Nâm Arya is a first generation
Tibetan-America. In 2016, she spent a year undertaking an epic bike-packing and
speaking tour of the U.S called Bike
for Tibet.
Her goal was to spread the word about the impacts of climate change in Tibet and to seek climate justice for Tibetans.
I got excited to find out more about the trip online. I went to Nâm’s online journal, but there was not much content there. Bummer because the trip itself sounds awesome! Even so, this initiative is so worthwhile. I suppose you have to go to one of the talks in order to get all the details! Fair play!
What is Bike for Tibet?
It was a year-long bicycle tour of the U.S. for the purpose
of bringing Tibet and Tibetans into the global conversation on climate justice.
Along the way Nâm offered 60+ min presentations
to discuss and dissect climate change issues in Tibet.
During these discussions, she highlighted key concerns
including the displacement of nomads, the effects of dams along Tibetan rivers,
and mining.
Nâm also outlined root causes,
false solutions, issues of colonization, and how democracy features within the
context of exploited communities.
A central theme in all the presentations is inter-dependence. She also linked wider issues from other communities seeking environmental justice in the US and abroad.
Who is Bike for Tibet?
Nâm is an exiled Tibetan woman
who was
born in Mungod Resettlement Camp in southern India. As a youth, she attended Tibetan boarding school in the
northern India until she immigrated to the US in 1996 where she now lives.
She and her bike-riding-mad partner Jonni undertook the 12-month Bike for Tibet journey together.
Jonni is adventure bicyclist and Instagram celebrity under the moniker UltraRomance. If you have not seen Jonni’s IG before, check it out – he is hilarious!
What a brilliant idea for a bike project! Get out on the road with your favourite person, ride around living a simple life and promote a very important environmental and social issue at the same time– wicked!
How did Bike for Tibet get started?
Nâm says she was inspired by Drukpa Rinpoche’s Eco Pad Yatra and the enduring work of Tibet climate change organizations working to vision to bring stabilise the Himalaya Plateau.
She created Bike For Tibet to be a nexus for these projects, influences and practices – as well as something she loves best to do – biking!
The Bike for Tibet project builds on Nâm’s decade-long leadership and work within the environmental movement.
Nâm used crowd funding to get Bike for Tibet up and running. Although she is advocating for climate action, Bike for Tibet is independent and not affiliated with any one particular group.
Some parts of this post were taken from the Bike for Tibet website to ensure accuracy of facts. All images by Bike for Tibet or IG UltraRomance unless otherwise indicated.
Bike riders are a wonderful reflection of the society in which they live. Globally, there are myriad cultures, styles, approaches and lifestyles, just as there are bike riders and bikes.
It is raregain access to the lifeworlds of bike riders elsewhere. But this is what Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Groble’s South African Bicycle Portraits project provides.
Bicycle Portraits is a creative 2-year project that showcases everyday South African locals and their bicycles. Through photos Stan and Nic took while riding around South Africa and meeting local bike riders, it reveals who rides, why they ride, and why so few South Africans choose the bicycle as a primary mode of transport.
It was ambitious and simple in its conception, yet community-minded in execution.
For many South Africans, bicycles are the only transport option.
Today, Bicycle Portraits has more than 500 portraits compiled over three years. Stan and Nic have cycled over 10,000 kilometers in order to complete their collection.
It is a wonderful expose and homage to South African bicycle subculture.
It is a fascinating insight into the diverse societal, historical and cultural characteristics that make up the eclectic RSA community.
Bicycle Portrait – Stephanie Baker
Vimeo: Bicycle Portraits – Stephanie Baker
Stephanie is an 82 and ¾ year old Pretorian local, who rides her bike a kilometre uphill every other day.
In addition to being a portrait participant, Stephanie was the only personality that Stan and Nic also made a short video about (see below).
And you can see why.
Most touching is that bike riding has given Stephanie a very particular view of how cycling improves ‘public relations’ and how it helps her connect with the locals.
Unsurprisingly, Stephanie’s wholesome outlook which she aptly describes, has been viewed over 14.7 thousand times.
