Noel Pearson - on leadership

Must be getting a bit daft in old age, as several times have come across something interesting and thought "Oh, must put that on the blog" - then forget about it for a couple of weeks. SO, have just remembered.

Some time ago (September 3), was listening to the ABC Radio "Big Ideas" and heard Noel Pearson give the John Button lecture oration at the Melbourne Writers Festival.  Difficult to describe how i felt on hearing it - 'thrilled' sounds a bit twee, but  was  immensely impressed.

So, if you haven't read, or heard it, you should.  Have just discovered that there is a streaming video of it as well. I mention this as, while I will put in a link to the text, as with most 'speeches', the full  flavour comes from hearing and seeing.

Click here to go to the ABC site, and then click on the "video" links on the left hand side under the picture.  Have found that although the satellite link here isn't quite fast enough to view most videos without a considerable wait - the "watch full clip" video (second line down) works quite well.

This bloke really IS quite brilliant and, personally, would like to see him as Prime Minister one day.  May never happen as he probably wouldn't function very well in the 'restricted', 'politically correct' environs of Federal parliament.  And now that I think of it - why IS there no Australian Aborigines Party in Federal politics?

Noel Pearson is an Indigenous leader, thinker and activist. He was born in Cooktown, North Queensland in 1965. He lived in the Hopevale Mission with his family as a child and was sent to a Brisbane boarding school as a young boy. A graduate in law and history from the University of Sydney, he went on to campaign for the rights of Cape York Aboriginal people, working on several successful Native title claims including the important Wik case. Pearson is the Director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership.