Some of my Overseas People who make overseas worthwhile (Part 3 in a trilogy of 4)

This little treat was written in haste in October, I was meaning to edit it later - but I didn't - so enjoy..The visit was truly a whistle-stop tour and I was lucky to get in the visiting that I did  - so in no way is this a diss to anyone else its more of a homage (say that with French accent) to those I was able to see

In chronological visiting order………………..

Amanda Panting
MTC Companion, Dietician and dear friend. This magnificent woman took me in for my stay in Utah and showed me the sights -and what sights they were : )

Granddad Tom
My Mums Dad who let me live at his house for the years I went to university. You may say we havent always seen eye to eye but I love him dearly and It makes me happy to see him.

The Cambridge Cammocks
Pita is studying for his masters at Cambridge and Tasi and the kids are along for the ride. They are truly the most hospitable family and I had so much fun hanging out with them for the perfect weekend we spent together.

Aunty Val, Uncle John and The Tait cousins.
Whenever I think of England I think of my (Dad's sister) Aunty Val's living room with her and Uncle John telling me some story about some part of our family. Its always cosy and warm and theres always something to eat or drink that magically appears. Plus Aunty Val and Dad are so alike its hilarious - sepearated by thousands of miles but still both furiously wiping down counters in the exact same way.

The Original Birkenhead Ward crew
I loved catching up with Jayne, Helen, Emma and all of the Ward members. So so soooo many great memories.

The Chester YSA
With some new additions the YSA are as awesome as ever. Thanks to Chris and Sarah for hooking me up the night before I left.

Jess Malone
Former young woman, soon to be International bestselling author Im sure. We were finally able to match schedules and caught up for lunch.

Uncle Col, Aunty Val and The Tunstall Cousins..
The day I left I was finally able to visit my Dads older brother uncle Col and his wife Aunty Val. It was so lovely as I was also able to meet my cousins partner paula who is very cool and baby who is super cute.

So many sweet memories, you are the lovely people.

THE FIHRM CONFERENCE: The SCOOP (Part 2 in a trilogy of 4)

So. so. so. The whole reason for the journey ~ FIHRM.

What can I say? It was great and the presentation went well, my Granddad dressed in his best suit and came to listen to me talk – it was very sweet (and totally out of character).

This is the only photo I have of Grumps and I (taken last year)
so no this is not to illustrate his suit merely to show you what he looks like

 The Conference was held in the International Slavery Museum – right on the Albert Docks where generations of my family have worked and where many many people came and went through out history including the Mormon pioneers – it even gets a mention in Lund’s Fire of the Covenant. I met people from all over the world and hopefully will maintain professional links with them.



The Docks



a little treat at the docks



To be honest I’ve talked so much about the conference I feel like I’m all conferenced out so here is an email I sent to all of my work colleagues if you are interested in the particulars.
........................................................................................................................

Hi Everyone!

After finally clearing my inbox from being away ( I got back on Sunday), I thought I ought to report back about the FIHRM conference.

Firstly I must say thank you all so much for the support in attending this conference, I feel that Human Rights are (of course ) an important subject to consider within a museum framework and my experience at this year’s FIHRM conference only strengthened this belief.

The conference was slightly bigger than the year before with around 150 delegates from museums and educational institutions around the world and was an inspiring mix of people, whose life experiences and work were both compelling and thought-provoking.

With the common interest of promoting Human Rights in various ways through museum work, I had lots of interesting conversations and hope to continue the association with several of my FIHRM colleagues. The conference was also reported about on a national level and Waikato Museum has a small mention in this article https://mail.hcc.govt.nz/OWA/redir.aspx?C=ba3f5702028845d2b2d0ab5c0d79f41e&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.mandh-online.com%2fnews%2fcontent%2f1693%2ffleming_embarassed_by_human_rights_act_debate

possibly others, that I haven’t checked yet.