Stephanie is a wonderful reminder that you are never too old to enjoy riding a bike.
Vimeo: Bicycle Portraits – Stephanie Baker
Bicycle Portraits – Final Result
Stan Engelbrecht and Nic Grobler are publishing their best 165 portraits and stories selected from over 500 images they’ve collected during their 2-year journey.
The selected final portraits are included in 3 volumes. Each book also has includes different 55 stories and two essays – one essay by a local South African and the other by major international cycling figure.
The three books have been produced in collaboration with other local artists. The books are designed by Gabrielle Guy. Also, celebrated South African artist Gabrielle Raaff had created an individual hand-painted watercolor map (based on Google Maps) to indicate where portraits was taken. The final product is impressive (see below).
What a wonderful project to showcase the diversity and characters that make up the unique South African bicycle culture. I would love to see more project from around the world like this!
This month, another unsettling story of a youth on a bike being killed emerged– but this one was years ago and even more complex.
The story comes from Reuters journalist Andrew Gray.
In 2003, Andrew was
embedded with a US tank battalion during the Iraq invasion.
Of all that Andrew experienced during his tour, it was a photo of the shooting of a boy riding his bike that had the most enduring and profound impact.
Andrew wanted to know why the
young bike rider was shot.
In a recent
ABC radio interview, Andrew explained why this particular incident haunted
him and why he decided to follow it up.
How ‘the boy on a bike’ reveals so much more.
Image: ABC Earshot
The image above was the impetus
that lead Andrew to interview locals and military personnel, dig into archives,
track down eyewitnesses, and keep pushing for explanations long after others
had moved on.
His journey is now a documentary, called ‘The boy on a bike’.
In the documentary, Andrew tries
to unpack the issues, people and events involved that ended with the shooting
of a boy riding his bike. Andrew said “I’ve spent 16 years trying to find out
the truth about the war crime allegation. None of it has been easy.
It is an incredible story.
While I was reading, I couldn’t help but think of how many other people have been affected by this. Immediately, there is the boy’s family, his community, those who saw what happended, other military personnel, and the news professionals involved in distributing the story – but also those who are hearing the story for the first time.
In his story, Andrew recounts eyewitness statement, raises critical moral questions, delves into the complexity of wartime experiences – and yes, he finally does find out who the bike rider was.
I’ve never quite been able to let go of the story
of the boy on the bike.
It set me on an international quest that has lasted
16 years, to find out if a war crime was committed that day.
I have sat opposite a soldier accused by his
comrades of murder. I have asked people to revisit deeply painful memories. I
have tried to find the answer to a grieving mother’s question: “Why did
they kill my son?”
None of it has been easy.
I’ve had to ask difficult questions of myself too.
Why am I doing this? Is one small incident in a big
war worth it? Is it even possible to reach back through the confusion of war
and the fading of memories to find an answer?
And do I have the right — or the stomach — to
publicly judge soldiers under great pressure in wartime?
I am an action-orientated, hands-on, tread-the-boards participatory kind of educator. I used to think that assessments were a chore, ineffective, didn’t reflect the full student learning experience and was something that was most important to administrators. Now I have a very different view of educational assessment.
I applied to present at this symposium for the opportunities it will provide in: extending my classroom expertise into other areas of teaching and pedagogy I am not as familiar with; encouraging me to engage a direct approach to monitoring, tracking and evaluating changes I make in my teaching praxis; to see what current themes are occupying educational service providers; to gain more experience with the administration side of educational processes and policies.
The purpose of the UECA session is to
specifically look at some of the unique assessment pieces we worked with. These
are aspects of the program that we have not yet been shared.
This session will explore some of the
co-collaborative assessment success and misfires that we went through and
unpack why these important and productive processes.
Ultimately my central argument will be to
consider using some inventiveness in assessments, so they are more creative,
challenging and authentically related to ‘the real world’.
I hope to stir the pot just a little and advocate for more innovative assessments (and greater awareness for bikes!)
This presentation is also an exercise in sharing
the insights derived from the Bicycles Create Change internship program to a wider
range of teachers, educational institutions, stakeholders and interested
parties.
