Stimulating speakers from near and far – Launceston, wider Australia and internationally – will dissect the conference theme Peeling back the layers and each of its challenge areas.
This Speaker brochure contains the biographies of our diverse and inspiring keynote and session speakers.
Watch this space for more details about all presenters.
Catherine McCarthy
Catherine McCarthy is an interpreter and storyteller from San Antonio, Texas. Her love of history and all things outdoors drives her desire to help people connect with the glory of the Earth’s natural and cultural resources. Catherine has worked in the field of location-based interpretive technology since 2006.
Her research and work in the field has led her to promote the inclusion of hand-held digital technologies, especially visitor-owned devices, such as cell phones, to augment a location’s interpretive tools and deliver compelling programming. Catherine researched and wrote interpretive content presented in interactive iPhone and iPod tour apps for Zion and Bryce National Parks and is currently producing an iPhone tour app of Yosemite National Park. She also produced the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park Dial and Discover Cell Phone Tour.
Catherine has worked on interpretive, digital video tours for locations as diverse as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and the San Francisco Zoo. She also works as an interpretive shrine hostess at The Alamo, an historic icon of freedom and liberty located in San Antonio, Texas.
In 2005, Catherine became the first graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University’s Master of Science in Resource Interpretation Program—a program co-sponsored by the University and the National Park Service. She partners with SFA university professors to design interpretive programming and conduct comprehensive evaluations of visitor centre exhibits as well as other innovative interpretive programming.
Catherine is currently a member of the evaluation team for Earth to Sky, a partnership between NASA, the National Park Service and the US Fish & Wildlife Service to develop a community of practice to interpret global climate change. She has delivered numerous presentations to interpreters in the United States including Compelling Audio and Video Tours: How to Build Your Own PodCasts, The Dynamic Generations of a Cell Phone Tour, and The Future of Location-Based Technology.
Following the Interpretation Australia Symposium, Catherine McCarthy will be speaking at the National Association of Interpreters US National Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada about Earth to Sky and about smartphones and interpretation. To learn more about Catherine’s work visit: http://resourceinterpreter.com/
Jane James
Jane James is Professor of Tourism at Flinders University and has been instrumental in the establishment and ongoing coordination of its successful tourism programs since 1997.
She has particular research interests and expertise in the effective and sustainable management of natural and cultural heritage, the delivery of authentic interpretation and the evaluation of visitor experiences. She has contributed to teaching and research in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, the UK and Europe. Jane is well known for her mentoring and development of emerging industry professionals; her leadership and her enthusiasm and commitment to South Australia.
Jane’s contribution to tourism is intricately entwined with her teaching and research. Over the years, Jane has been involved on a number of educational boards, panels and committees to help shape the future of tourism education for South Australia and has contributed to tourism course development at a number of international universities.S
he is also widely recognised for her research projects in regional South Australia with a special focus on mining, industrial and settlement heritage interpretation. Jane is extensively published in a number of fields including heritage interpretation and geo-tourism and has significant consulting experience with local, state and federal government agencies. With an international reputation for her work in site interpretation and tourism and for her seminal research with a number of organisations, Jane is a sought after speaker for international keynote addresses and presentations.
A trainer at heart, she still gets a real buzz when people ‘get it’, whether that’s in the classroom, in the field or at a tourist site, and is a dedicated subscriber to the power and influence of good interpretation, believing that it can truly make a difference to understanding, engagement and visitor experiences.
Jane had an exceptionally good year in 2009, winning the Outstanding Contribution by an Individual in the South Australian State Tourism Awards and being named South Australian of the Year in the Tourism category. She is the founder of JayTalk Consulting which specialises in tourism product and experience development, site interpretation and telling great stories, really well.
Kate Stone
Kate will provide an overview of the impact of new web technologies on cultural interpretation, sharing the experiences of the National Film and Sound Archive and looking at some of the interesting projects happening at cultural institutions in Australia and abroad: Australian Museum, Powerhouse Museum and Art Gallery of NSW as well as the Paley Centre and Brooklyn Museum in the United States.