The paper that I presented ‘Taku Manawa (My Human Rights) - a case study in partnership: Waikato Museum working with the Human Rights Commission and community organisations’ was incredibly well received and all of the Taku Manawa booklets and other information you gave me Rohan were taken!( In fact, I wonder if anyone has contacted you from the conference ?)

I discussed the identification of Waikato Museum as a museum for human rights, using the exhibitions and programmes of Rare view Keeping Faith, Walk with me and assume nothing as examples I also showed the youtube video I had asked you about Rohan – which almost didn’t work ! But I talked through the slight technical difficulty so it looked as if it was all planned !

I then talked about What Taku Manawa is and my experience with the programme ( I may even showed some certain photos of a lady called Muriel) and then discussed how I applied a Human Rights approach to my work with Anne Frank and Dr Seuss as examples.

I also Discussed the work Taku Manawa has been doing within Hamilton and on a national level.

Later on the panel, I was asked many questions about Taku Manawa, including how it could be organised in other areas like South Africa. I was also asked a few tricky questions around the Anne Frank exhibition and how Holocaust education would be relevant to a pacific community with little or no ties to the Holocaust. In regards to this question I explained how the programme for Anne Frank was not only a timeline of information about Anne Franks experience but was also a platform to talk about other human rights abuses closer to home and what could be done about these abuses referencing our post it tree.

The presentation I gave as well as the others presented will be on the FIHRM website in the next few weeks. Some particular favourites of mine were:

The work of museums: the implications of human rights museology

Dr Jennifer Carter, Assistant Professor in the Museum Studies program at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, and Jennifer Orange, Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.

Online activism: National Museum of Australia exhibition website, Inside: Life in Children’s Homes

Adele Chynoweth, Curator, National Museum of Australia, Australia

What are we doing anyway? The problem of the effectiveness of museums

Dr Zahava D Doering, Senior Social Scientist and Editor of Curator:The Museum Journal, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

The Holocaust and the inner city: experiences of a local anti-racism initiative

Eve Rosenhaft, Professor of German Historical Studies in the School of Languages, Cultures and Area Studies at the University of Liverpool; John McCarthy, Pupil Support Worker at the Enterprise South Liverpool Academy, and Paul Adams, Community Engagement Officer, Centre for Lifelong Learning at the University of Liverpool

I’ll sign off with an email I received this morning from Jennifer Ciardelli from the  United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which give you an idea about the international partnerships we could look at having through the FIHRM network!

Ngaa Mihi

Jasmine Tunstall

EPL Social History & Art

Pouako Tikanga a Iwi me ngaa Mahi Toi

DDI 07 838 6562

Fax 07 838 6571

Email jasmine.tunstall@hcc.govt.nz

www.waikatomuseum.co.nz

From: Ciardelli, Jennifer

Sent: Thursday, 27 October 2011 5:07 AM
To: Jasmine Tunstall
Subject: FIHRM

Dear Jasmine - 

Although we didn't get much of a chance to talk, I wanted to follow-up with an appreciation for your presentation.  It sounds as if you are doing excellent work - and I so appreciated your passion and energy.  I was just reviewing the booklet from the Human Rights Commission (hopefully, you were able to distribute all of those! :) ), and I really appreciate the emphasis on community.  

If you think there are ways in which the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum might serve as a resource for you or for other colleagues you know, please don't hesitate to be in touch.

I hope our paths might cross again - and please, do say hello if you find yourself in the DC area!

All the best,

Jennifer

 And here is a link to my presentation.




Part three to come shortly..............

Graveyards and Temples and Forms… Oh My.

(Also known as I’ve left this blog too long and this is part 1 in a trilogy of 4)

On one of the last days of my time in Utah, sweet  Amanda and a buddy of hers took me to visit the Salt Lake City Cemetery because that, apparently, is how we get our kicks.

Actually it was, as the Americans say, way sweet, and I learned so much about many of our former leaders who are interred there.

(Click on the photos for more info about the respective LDS Leaders....)

The craziest part..................