It is also part of my aspirational long-term
sociological goal of embedding bicycles into every aspect of everyday life. I would
love to see a world where bicycles are a normative feature of our daily
routines – and not just for transportation, fitness or sport.
So, I like to surreptitiously entangle bicycles into every facet of life I can – and especially into education, teaching and learning. This UECA session is a great case in point. It is safe to say that the participants of this conference won’t be expecting to be hearing about bikes at a formal assessment conference – and therein lies the genius!
In regularly doing these kinds of subversive biketivism moves in many areas, over time, I hope I’m building a future where, someday, bikes will just be a normative, necessary and accepted part of everyone’s life. Here’s to hoping!
The Bicycles Create Change Internship Team
What is the UECA English Language Assessment Symposium 2019?
University English Centres Australia (UECA and The University of Queensland’s English Language Centre (UQ-ICTE) are presenting the 2019 Assessment Symposium.
The Assessment Symposium is supported by the English Australia Assessment SIG (Special Interest Group).
It aims to bring together English Language Teaching professionals in order to share best practice in English Language Assessment and provide quality opportunities for learning. Here are the conference streams:
Image: UECA
What is the presentation format?
Each session is 40 minutes long. Presenters do a 30-minute presentation/workshop and have 10 minutes for Q & A at the end.
The organisers also bravely stated
that ‘all presentation topics relevant to English language assessment within
university English language programs will be considered”.
So, with that in mind, I submitted my abstract.
Image: Bicycle Network
My UECA Abstract
Stream: Assessment
Title
of Presentation: Increasing student assessment
satisfaction. Increasing student satisfaction and engagement with assessments:
What emerges when students develop their own assessments.
Abstract: Most programs that teach Academic English to international students are heavily based on teacher-led assessments in order to meet organizational benchmarks and standards. In many University English Language Centers, student feedback on course content, materials, teaching, facilities and services is usually positive. However, student feedback about assessments remains a sticky point. The challenge for teachers and administrators is how to increase student satisfaction of assessments in relevant, measurable, practical and meaningful ways. This aim of this session is to reframe current ways of thinking and doing assessments and encourage greater consideration for innovative negotiated assessments.
Using the case study of an independent, experimental, collaborative, 8-week pilot internship program designed by Nina Ginsberg and four international students, this session shares unique student-developed processes that emerged during the course of the internship. The internship was an exploration of how international students could consolidate, progress and apply their English, academic, professional and personal skills in authentic and creative ways. This internship recently won the 2018 English Australia Bright Ideas Award (QLD).
This session will focus on a series of unique and challenging academic and employment-related assessments devised and undertaken by the students themselves. Three student-created assessments in particular that will be unpacked in more detail are:Pivots, Most Significant Change and Working your way backwards. It is hoped that the assessments discussed in this session will provide inspiration for developing more engaging curricula and thus increase student satisfaction.
Bio: Nina Ginsberg is a Griffith University teacher and Language Instructor at GELI. She has worked with international students for over 15 years and is known for her engaging and innovative teaching and learning style. Nina has worked on all levels of General English, Academic English and Direct Pathway programs and uses quality teaching and learning approaches, tools and practices to help progress student capacity, participation and enjoyment. Recently, Nina’s Bicycles Create Change Internship presentation won English Australia’s 2018 Bright Ideas Award (QLD). Her current PhD research uses New Materialist approaches to explore how bicycles might (re)configure rural African girls’ access to secondary education.
Prelim schedule
Image: UECA
Post note: I’m including the details of my abstract submission here because while doing a PhD you often have to submit abstracts to various events, but we often don’t get any help, guides or examples of how to do this. Only after the event schedule has been confirmed do you get to see the abstracts – and some events don’t release them to the public or online. So unless you actually go to these events, often you don’t get to see details about the session. It used to frustrate the hell out of me. Some thoughtful event managers upload a full program that includes session abstracts – and these are goldmines. So on this blog, I always include my abstract submission because it just might be of interest for someone else.
