On Water: Eight Speakers. Eight Stories.

Helen Doyle has demonstrated expertise in Australian historical research and in the preparation of site and place histories and thematic environmental histories. Her contributions to heritage and conservation reports include the identification of historic themes and the assessment of cultural significance. She also has experience in oral history and in the preparation of significance assessments for local history collections. She is an experienced writer and editor.

Helen has tutored and lectured in history at Monash University, and has presented at a number of academic conferences including the American Historical Association Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts in 2001.

Helen is an experienced writer and editor, having worked for a period at D.W. Thorpe (Reed Books), where she was a co-writer for the Monash Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Australia (1994). She subsequently was an assistant editor for Graeme Davison, Stuart Macintyre and John Hirst (eds), The Oxford Companion to Australian History (OUP, 1998).

Helen has developed a strong interest in the history and heritage of water supply and delivered a keynote address on this topic at the 2011 ICOMOS conference. Her keen interest is the understanding and assessment of cultural landscapes.

Michael has been working in radio for more than 25 years, 16 of those for ABC Radio. His work in Lismore, Bathurst, Orange and Darwin has laid bare a diverse range of people, places and stories.

Despite hurtling towards midlife, Michael clings obstinately to a sense of child-like wonder over just about everything. The fact that he finds almost everything edible just aids matters.

He has tasted, basted and debated what’s wasted. He comes to you with a reasonably new kitchen, his favourite cast iron cookware, herbs in the garden and chooks in the yard.

Helen Szoke commenced as Chief Executive of Oxfam Australia in January 2013. Prior to this appointment, Helen served as Australia’s Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner, following seven years as the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner.

She is currently Co-Chair of Make Poverty History, an ExCom member of ACFID, a member of the Deakin University Master of International and Community Development Advisory Board, a member of the Advisory Committee for the Centre for International Mental Health and a member of the Mining for Development Advisory Committee.

In 2011, Helen was awarded the Law Institute of Victoria Paul Baker Award for contribution to Human Rights. Helen has extensive experience in management, community development, organisational development, consumer advocacy and regulation in the education and health sectors. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration.

Simon Griffiths is an engineer and economist turned social entrepreneur. His latest venture is an ethical home products company. Its flagship product is Who Gives A Crap, an environmentally friendly toilet paper that uses 50% of its profits to build toilets in the developing world. He is also well known for his work as co-founder of Shebeen, Australia’s first non-profit bar.

Simon’s work has been written up by The Standford Social Innovation Review and the New York Times. In 2010 he became Australia’s first Fellow of The Unreasonable Institute, in 2011 he was recognised by the Age’s Melbourne Magazine as one of Melbourne’s Top 100 Most Influential People, and in 2013 he was shortlisted for Young Australian of the Year.

Australian-Filipino Yasmin Newman is a food and travel writer, editor, presenter and photographer. Her work has featured in Feast, MasterChef Magazine, delicious and Selector magazines. She also presents Kitchen Conversations: Philippines for SBS Food Online.

Yasmin was born in Sydney to an Australian father and Filipino mother. A love for food and travel was in her blood. Yasmin’s childhood was marked by frequent holidays to the Philippines to visit her mother’s family; in later years, she lived in Paris, Mexico and Los Angeles. She now resides by the beach on the Central Coast, just north of Sydney, and travels regularly to the Philippines.

Chris Ying is the editor-in-chief of the print version of Lucky Peach, the collaboration between McSweeney’s and David Chang.

Matthew Mitcham OAM is an Australian diver.

He is the 2008 Olympic champion in the 10m platform, having received the highest single-dive score in Olympic history.

Michael Cathcart presents the radio show, Books and Arts Daily for Radio National.

He has a background in Australian history and culture, both in writing and teaching. Michael is passionate about the arts and has worked as a theatre director, dramaturge and script editor. He is a regular participant in writers’ festivals.

Genevieve Grieves is an Indigenous educator, curator, filmmaker, artist, oral historian, researcher and writer who has accumulated nearly 20 years experience in the arts and culture industries. She is Worimi – traditionally from mid-north coast New South Wales – but has lived and worked on Kulin Country for many years. 

 Genevieve has a role as a public intellectual and speaker and teaches at the University of Melbourne, where she is also undertaking her PhD.She was the lead curator of the First Peoples exhibition, Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre at the Melbourne Museum, which opened in November 2013.

Genevieve has previously worked with the Koorie Heritage Trust as an oral historian, and then on both the Mission Voices website for the ABC and as a field producer on First Australians for SBS television. She has produced a documentary called Lani’s Story.