I met Julie Shiels shortly after I came to St Kilda to live and became involved with East Timor and I attended a local Community Arts Conference. At that conference Julie and Michael Buckley were presenting a new CD ROM they had made called ‘Dreams of Return’. ‘Dreams of Return’ presents stories of people striving to stay connected to their culture and their identity while living in exile through drama and dance. Also included is an interview with Harry Levi a WW2 veteran and prolific writer of letters to the editor in protest at Australia’s role in East Timor’s occupation by Indonesia. Julie began her work with the Timorese people in Melbourne in 1991 as a community artist. Now she is practicing as an artist with less emphasis on ‘community’. Julie has suggested we include some of the content from the CD ROM on sms - after Michael has given the go ahead we will bring you some that. A cooking project Julie undertook with the Timorese community led to monthly dinners at the Melbourne East Timor Activities Centre in Richmond that many of us have benefited from. Yayh Julie. You can see some of Julie’s recent work on her website www.ilovestkilda.julieshiels.com.au which is in our links page. She is also a member of the St Kilda Bowling Green Artist Studios with Liz Milsom and the VegOut mob.