I love cycling and grew up sailing as a kid. When I lived in Sydney, I was invited out on a swanky yacht to watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart race – it was awesome! I currently live on Morton Bay in Brisbane and the Queensland Royal Yacht Club is just down the road. But like most people, I don’t have much to do with boats. But that all changed recently when I saw a live clip from the 35th America’s Cup. It’s a whole new sport this year! NG.
Image: Richard Hodder (ETNZ)
Have you seen the new Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) 35th America’s Cup Catamaran?
OMG – it’s incredible!
Suddenly, I’m into sailing and watching the race highlights.
Image: Sailing World
The Kiwi Cyclors America’s Cup Catamaran.
The ETNZ has created a radical world-first design
that includes a cycling system to use pedal power generated from cyclists
instead of the traditional arm-powered grinders.
To keep the 50-foot catamaran roaring around Bermuda’s
Great Sound at incredible speeds, four of the six crew are continuously bent
over, furiously pedalling away.
The guys on the pedals are called ‘Cyclors’ – not sailors.
When it’s time to turn (tack or gybe), the Cyclors unclip from their stations in one hull, sprint across the trampoline middle and clip into the bikes in the other hull – and then continue to hit the pedals HARD.
This cycling technology uses the force generated by Cyclors to power the wingsail hydraulic systems and raise/lower the daggerboards (the invaluable hydrofoil extensions).
This innovation has also seen a significant change in crew and training. Instead of seasoned sailors, this rig has elite specialist athletes on the pedals – including Olympic rowers and Olympic track cyclists (like 28-year-old Simon van Velthooven).
The training and race effort the Cyclors do is hardcore.
The NZ design is kick ass fast – and the team is tipped to win
the Auld Mug.
It’s so great to see such a productive, innovative and
exciting fusion of sports.
Image: Sailing World
Stats for the ETNZ AC Class
catamaran:
2332-2432 kg: boat weight
60 metres: optical fibres
49,2 feet: hull length
25 meters: height of wing above water
over 46 knots: top speed
6: crew members
87.5 kg: average crew weight
90: Emirates Team New Zealand’s members
The 35th America’s Cup schedule in
Bermuda
May 27-June13: Challengers selection series, divided into Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Qualifiers and Challenger Playoffs.
It’s Australian Walking and Cycling Conference (AWCC) time again!
Hooray!
I really like this
conference.
The people are great, the program is always interesting – and it doesn’t cost and arm and a leg to get there. Perfecto!
In 2017, I presented an AWCC roundtable session entitled Bicycles Create Change: An
innovative guide to creating memorable and meaningful engagement in community
bike projects.
The session went very well
and it was great to share my work people outside of Griffith Uni and Queensland.
It was also a valuable opportunity to network and meet some incredible people. I came home from the last AWCC with a big smile and many new ideas and resources.
This year, AWCC is returning to Adelaide on October 24-25th 2019.
Image: @bykko_au
AWCC 2019 – Abstracts open!
The 2019 conference and related activities aim
to engage more directly with local issues of climate change mitigation and
adaption in relation to walking and cycling.
The 2019 AWCC theme is Active transport in a changing climate.
Abstracts for AWCC sessions are now open.
Session Formats
Learnshops: 20 min podium presentations with 10 mins Q & A.
Spin cycles: Short, fast-paced podium PPTs of 3.45 mins for 15 slides.
Roundtables: To a table of 10 – present for 10 with 15 mins group discussion
Key dates
Abstract submission opens: Monday 22 April
Abstract submission closes: Monday 22 July
Authors notified of outcome: Monday 19 August
Authors notified of program placement (date/time): Mon 26 Aug
Presenting author registration deadline: Monday 16 September
The simple acts of walking and cycling have
the potential to transform the places we live, our economies and how we engage
with our environment. The Australian Walking and Cycling conference explores
the potential for walking and cycling to not only provide for transport and
recreation but solutions to challenges of liveability, health, community
building, economic development and sustainability. As one of Australia’s
longest running, best regarded and most affordable active travel conferences,
we bring together practitioners and researchers from Australia and across the
world to share their work and engage with conference participants.