The craziest part was standing by Gordon B.Hinckley’s grave and thinking about when I watched his burial in the Wan Chai building in Hong Kong as a missionary, thinking how much I would miss this man that I never met in the flesh but who meant so much to me. It meant something to pay homage to him and Marjorie his wife, who my mother loves.

I was also able to visit the Salt Lake Temple and do some work there and later on in my trip .. 

while I was in England I headed to the Preston Temple .

I love to see the temple.. any temple . I love how I feel when I go and the peace visiting those places brings to my life.

All of this graveyard and temple visiting made me think that I might be sublty pointed in the direction of doing some Family History work, especially after I attended a Young Single Adult Family Home Evening and we were learning about indexing – which Ive totally gotten into btw. So I went on a bit of a scout for some marriage and death certificates for my own ancestors, which are still in the process of being looked for possibly as you read this but probably not(thanks Wirral borough council..not)

The borough council.... also the registry office where my parents got married.

Then the day before I left England I went to visit my Nan’s grave who I knew when she was alive and my Grandad’s and Aunty Sandra’s who I did not know......

That’s what its all about really isn’t it I guess? The whole turning the hearts of the fathers to the children stuff - Elijah and his binding power etc etc.

It’s about tying our hearts to our ancestor in a big long chain so we get to keep them forever.

In the interim

Updates are not too far away ........ in the meantime enjoy some recently discovered internet goodness.....

HOW TO STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST

Quotes by Steve Jobs

The Propaganda Posters of the 1%

Stuff You Missed in History Class

Online Rhyming Dictionary

Shootin' Guns

The night before I left to England, Amanda and her friend Matt and his friend Kevin took me Shootin’. 


If you know anything about me you would know what a great big hippie pacifist I am, and in fact this  whole idea of taking me shooting guns began in the MTC with the following story…

So about the 3^rd week in to a 12-week stay at the Provo Missionary Training Centre I was talking amongst the missionaries in my district, who I thought were pretty cool. Somehow the topic of people’s perceptions of Americans came up and I laughingly exclaimed "haha! yeah I heard every American household owned a gun! Isn’t that funny?!"
 A moment of contemplation came over the lunch table..’well  I own a gun’ one 19 year old boy piped up, ‘me too’ another exclaimed, both my companions said ‘yeah we have guns’ another elder said ‘we have a whole room full of guns at my house. ‘

I was shocked! These people were no longer who I thought they were! Dangerous criminals!, gun toting weirdoes! – What was going on?  To make matters worse they all thought it was Hi-larious how shocked I was. They even got our teacher in on the joke (who claimed to own several big guns).

these people became.....

this person

And so it went down in mission folklore and eventually the entire American division of the Hong Kong mission were in on the hilarity of taking great delight in telling me all about their gun’s and gun adventures at home.  

To explain: I wont get into anything overly political (right now anyway) Ill just say in a multitude of ways I’m morally opposed to America's incredibly liberal gun laws : ) (if you can call them ‘laws’ )

So when we were thinking about a real American way to spend my last night in Utah - both Amanda and I had the same brainwave. Shooting dangerous weaponry. Of course, very sensible.

just one of the many targets you can buy.....

Im actually way good it turns out

The night was so funny in and of itself but an amazing thing happened - I found out I was actually good at shooting and wasted my target.

So have my beliefs about guns changed? Well, I know some relatively sane people who own guns and it was a rush to be good at shooting stuff, but, regardless I am still a hippie at heart and am glad to live in a country where I dont have to worry if the creepy guy next to me is legally 'packing'. I have one last blog I want to write about the states but Ill save it for next time, heres a sneak peak...

General Conference, Pumpkin Cookies and The Canyon.

On my way over to England I have made a sneaky little stopover through the US, or more specifically Utah 'crossroads of the west' . There never has been an more well-timed stopover in the history of stopovers. First of all I got to go to my mission reunion where I spent so much time chatting and catching up  I only took one photo as follows;

prior to the reunion I first went to the Salt Lake temple with Amanda and then went with Amanda and Lindsey to the BYU- Utah State football game where there was some kind of amazing last minute comeback by BYU.

