Issue 65

Dumbo Feather

Behind extraordinary ideas, there are extraordinary people

Dumbo Feather1 min read
Dumbo Feather
Berry Liberman Nathan Scolaro James Rewell Jasmin Daly Miranda Campbell Bayo Akomolafe, Jo Buick, Erin Castellas, Monique Dimattina, Lydia Fairhall, Lauren L. Hill, Catherine Ingram, Jane Hone, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Dan Palmer, Deborah C. Stewar
Dumbo Feather3 min read
Editor
Dear reader, I’m often gobsmacked by how much my thinking has been shaped by the culture our dominant systems impose. While working on this issue, I’ve been unpacking my own (largely unconscious) relationship with rest, and realising how dismissive I
Dumbo Feather5 min read
Minding My Mothers
The living world moves in pulses. Gusts of wind are punctuated by relative stillness. Musical notes resonate within the padding of silence. Rest and motion require one another for balance, beauty and life. Yet somehow we’ve built a culture that deman
Dumbo Feather5 min read
We Need a Break
I often imagined him wearied from the act, beads of sweat embroidering his forehead, average-Joe sleeves rolled into blue collar folds just above his forearms, his knees weak and awkward, a gentle sigh filtering through his white flowing beard. I can
Dumbo Feather3 min readBiology
Cycles of Growth & Rest
The seed of a deciduous tree falls from the branch of its mother. Destined, like her mother, to become a female tree, she lands and rests upon the earth. Depending on seed and circumstance, she might rest there for years. If and when conditions are f
Dumbo Feather4 min readPsychology
The Restorative Function of Dreams
A dream is first an encounter, a new experience, a range of imagery. Our dreams bring us beauty, surprise, strange happenings and sometimes terror. The dark forests of the night hold wise babies and strange old ladies, birds without beaks and winding
Dumbo Feather3 min read
In the Mind’s Ear
Virginia Woolf was on the money when she said a woman needs 500 pounds a year and “a room of one’s own” in order to write. I absolutely cannot write music with rabid wolves at the door, nor with jackhammers, committees or children in the interior. Th
Dumbo Feather23 min read
Sarah Wilson Goes To The Edge
SUBJECT Sarah Wilson OCCUPATION Journalist, TV presenter and author INTERVIEWER Berry Liberman PHOTOGRAPHER Rob Palmer LOCATION Sydney, Australia DATE October, 2020 A few months ago, in the middle of particularly dark times on the Internet, a friend
Dumbo Feather21 min readPsychology
Rhonda V. Magee Transforms Injustice
SUBJECT Rhonda V. Magee OCCUPATION Law professor and mindfulness teacher INTERVIEWER Lydia Fairhall PHOTOGRAPHER Supplied LOCATION San Francisco, US DATE October, 2020 Lately I have felt a deep calling in my waters; like the moon and its relationshi
Dumbo Feather8 min readPsychology
The Nectar of Rest
When I think about rest, my breath slows and my nervous system settles. I feel my belly relax and the edges of my eyes soften. Something deep inside of me becomes heavier and more grounded. Internally, there is a realignment from wherever I have been
Dumbo Feather10 min readScience & Mathematics
Looking In
Sometimes called the “wandering nerve” because of the way it meanders through the body, the vagus nerve is a cranial nerve that begins in the brainstem and winds its way through the face, ears, back of throat, muscles around the heart and digestive t
Dumbo Feather20 min read
Zenith Virago Is A Deathwalker
SUBJECT Zenith Virago OCCUPATION Marriage celebrant, deathwalker and facilitator INTERVIEWER Nathan Scolaro PHOTOGRAPHER Paul Bamford LOCATION Byron Bay, Australia DATE October, 2020 There’s a quote by the writer Anaïs Nin that seems to make time st
Dumbo Feather16 min read
Temuera Hall Invests In Connection
SUBJECT Temuera Hall OCCUPATION Funds manager INTERVIEWER Erin Castellas PHOTOGRAPHER Lottie Hedley LOCATION Takapuna, New Zealand DATE October, 2020 I met Temeura Hall about a year and a half ago on a trip to New Zealand. He opened a meeting as a M
Dumbo Feather20 min read
Lucy Peach Is A Period Queen
SUBJECT Lucy Peach OCCUPATION Folk singer and writer INTERVIEWER Berry Liberman PHOTOGRAPHER Liz Looker LOCATION Fremantle, Australia DATE July, 2020 I’m embarrassed. I’ll say it up front. I didn’t know that I needed to have a conversation about my
Dumbo Feather5 min read
The Cycles that Sustain Us
The notion that time happens in a linear way, from past to present to future, is relatively new in human thought, and is most common in western cultures, where time is also seen as measurable, usually in dollars. In industrialised societies, time is
Dumbo Feather5 min read
Daring To Be Still
In 1975, I was invited to accompany a film crew on an expedition to Ladakh – a remote and ancient kingdom on the Western edge of the Tibetan Plateau that had only just been opened up to the outside world. Crossing over the mighty Himalayas, we arrive
Dumbo Feather3 min read
Nothing Left Unsaid
In the closing monologue of the 1970 film I Never Sang for My Father, the lead character said, “Death ends a life, but it does not end a relationship.” Those who have lost an important person in their lives know well the simple truth of that statemen

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