Each year, UN Youth Australia in consultation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade select the Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations. Amos Washington is the 2018 Youth Rep and had a chat with UN Youth Australia’s National President, Jessica Herne, about the role.… Read more ›
You watched it grow Seeds sowed between the blood-stained soil A flower 27 metres high You watched it tend to itself Empty water cans Peelings band aids Rough CPR Its detangled roots coughed itself back to life You shook hands with its green thumbs As it groomed brighter than the weeds outside No more Bullets wrapped in thorns In twisting vines And see it was fine The way you watched as it was plucked from its roots You didn’t pull the trigger to shoot But its petals slowly fell Withered and you could tell It still saw red within its tornadoes of warm wind It tries To photosynthesize Reaching out to the sun And you’re still watching As it glows
~Varsha Krithivasan
Varsha is one of the 12 high school students that I, along with two other volunteers, took to Timor-Leste in July on Pacific Project.… Read more ›
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them”. – Epictetus
Statistics are something that we as humans take for granted, they allow us to numerically visualise reality. This is all well and good until a person cannot imagine the actuality.… Read more ›
I wish the government knew, and appreciated, the incredible stories of young Australians. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be at the UN General Assembly sharing some of them.
I’ve met with tens of thousands of young Australians this year. I’ve collected information from young people in every electorate across Australia.… Read more ›
This International Youth Day, enrol to vote.
This year, I’ve spoken to tens of thousands of young Australians about the issues that matter to them and their proposed solutions to the problems facing their community.
People often ask me if I’m surprised by the contributions in these consultations, and I don’t have a better answer than “no”.… Read more ›
They say that representation is only changed by a mass of voices and stories. In September 2016, committed to that idea, I started The Young Asian Australians’ Journal (TYAAJ) to help better represent the dynamically diverse and unique demographics of Australia today.… Read more ›
‘Guns, Germs, and Steel‘ is probably not the most apt name for a book that is, for the most part, about agriculture. Don’t let that turn you away though: Jared Diamond’s ambitious history of human societies is a truly engaging read.… Read more ›
For me, discovering politics happened more or less overnight, and it was an experience that’ll probably sound very familiar to UN Youth regulars. I finally got onto Facebook at the start of Year 10, and a month later, I went to my first State Conference; a lot of new things were appearing in my day-to-day life, and in the middle of it all was a fresh relationship with the news.… Read more ›
Facilitator, donor, and daughter of a recipient Kate Turner reflects on the importance of giving blood and why your next milkshake could be a matter of life and death.
When I was sixteen, I donated blood for the first time. I wasn’t hugely nervous – a few of my friends had been before, and our school had encouraged it at assemblies and in homeroom.… Read more ›