Owen

I grew up in the 1960's and 70's on a farm in Far North Queensland, Australia. I still live in the area. At an early age, I developed a dogged belief in an unrestrained inquiry of the world.
My formative experiences in life have included: a natural attraction to the impossible as a child through the bible, fantasy, and science; playing and working on the family farm and surrounding natural environments; and negotiating a variety of abusive adults.

My transformative experiences have come from the practice of reading widely in philosophy, science and community development, and politics; a 40 year career in physiotherapy; finding a spiritual home in the Baha'i Faith; trekking among mountain villages of Papua New Guinea; raising three sons; sitting on boards of Australian rural health organisations; engaging in a dance practice; working to restore atmospheric CO2 to pre-industrial levels; and creating resilience and sustainable development among African refugees in Uganda.

My legacy projects are now as described in this website:

  • Coaching startups in social innovations;
  • Facilitating Leadership training;
  • Designing and resourcing Owen's Online Physiotherapy Service OOPS for cost effective self-management and online consultation for low socio-economic peoples around the world ;
  • My innovative method for inclusive community dance performance. See here for Beautiful Chaos, in Cairns, NQ, Australia; On Display Global, an annual event for International Day of People with Disabilities; and BOLD, the Legacy of Australian Dance;
  • Empowering the UMOJA Community Foundation, Nakivale, Uganda as a self-reliant organisation empowering refugees toward a flourishing new society;
  • Developing my own tropical fruits and share eco-agriculture farm in NQ;
  • Supporting the Foundation for Climate Restoration
  • Owen's Meanderings: A podcast of musings of personal development, leadership, social, political and environmental challenges, as an offering to the big conversation and for anyone who might find in them a path to upgrade their capacity as a contributor to and leader of humanity. 

EMBODIED PRACTICES

I have been practicing physiotherapy since 1981 and gotten to see a few things about the the nature of the human form and its movement. I have taken on some study in embodied cognition and am a great believer in the role of experiential education and discovering for one's self.

In 2011, I was drawn to dance, contemporary forms, and, in particular artistic and experimental work. I have since facilitated community classes with adults of various capabilities including performances with rural men and women from which I have now designed a facilitator training program, rEvolve.

In 2019, I took the rEvolve method of inclusive community dance training and performative design on tour through the USA and to the International Scientific Conference on Movement and Cognition in TelAviv, Israel.

A physiotherapy educator in attendance at my workshop confirmed that "This is world best. You've got to get it out there. I so enjoyed your workshop and think that your work is incredibly important. I loved that it was accessible to people of all levels of ability and completely non-judgemental. The way that you work frees the participant from worries about being "good enough" -- just being who they are is all they need to be" Joanne Elphinstone.

I am proud to have been associated with, since 2013, the DANscienCE and BOLD Festival / Conferences, as a videographer and practitioner.

HEALTH & LEADERSHIP

From 1994 - 2009, I sat on committees and boards of national rural health organisations to advance the health of rural residents in Australia, namely Australian Physiotherapy Rural Issues Committee; Service for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH); Qld Health Minister's rural Advisory Committee; and the National Rural Health Alliance.

Through these services, I came to realise that health is a function of community and community is a function of the leadership it is founded upon. From the leadership in community, the social networks (formal and informal) and capacity building is realised. When those community networks are engaging and challenging to their members, then the health of the members of the network improve. To the extent the network or the networks as a whole are disruptive or exclusive, the health of the people is poor.

I completed a postgraduate diploma of rural and remote health through James Cook University in 1998. The innovations in practice I determined during and since that time are having their fulfilment in Owen's Online Physiotherapy Service (OOPS) that is accessible through this website. 

TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION & LEGACY PROJECTS

I am a member of the Baha'i Faith whose raisond'etre is the transformation of human civilisation towards a flourishing 'golden age' whose signal context is 'unity in diversity'.

I have completed a number of transformative education courses offered by Landmark Worldwide including their Wisdom Course which alumni hold an annual Conference for Global Transformation. I attend and have contributed.

I completed the Being a Leader Course of the Erhard-Jensen Initiative in Cancun, Mexico, October 2018, and spent two years in weekly immersions with other graduates in that ontological / phenomenological method of leadership. Routine refreshment of the concepts and practices of the course continues to improve my leadership capacity as my natural self-expression.

In 2020, I began learning about climate restoration, online, through the Foundation for Climate Restoration (F4CR).

Through F4CR I was introduced to Marius Zignari, an agronomist refugee in Uganda who was once the climate change officer for the DRC Farmer's Association. My conversations with Marius since September 2021 have lead to the establishment of a community based organisation in the Nakivale refugee camp (about 140,000 refugees and 35,000 Ugandans) - Umoja Community Foundation.




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