This is a summary of ‘the why‘, ‘the how‘ and ‘the what‘ in the intention of the Roaming Trees’ next step: MOVING to New Zealand.

It is a hard time now, maybe one of the less suitable time for such a move, but we trust our skills, experiments and good intention.

As it is most likely me, Tamas who can find a project or a job, the below text investigates the options from my point of view.

So, here we are…

I live in Hobart, Tasmania with my family (my wife, daughter and son).

We are from Hungary originally and we moved to Australia 7,5 years ago when I started my PhD at the University of Tasmania as an Australian Postgraduate Award recipient research candidate.

For multiple reasons, we decided to leave Australia and not extend our temporary visa that will expire next year (November 2021). We prefer not to go back to Hungary or Europe, but rather move to New Zealand and hopefully, we will be able to find our HOME. Diving down our roots…

We are both artists with my wife, she works at home in her studio.

I am looking for potential organizations, schools or businesses to work with. I have a wide and unique skill set that was always highly appraised by all collaborators and employees but hardly fit with the “Australian norm”. The progressive way of the recent NZ politics and cultural value system is a better fit for me and for my family.

Without going to too many details, I rather list up our skillset:

Woodcarving/woodwork

We are both trained woodcarvers with my wife, in the craft school we were both chosen as the best student of our great carving master and became his assistant. I won the national competition of young carvers at the age of 22.

I am also a good cabinet maker, I worked in commercial workshops, in a wood carving guild and in antique restoration workshops too.

My wife is a full-time wood carving artist and at the moment I am mostly assisting her projects with some exemption of my own carving works.

I have a great experience in outdoor and garden-related wooden constructions and designs from the last few years.

Teaching

I am a graduate teacher, officially I have a MA in pedagogy as a Secondary School Teacher of Drawing and Art History from the Hungarian University of Fine Art.

I taught wood carving and woodworking in my craft school beside my carving master. I also held workshops for primary schools in the last 20 years.

As a performer, I am able to teach stilt walking and storytelling to any age group. I am in the process to develop a special method for working on environmental consciousness with traditional storytelling.

I worked for 2 years as an Art Education Officer of the Queen Victoria Museum.

Linda my wife was a founder of a Hungarian NGO that aimed to draw together young traditional craftspeople and to offer their skills to different cultural organizations.

In my recent position, I run trainings for primary school teachers and teacher aids in kitchen/garden education and its curriculum alignment.

I am in the process to be a registered teacher in NZ.

Performing

I am an international storyteller, that means I perform folk tales in two languages and I use stories, legends and myths not only from my country but from all around the world in a sensible and respectful way. I am a well-known performer in Tasmania, and this year I was granted a possibility to perform at the Sydney International Storytelling Conference, unfortunately, postponed to next year.

I widely performed in primary schools to every grade level as well as to older audiences.

Linda, my wife was my stilt walking trainer. She was a well-known figure of the Hungarian street theatre scene. We do perform on stilts together and our son (10yrs) joined us last year, and our daughter (8yrs) is willing to do it too.

I developed a complex youth engagement program that based on stilt walking but also involves design, woodworking, body movements, acting, environmental studies. This initiative is a collaborative approach of experts from each of the above mentioned fields.

Community Development

I hold an MA in Media Art and did my doctorate about community-engaged art practices from the design perspective of permaculture.

My PhD was very successful and resulted in a unique job offer at MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) as a project manager of their 24 Carrot Garden community initiative. I use all my skills in my community development practices.

Gardening/Permaculture

I am a trained permaculture designer. As part of my recent job, I design and build organic school kitchen gardens. My job includes the complex control of any development processes: collaborating with architects, landscapers, engineers, councils, contractors, surveyors, the Department of Education and the school communities.

I am a keen gardener with still so much to learn! I manage to grow a good amount of our family’s food in our garden and polytunnel.

I also work one day as a garden teacher at Mount Stuart Primary School.

Indigenous connections

I work closely with the Aboriginal Education Services of Tasmania and I also collaborated with various Aboriginal organizations and individuals. I managed a program that aimed to bring Aboriginal education workshops to public primary schools.

Management

In the last 15 years, I worked as a project manager in the field of culture and education for various organizations.

I am trained in Asset Based Community Development and also in Holistic Management practices. I learnt a lot from my colleagues and became a relatively good manager of education processes, cultural events and smaller developments.

Computer and technical skills

As a graduate from a media department of my university, I have a sound knowledge of sound and video editing, and some basic knowledge of web design. I created and manage our own web pages. I am also a trained photographer and worked for newspapers in my early years.

Our motivation

My motivation in my work for the last 4 years was all about nature-based learning in schools. I believe that a ‘green education’ can create a healthier environment for all beings, let them be our children, animals or plants.

As a storyteller, my preliminary aim is to stimulate the sense of wonder in my listeners. My new approach for developing special story packages and methods aims to result in a holistic environmental awareness through my performing practices, using nature as a point of departure to increase people’s imagination.

We, as a family are strongly community-focused. We lived in the remote community of Lorinna. Off the grid, 100 people. Bringing our own traditions, infused with our environment’s cyclical nature, we re-introduced and led reoccurring rituals around solstice and equinox.

At the moment we live in Hobart, Tasmania’s capital city, but we know that our next step as a family should lead us to a smaller community.

 

I would be very happy to learn more about any possible way of collaborating, working, living and being in Aotearoa.