Web 2.0 is not new anymore and most cultural organisations can claim some degree of adoption even as web technologies continue to evolve. Interactive platforms, user generated content, forums, comments, crowd sourcing, mobile apps, location-based services, data visualization and mash ups all offer new ways for institutions to not only engage audiences but also increasingly offer ways for ‘audiences’ to become producers, creators and publishers of both new interpretation and new cultural content.
Kate Stone is the Manager of the Online Branch at the National Film & Sound Archive, Australia. Like many cultural organisations world-wide, the NFSA is coming to grips with what rapidly evolving web technologies can offer, and making best efforts to explore it, resource it and support it while managing the organisational cultural change that it brings. Kate runs internal and external workshops on how to communicate your cultural collections on the web. She is an award-winning producer of cultural heritage websites, dramatic films and digital learning resources using audiovisual heritage.
Dillon Kombumerri
Dillon Kombumerri is the Principal Architect for Indigenous Design in the NSW Government Architects Office. He is Australia’s first Indigenous architect and with 20 years experience and design of several award winning projects, Dillon brings a unique insight to the Forum. During this time his work has focused heavily on projects addressing the well documented disadvantages faced by Indigenous communities.
Dillon has extensive experience in tutoring and lecturing on a national and international level including speaking at the prestigious Bauhaus School – Dessau, Germany, the Architecture Association in London and the International Centre for Creativity Innovation and Sustainability (ICIS) in Hornbeak, Denmark. He was a taskforce member for the “Which Way” National Indigenous Housing Conference and was a recent member on the Victorian Chapter’s Reconciliation Committee.
Dillon has featured on national radio and television and written articles for several highly regarded professional journals. His design approach is not defined by an architectural style but rather it is inspired by individuality, diversity and honest self-expression.
In his presentation Dillon will discuss how he follows cultural protocol when working with Indigenous community and how this can fundamentally shape the design outcomes of a project. ## Dillon will conclude by questioning the architectural
profession’s love for an iconic building – which can be all icing and no cake if the end users are not involved in the design process and/or do not appreciate the end product.
Lycia Trouton
Dr Lycia Trouton (B. Belfast, Australian and Canadian citizen) lectures across theory and practice in contemporary arts - most recently as Head of Art and Design Theory, School of Visual and Performing Arts, UTAS, Launceston. She has also lectured in Darwin, Adelaide and Wollongong, after working for a decade in Canada & the USA, as a site-specific sculptor and public artist.
Trouton’s practice-led research engages in issues of monumentality and its opposite: the intimate art of memory and story-telling. Her long-term work on her Canada Council of the Arts funded The (Irish) Linen Memorial has brought her into a recent concerns with restorative justice, language, oral history and art.
Trouton's sculpture engages socio-political, time-based and environmental themes and has been critically examined in essays by USA critics and Edinburgh's Dr. Jessica Hemmings. Trouton's scholarly research includes an essay for the book, Echoes of Irish Australia: Rebellion to Republic, edited by Jeff Brownrigg, Cheryl Mongan & Richard Reid. She is a contributor to refereed journals, writes art criticism, and produces artist monograms in print and on DVD. She moved to Tasmania in July 2009 and, as well as lecturing, she enjoys her community radio work and doing a bi-monthly 'Arts Wrap' for Annie Warburton's Hobart-based Statewide Evening Program on ABC radio national.
Trouton's Doctorate (DCA) is from the University of Wollongong, where she held a Research Assistantship for an Australian Research Council large discovery grant on the intersection of the-art-of-textiles with English literature, the project was entitled Fabrications of the Postcolonial: Text and Textiles; Trouton's Masters (MFA) is in Sculpture from the prestigious Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan and her BFA (Hons), sculpture, is from Carnegie Mellon University, PA. Aswell, she holds a teaching diploma in Speech and Drama and she worked as an adjudicator in British Columbia. Trouton's recent concerns are about vulnerability and resilience for artists /actors, art /performance art students engaged with challenging and emotive and/or provocative material.
Peter Grant
Peter Grant is the Manager of Interpretation and Education with Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (TPWS). He has degrees in earth science and theology, and worked as a teacher and a freelance writer before stumbling across interpretation twenty years ago. These days his work with TPWS ranges from statewide interpretive planning to the nuts and bolts of projects like the Overland Track Interpretation Plan. On such projects he is happy to push the limits of how applicable thematic interpretation can be. He is also a former president of Interpretation Australia.
