South Pacific Area Conference

I know it's not SW news BUT I wondered if some of you will be interested in this ACWW report by an ACWW member in S Australia: note the climate change variables over their area of the world! Picture is of Dr. Peter Dingle - speaker mentioned below - for more details - he is on the net!!

ACWW 14TH SOUTH PACIFIC AREA CONFERENCE

The Conference was held over a period of 5 days, in Perth, Western Australia, at the Burswood Convention Center. Perth is a long way from the rest of Australia so it is surprising to report that in some sessions there were more than 300 members and friends present from all over the South Pacific region of our Organisation. It was a very well organized event, excellent catering, interesting keynote speakers, transport on time, pre-conference training workshops for the Islanders, exceptional entertainment and organized daily tours for husbands and family of visitors making the experiences a memorable one. Of course the best part was meeting up with friends and acquaintances from previous conferences.

Dato Ursula Goh PSBS PBK ABS BBS was present along with Mrs Ruth Shanks AM, South Pacific Area President, Mrs Lesley Young CWA of Australia President, but I’m unsure how many state Presidents were there apart from our own Mrs E J Crocker.

The key note speakers were Dr Peter Dingle, Assc Professor of Health and Environment at Murdock University. He was a most entertaining and inspirational speaker and he told us how to live to 101 years of age by following the Dingle Deal. This involved advice on Diet, Environment, Attitude and Lifestyle. He has of course written a book on the subject and it presents some unusual facts that are worthy of further investigation.

The other speaker of note was Professor Max Karmien, who I found especially interesting as he spoke on his lifelong work in the field of Aboriginal Health. As this was also my field of expertise, I was able to relate to his work in the southern states and the NT at a different level and after the session we exchanged some reminiscences. He spoke of one project set up to improve the nutrition of Aborigines by adding vitamins to flour supplied to the settlements. Some bright spark labeled the bags ABORIGINAL FLOUR and no one would eat it.

Reports from the many Associations represented were received and they presented many problems from our regions including drought, rising water levels on the islands, health problems and the struggle of women in more primitive cultures to feed and educate their families. They also outlined success stories bought about by just a little help from those of us with the will to help. We received a comprehensive report on the tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia

The next Conference will be in TONGA - sounds exotic doesn't it?

Many thanks to Lotus Appel, an email friend of mine from Adelaide, who is a member of Happy Valley CWA Group. My WI in Somerset are linked with them. In fact Lotus 's great Granny lived in a village in mid-Somerset and so did one of our membes. We were able to send news of that village for her.