Conference theme: Active transport in a changing
climate
We aspire to promote work which creates a transport
mode shift away from cars towards walking and cycling, and using active means
to link with improved public transport in suburbs and rural towns. We want to
shift away from CO2 reliant mobility and keep people active as temperatures
rise, and extreme weather becomes more common.
What can a transport mode shift in our suburbs and
rural towns contribute to CO2 reduction nationally? What concomitant air
quality benefits are felt in suburban streets and towns as a result?
Acknowledging that climate change is occurring, what changes are to be made to
suburban and town environments so that walking and cycling are almost always
convenient, pleasurable, safe and life affirming even in the face of rising
temperatures? What does a small town or suburban neighbourhood retrofit look
like in the next ten or twenty years, so that people are out and about and
interacting? How do people of all ages and abilities avoid retreating to
air-conditioned ‘comfort’ – ‘comfort’ that is inactive, isolated and CO2
producing?
These questions indicate the directions we hope to explore in the 2019 conference.
I hope you had a great time today celebrating life on two wheels!
It’s incredible to think this is only the second year this commemorative day has been recognised internationally.
For last year’s first official World Bicycle Day, BCC looked at what this day means to the UN. We also checked out some of the awesome WBD events happening glocally (globally/locally) in Adelaide (AU), India and Denmark.
This year, in my hometown of Brisbane, World Bicycle Day coincided with another important event, the biennial Mabo Oration*.
It was a very interesting talk. Luke raised many important issues as well as sharing his thoughts on activism, racism, leaving a legacy, truth-telling, being a father, next steps and self-determinacy – and this discussion has continued in the media.
This public speech comes at a perfect time given the traction that A/P Chelsea Bond’s recent contribution to the La Trobe racism discussion created.
(If you are not sure what I am talking about – prepare to have your mind blown).
The traction I’m referring to started with a speech given by Associate Professor Chelsea Bond, who was one of four speakers for a LaTrobe University panel discussion on the topic of:
Has racism in contemporary Australia entered the political mainstream?
Image: IndigenousX
If you have not seen it, you
need to.
Why?
Because A/P Bond delivered the most powerful, intelligent, inspiring, uncompromising, kick-ass speech on racism in Australia heard in a very long time!
Make up your own mind.
Below is the full video. A/P Chelsea Bond is the last speaker, so go direct to: 1:01:05 and watch until 1:14:11.
Her speech hit so many high
points on so many levels.
I’ve been walking around for days inspired by Nat Cromb and Luke Pearson’s overview of her speech saying things like Bam! Kapow! Boom! Pow!
Most impactful for me was how
she powerfully called out those who fail to have truthful and confronting
conversations.
This is what has stayed
with me the most – and something that requires ongoing consideration – and action.
In her speech, A/P Bond said ‘In my being, I refuse to bear false witness to these lies.’ Such statements reminds us there is much work to do – and it is everyone’s responsibility to take action and call out racism.
Husband, Nina and Assoc. Prof. Chelsea Bond at the 2019 Mabo Oration, Brisbane.
So, imagine our delight when, on World Bicycle Day at the Mabo Oration, husband and I ran into A/P Chelsea Bond!
OMG!
Shameless academic fanning ensued.
The oration had just concluded and we were all leaving the auditorium when we passed her. Husband spotted her and I took the initative to introduce ourselves and have a chat.
A/P Bond was very accommodating. She was happy to have a good chat and take a photo. We told her how significant her speech had been for us and we talked about how different people have responded to it.
We can home – elated, thrilled, humbled and exhausted.
It had been a day full of culture, challenges, activism and insights.
Without a doubt, World Bicycle Day 2019 has been the most rewarding and motivating.
I hope you had an equally thought-provoking and stimulating day!
Luke Pearson taking questions after his 2019 Mabo Oration.Image: IndigenousX
*The Mabo Oration is a biennial event organised by the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland and QPAC. It is the Commission’s public commitment to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Queensland. It celebrates and pays tribute to Eddie Mabo and the landmark High Court decision which legally recognised that Indigenous people had a special relationship to the land that existed prior to colonisation. The first Mabo Oration was on 3 June 2005 and this year, the guest speaker was Noel Pearson.
