Kerry Bowden

2000-2003

In 2000, knowing nothing about the Internet, suffering from chronic back trouble, knowing my days of working, where bending and lifting was required - were over.

I decided to set up a website, intending to sell indigenous products, given my over 30 year involvement in this area. I found an amazing guy in England, Christopher, a self-taught webmaster, who offered to teach me his craft. But, alas, I quickly acquired the name Drongo, from the many mistakes I made.

The year 2000 was also the year my third grandchild Caitlin Jean was born on the sunshine Coast. The day after she was born, realising while I knew my son, his wife and all Caitlin's family would do all they could to keep her safe and happy. I knew as I looked at her for the first time, that it was not her family who would be deciding her future- it would be the leaders of the world, deciding her future. This frightened me, so much, that I promised- her then, I would work to make it a better world for her and all children, by the year 2015. When she will turn 15 years old.

Meanwhile, networking with people around the world, I found Yahya Sayed, from Afghanistan, a young graphic arts student now in Pakistan. Yahya had made a very powerful short film about Afghanistan. He wanted to make one of my poems into a film.

July 17th 2002, I wrote that poem - One Mind One Voice; sent next day to Ofir Nafkar, a musician in Israel whose father comes from Baghdad. Ofir had contacted me just two weeks before, after visiting my website. In the middle of recording his latest album he stopped and composed the music, then sent it on to Yahya, who in the middle of exams, made the film.

One Mind One Voice website was launched on 11 September 2002.

Our message to the world, spread quickly via Internet. Within three weeks President Jacques Chirac had contacted me. Also Arsenio Rodriguez from a group which includes two Nobel Peace Prize winners, Oscar Arias and Betty Williams, and people like Deepak Chopra, Noam Chomsky, singer Ricky Martin and Astronaut Franklin Chang, invited me and Caitlin Jean Futurist Australia, to join their Alliance for the New Humanity, now being set up. I will be in Puerto Rico in early December for the launch.

One of my rolls with the Alliance besides being the Australia Rep is to be help set up a Global Children's Alliance. 12th March, I came up with an idea - HOPE, Hand of Peace Exchange, launched on the 18th at Djarragun indigenous college at Gordonvale. Children asked to send two handprints to One Mind One Voice, with self addressed envelope. One print will be kept to be part of HOPE exhibition; the other will be exchanged with another child's handprint from around the world. Details can be found on website.

A former long time resident, artist, businesswomen from Peregian Beach now returning to Noosa Shire and looking forward to not only involving children from the area in the HOPE projects and connecting children all around the world.

Work has already begun on planning the first yearly Global Children's Festival for 2004-2005 and working with many of my old friends and supporters like Merton Chambers and the Federation of the Arts as well as Noosa Council, Art Gallery, Rural Futures Network, and the broader Noosa community.

In a very short time, since coming up with the HOPE project on the 12th March.

I have already been invited to take the HOPE project to many countries including Taiwan, Korea, Turkey, Israel, Palatine, Afghanistan, and Puerto Rico. USA, to name a few.

A motion to support HOPE passed in the Australian Senate 26/3/2003.

One Mind One Voice poem which started it all is now in Canada with Zeeza a Jazz/ Soul singer making it into a song.

The poem is also being translated in to many different languages and is also being included in a book which will soon be presented to the leaders of the world

A documentary by Scot Mc Phie started in June 2003, will follow the next twelve months of my life.

On the 18th August 2003 I leave for Taiwan, at the invitation of the Joy Cultural and Education Foundation. The Joy Kuling Street school will be the first of many overseas countries the HOPE Hands of Preace projects, will be going to over the next few years

The North Arm School on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Australia, will have a sister school relationship with both the Joy school in Taiwan and the Djarragun Indigenous College, in Far North Q'ld. The first Australian school included in the Global Children's Alliance

This is the Family of Humanity and the Power of the Internet. If you would like to be part of this amazing journey by way of projects, sponsors, volunteers, or just want news of HOPE, please e-mail Kerrybowden@onemindonevoice.org Kerry Bowden founder of One Mind One Voice and HOPE projects