Then of course there was General Conference, which was A-Mazing. Being a dirty foreigner I snagged tickets to all 4 sessions inside the conference centre.

This is my second time coming to Utah for conference, the first was straight after my mission in 2008, that conference was really special that time and I wondered if it was just because I was super righteous as I'd just come back from being a missionary. So it was with curiosity I attended this time, and this time too, it was equally special. Having spent most of my life watching General Conference in meeting houses across the world, nothing quite compares to listening and watching the messages from inside of the building where they are being delivered. There is a real spirit there and Im so grateful for it. All of the talks were crazy good but I have a few favorites I wanted to share;

SATURDAY MORNING

This session started out a tad bizarrely - President Monson wasn't there until halfway through the session, and then as soon as he got there he had to get up to speak! Apparently his convoy was waylaid on the way there...?

But anyway, to things I loved. 

I loved Richard G Scott's talk about the scriptures. I felt really motivated to memorize scriptures as he promised great power is found in doing this. I remember back in the day Carly and Dean were already up on this - memorizing passages from the new testament and I was straight-up pretty impressed - I wonder if they still remember what they memorized...... 

He also said when you ponder a passage of scripture this can become a key to unlocking revelation

Jose Alonso also said some things I found interesting, especially about how you dont need to have a planning meeting every-time you want to get something done. He said if we delay doing what we need to do we could lose opportunities forever.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

This session of course, was pretty special in and of itself because of course Crystal's dad Elder Ardern spoke and he did us proud. Facebook was buzzing about it for hours after the event, in particular his stylish tie. Crystal goaded me into illegally taking photos during the session, which of course, I did . See below.

He said in his talk " The greatest happiness comes by tuning into the Lord, He promised that

what the Lord reveals is important will bring greater rewards than mindlessly tuning into

 countless hours of status updates, Internet farming and catapulting angry birds at concrete

 walls."


 thats some pretty hip lingo for a G.A if I do say so myself.

The whole of Saturday afternoon was actually incredibly uplifting, from Carl. B. Cook's 

look up, step up and cheer up talk to L.Tom. Perry's talk about declaring our belief in Jesus 

Christ and adding our voices to faith conversations. 

The talk that most prompted me to think about changing however, was David A Bednar's talk on family history, I felt a little tiny small, very small ok massive prompting I need to focus more on this work.

SUNDAY MORNING

Amanda and Tyrell came with me to this session of conference and It was nice to sit next to people I knew. Favourite talks from this session definitely include Henry. B. Eyring's emotional and compelling lesson on the Book of Mormon and standing as a witness of Christ - he said the Book of Mormon will uplift, guide and embolden you.

President Monson's talk was a highlight for me as I reckon it was for a lot of people, he was  on his game and had amazing comedic timing (the Peter Maurich(?) story !) and valuable insights into how the world is changing. He said we are spending our moral capital with the same abandon we spend our financial capital but our code of conduct is infact, definitive and determined. Commandments are not suggestions.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

I L.O.V.E.D how Dallin H Oaks quoted the 13th Apostle C.S. Lewis saying "a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Also on my list to re-read at a later date was Matthew. O. Richardson's talk on teaching by the spirit and Randell K Bennet's talk about how the longer you wait on corrective action the more you will need to correct.


So amazing.


Also for your viewing pleasure a shot I took of some misguided protesters outside the conference centre who enjoy shouting obscenities as the conference go-ers enter the building.

So yes, General Conference rocked my spiritual world - with all the righteousness


 going on you would be amazed I still had time to check some other fun things off my to-do


 list such as make pumpkin cookies on saturday night with amanda - ( Pumpkin? in a 


cookie?  theres something not right about that)

After Sunday Conference Amanda and I went up to the canyon and went for a walk. It was  so beautiful up there and was the perfect end to a perfect weekend. We talked over our favourite parts of conference and how taking photos of nature is never good as the real thing (didn't stop me taking photos though ), which reminded me of a quote I like


 'few are those who see with their own eyes, and feel with their own hearts'