Alumni Feature - Kirk Gibson
Written by Kirk Gibson, introduction by The Voice Inc.
Posted on 18 February 2019
This week our Alumni Feature is none other Kirk Gibson, “The Radical Adventurer”. Kirk joined TVI in 2017 initially as a volunteer and has been a part of us ever since. He has contributed immensely to the organisation as our program specialist and we are grateful he is now a part of the TVI family.
Here is his story.
Career pathways can be about compromise. You take an opportunity but there is a cost, sometimes to your values, your family, your own health.
I used to be a ski instructor. Four years in the Australian Alps, teaching children to ‘bend zee knees’ and to not eat the yellow snow. Lots of standing around in the cold and chasing after runaway students, less powder skiing and hot tubbing. Yes this opportunity came at cost of my health but it was fairly fun, although not as interesting as I thought it would be.
I was always on the lookout for the next best or interesting opportunity to take so I did many jobs back in the day one of them being the ski instructor. I was once a blackjack croupier, the person who would stand at a table in the casino and call out “Place your bets” while dealing cards like a magician or someone at least trying to be one. I was a teacher, a bartender, a barista, I was many things. I took up many of these roles in many places around the world since I enjoyed travelling and had done so extensively. I once climbed Mt Sinai, gazed the Burning Bush and married my beautiful wife in the socialist nation of Cuba. My family had a background in adventures like these so it was within the norms.
My Uncle was a Kiap in Milne Bay for about 15 years. He married a South African lass and whisked her halfway across the world to Good Enough Island. Good enough for them. They had all their 3 children born and bred on the island and cherished their lives there. My uncle was a Kiap right up until his last breathe you could say. One day he went out to Sea and never returned home. There was solitude in death but nothing could come close to losing someone in the hopes of wishing they would return. No remains were found and it took my aunt a while to find closure. It wasn't that easy for her so she took their 3 children back to South Africa before they returned to Australia later. In the late 1970s, my mum went to the island at the exact spot where my uncle (her small brother) was last seen in attempts to find her closure as well and come to terms with the reality. We have come a long way since.
My connections with PNG were not only of historical value but sentimental. I worked with many Papua New Guineans before actually moving to PNG and even travelled back and forth. When the opportunity presented itself to work with the Australian Awards in Port Moresby I took my young family and came up. My wife and I have 2 sons, the youngest was 4 months old then when we moved to PNG. A lot of our family and friends were a bit skeptical about the move up and had their opinions backed by popular “mainstream media” beliefs but our hearts and minds were set, it was only a matter of time to move.
While employed with Australia Awards, I met many young, talented and passionate people. I had the chance to see 13 provinces in PNG and enjoy the tropical luxuries in PNG. My family loved our Banana boat trips to Manubada Island to swim and our trips to Gabuone, Blackrock along the Aroma Coastline to indulge in a fresh catch of lobsters on the huts along the beach.
Before working with Australia Awards, I worked in Nepal and Cambodia. I worked as a teacher in Nepal and was also involved in founding the “Happy School” in Cambodia. After jumping ships (job) several times I had an epiphany and finally found my calling in the community development and youth advocacy space which led to my interest in the Australia Awards. It was imminent that I would meet The Voice Inc (TVI) in PNG. I finally met with Barbra Thomas and Serena Sumanop who were with TVI at the time and was blown away by their passion, intellect and vision. When I finished at Australia Awards I was looking to do a PhD based on a PNG leadership organization. It had to be The Voice, so I approached them and offered my services as a volunteer and research partner and so began a beautiful friendship.
Working with TVI helped bring me back into balance. It helped to bring me back into line with my values and to believe I was/am part of a movement that has a genuine chance at driving positive change in PNG. TVI provides hope to lots of young people but also to us development workers who might battle with some of the contradictions in the influence and world views we bring with us in our mission to help.
Working with TVI has had a significant positive influence on my life. In TVI I found an intellectual and perhaps spiritual homeland. People passionate about critical thinking and willing to take chances, to experiment and grow hope when others have given up.
If I were to think of a specific change that was a result of my involvement in TVI, it was to realise that I could still bring the soul of community development, the motivation that inspired me to start working in this space, into the contested and national level change mechanisms of development work. It was to find that there were also people (and many of them) who shared the same values and passion for alternative versions of development and the confidence that Papua New Guineans will lead the way in defining them.
I am no longer a TVI staff member but I will always be TVI at heart. I am an active “TVI Friend” and “KomUnity member”. I will still be apart of the TVI family and will continue to offer what I can when I am in PNG and from afar.
I currently sit on the Boards of two NGO’s, one in Cambodia, called the Happy School and one in Australia. I also co- project the management of my two ‘spirited’ boys and clean up the trail of demolition they leave in their wake. I’d still love to do the PhD but it’s on hold till our family settles in the next location. The next location will hopefully be in other parts of the Pacific and Asia as I am still exploring jobs and will still pursue work in youth, active citizenship and leadership. My work is not done yet.
To match and cope with the adventures in a life like mine, I keep my core values simple and that is “do good and have adventures.”