Writing With Refugee Kids

Miss Kiki’s last day of school

School’s out and I’ve just finished my first year at Milpera State High School for refugee and migrant children. Unlike some of the kids who came to do my ..

How to be more creative with help from neuroscience and Margaret Atwood

I’m back from a social media-free week and boy was it wonderful. It was both freeing and humbling. This from the person who didn’t have a TV for years and ..

Writing With Refugee Kids

Let The Verandah ChiX fill your creative soul

Is your creative soul feeling a bit blah? Do you want a boost? What you need is an infusion of the Verandah ChiX. Blah is exactly how I’d been feeling before ..

Writing With Refugee Kids

How to nourish your creative soul

One of the things I often wonder is whether writers and artists burn out faster than, say, an engineer or an accountant or other types of less arty jobs? I ..

Writing With Refugee Kids

Miss Kiki learns about love

It’s my third term at Milpera, the state school for refugee and migrant children here in Brisbane, and things are always changing. Every term new children ..

Writing With Refugee Kids

Miss Kiki puts on her Wonder Woman outfit

Part of what I love about my weekly visits to the refugee and migrant children at Milpera State School is that I never know who will come to my creative writing ..

Writing With Refugee Kids

Second time round Miss Kiki loves high school

I didn’t enjoy high school the first time round in the 1980s. I hid myself away under what I thought was a dramatic punk-chic haircut, my musical ability and ..

Writing With Refugee Kids

Miss Kiki’s first day of school

After almost six months of discovery, proposals, meetings and learning, I’ve done it. I’ve managed to start a creative writing program for refugee and ..

Writing With Refugee Kids

Where it all began, or learning from refugee kids

”Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets ..

Writing With Refugee Kids

How rushing sabotages your best intentions & how writing makes you feel better

”The value of drawing is that it slows you down, you spend time looking…and you discover things.” Betty Churcher, Australian art educator and ..