Peter’s broad writing interests have seen him co-found the Wildcare Tasmania Nature Writing Prize, write essays and music reviews for national and international audiences, and publish a book on gardening for wildlife (Habitat Garden, ABC Books). He regularly blogs his own nature writing at http://auntyscuttle.blogspot.com.
Jody Steele
Dr Jody Steele has a PhD in archaeology. Jody’s research investigated Public Archaeology in the early 21st century – examining ways in which heritage, and specifically archaeology is presented to the public; including field programs, schools education, museum exhibits, reconstructions, printed and alternative formats.
It is her argument that through the examination of the public understanding and portrayal of archaeology and putting that knowledge into practice, Public Archaeology can be a very successful interpretive avenue allowing archaeology to be offered to the public in a format they desire and understand.
Jody has been involved in both large and small scale interpretation projects in recent years on a number of Tasmania’s convict sites including both the Ross and Cascade Female Factories, Darlington on Maria Island and the Richmond Gaol. She has spent considerable time during the last 11 years educating the public towards the techniques, exciting, and not so exciting finds of archaeological excavations around the country. Her work has involved teaching several thousand school children about archaeology and running the public component of the Port Arthur Historic Site Summer Archaeology Program for five years.
For the last five years Jody worked as the Historic Heritage Consultant for the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (TPWS). Jody spent the summer of 2009-10 working as the Expedition Archaeologist on the Mawson’s Huts Historic Site in Antarctica and has recently left TPWS and returned to Port Arthur as the Heritage Programs Manager.
Jody still maintains her interest in the discipline of archaeology by remaining on the Executive Committee of the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology as Vice President. She also serves on the Tasmanian Heritage Council’ s Archaeological Advisory Panel and since its inception in the early 2000’s has been on both state and national committees for National Archaeology Week in Australia.
The Hon Michelle O'Byrne
Minister for Health and Minister for Tourism
The recurring theme in Michelle O’Byrne’s adult life has been that of helping working-class people and those less fortunate in the community.
Michelle was elected as the State Labor Member for Bass on 18 March, 2006. When first elected, Michelle served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier. From October, 2006 until February, 2008, Michelle served as Minister for Community Development, Minister assisting the Premier on Local Government and Minister responsible for Sport and Recreation.
Michelle’s role as Minister for Community Development enabled her to work closely with her portfolio areas of Aboriginal Affairs, Multicultural Affairs, Seniors Bureau, Youth Affairs, Disability Bureau and Women Tas on issues that are close to her.
Michelle’s vision is for a Tasmania that embraces everybody, irrespective of their circumstances, background or culture.In February, 2008, she was appointed Minister for the Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts and Minister for Sport and Recreation.
In September 2008, Michelle was also appointed Minister for Tourism in the new Bartlett Government. Following the 2010 State election, Michelle now has the responsibility of the Health and Tourism portfolios.
Gold Sponsor
John Pastorelli
John manages Ochre Learning, a company focusing on learning, heritage interpretation, creative thinking, and presentation techniques. He has worked with all levels of Government throughout Australia, has worked with a variety of private enterprises, NGO’s and community groups, and with individuals in a coaching role.
John has also facilitated training programs in New Zealand and Scotland. In 2007 he was the keynote presenter for the launch of Interpretation Network New Zealand and in May 2009 was the keynote speaker at the Heritage Interpretation Conference in Greece. In 2003 John published Enriching the Experience - an interpretive approach to tour guiding, and in the same year was awarded the Georgie Waterman Award for outstanding and sustained contribution to the development of the Interpretation profession within Australia.
John loves all the elements associated with designing, developing and facilitating learning programs, he loves the concept and practice of continuous learning and gets a buzz each time he realises there is still so much to explore and discover.
John’s interests include the design and delivery of learning programs, sport (including playing representative touch football), comedy, music, hanging out with friends around a BBQ, ‘handyman’ work, and remaining a kid at heart.