrected in front of others, its means I am being watched and they care about me. I ask questions as often as it takes to get it right and I still have a lot to learn but learning I am. I am very proud of me and I have also lost 5 kgs (extra awesome)

We can all get value from Calvin Coolidge’s wise words. Lets not be afraid to do the hard yards. Lets be brave enough to ask advice and wise enough take it. Persistence and Determination are omnipotent

#gogirlfriend #strongwomen

Walk a Mile in my Shoes – Farming and the Power of Authentic Stories

When I came back to the farm after a 25-year career as a community retail pharmacist I was invited by my local council to sit on their Economic Development Committee. I jumped at the chance to give agriculture an added voice in local government and to see how local government worked.

A bonus came when I found myself invited to government and community events where an agricultural perspective was valued

One of these events was a conference held by our five regional partner councils on Sustainable Food. The guest speaker on Sustainable Agriculture was Rosemary Stanton. I must admit I was flabbergasted. What does a TV “celebrity dietitian” know about Sustainable Agriculture?

Well as it turned out Rosemary was very entertaining and had some very strong opinions. But had she walked a mile in my farming family’s shoes? Had she been at the coal face through the droughts and flooding rains? Did she feed, clothe and put a roof over her family’s heads from the returns of farming? And of course, the answer to all of those questions was no.

This inspired me to start an organisation that would provide the agriculture sector with the skills, knowledge and networks to share authentic farming stories told by people at the coal face from the heart.

Today that organisation is called Picture You in Agriculture. With the support of our collaborating partners 80 young people (Young Farming Champions/YFC) in the agriculture sector from a diverse array of careers have attended intensive and extensive communication skills workshops over the last seven years. These young people are going into schools as part of The Archibull Prize

Our YFC know that 90 per cent of human behaviour and decision making is driven by our emotions. They go into schools not to educate but to share their stories, their memories, the triumphs and the challenges and the excitement they feel to have careers in agriculture

Are they kicking goals?

The graphs below show the percentage increase of teachers who STRONGLY AGREED with the question posed before and after participating in The Archibull Prize and a visit from a Young Farming Champion

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Malabar Public School Teacher Louise Dique shares how Young Farming Champions can establish an easy rapport with students by bringing their stories and families into the school, to excite and motivate the students.

Stories are about collaboration and connection. They transcend generations, they engage us through emotions, and they connect us to others. Through stories we share passions, sadness, hardships and joys. We share meaning and purpose. Stories are the common ground that allows people to communicate, overcoming our defenses and our differences. Stories allow us to understand ourselves better and to find our commonality with others.

The Young Farming Champions and The Archibull Prize are combining the ancient art of story telling with creative arts and multimedia to reconnect producers and consumers, farmers and communities in a way that frames the life-long perspective of the people they meet. I would say they are kicking goals to the moon and back. What do you think?

#archie10 #art4ag #YFC18 #farming #farmers #agriculture