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Find Serene on Instagram

sereneconneeley

Author, reader, tea drinker, moon gazer, stone hugger, scad survivor, lover of myth, magic & the sacredness of the earth, Gadigal Country, #voteYES 💜

So beautiful 🖤🦢 xx Thanks @mei_mei_0946 and

So beautiful 🖤🦢 xx

Thanks @mei_mei_0946 and @spottedray

#blackswans #cygnets #mummaandbubba #theswanmaiden

Some more of the Alice books I read while brushing

Some more of the Alice books I read while brushing up before the exhibition. The picture book is beautiful - Alice In Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole, illustrated by French artist Eric Puybaret and retold by Joe Rhatigan and Charles Nurnberg, based on Lewis Carroll’s 1865 classic. The other book, The World of Alice, came with us on our adventures in England and Scotland many years ago, where we spent several days in Oxford, wandering the streets in Lyra and Will’s footsteps, but also walking up to Port Meadow and visiting other Alice-associated places - and buying the adorable Alice tea set… (Oxford was our first stop, so I lugged the tea pot etc around the Orkneys and the Outer Hebrides, amongst other places 😂 But I’m glad I did xx

#januaryreads #bookaweek #04of05 #aliceinwonderland #alicesoxford #ericpuybaret

Dripping with sweat after an hour of BodyPump ❤️ I don’t always want to work out, but I do it anyway, and I’m always glad I did xx

#strongbodystrongmind #dedicationnotmotivation #noregrets #icandohardthings

#JanuaryReads Still catching up 😂 I went to an

#JanuaryReads
Still catching up 😂 I went to an awesome Alice In Wonderland exhibition in the Blue Mountains, by local artist Livonne Larkins, so I figured I should revisit Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. To be honest I much preferred Livonne’s artwork to the book I have… A while back I edited a short kids book of the Disney movie, and created activities to match, when I was at Bauer. Not the one in these pics, I don’t think I kept one, doh!

#bookaweek @04of52 #aliceinwonderland #booksandtea @livonne_imagery #westofwonderland xx

I’m looking forward to heading to the Southern H

I’m looking forward to heading to the Southern Highlands on Sunday for the Living Wellness Expo 💚 xx

From @livingwellnessevents.au

The countdown is on until we return to the charming and tranquil Southern Highlands for the Living Wellness & Psychic Expo.
Treat yourself to a day to relax, explore and connect with many leading professionals who are here to share with you their insights, healing energies, bespoke crafts and wares.
Our free stage presentations capture a diverse range of spiritual and wellness topics to satisfy your curiosity while providing education and enjoyment, with talks on energy healing, health and wellness to mediumship demonstrations of connecting with loved ones on the other side.
Our various trusted Readers offer a range of many different gifts and talents so that you may find the reader that resonates just for you. Psychic, Mediumship, Channeled, Tarot & Oracle Cards, Angel Intuitive, Ogham Tree Readings and more...
Our Healing Practitioners are here to help you find a sense of peace and balance as you move into wellness, as they host a wealth of knowledge and experience through the different modalities on offer: Energy Healing, Indian Massage, Holographic Kinetics, Intuitive Oil Blends, Bach, Bush and Desert Flower Consultations, and Mind Body Medicine.
Find those special treasures, healing tools and bespoke gifts as our spiritual and wellness retailers provide many handcrafted, hand blended and eco friendly products that are sure to take a place of pride in your home and heart. Crystals, Minerals, Jewellery, Tarot & Oracle Cards, Books, Clothing, Tibetan Bowls, Candles, Essential Oils, Pagan Wares, Teas, Sage and more...
The Lucky Door Prizes have been generously gifted from our amazing exhibitors, and all you have to do is enter the event for a chance to win!
Our Living Wellness Promo Bag is only on offer for the first 50 people through the door, so get in quick to grab yourself a bag full of special offers and discounts to be redeemed on the day or for future use.
We cant wait to connect with you!

Living Wellness & Psychic Expo Mittagong
Sunday 11 Feb 2024
10:30am - 5pm
$10 cash entry
$8 Concession
U16 free with paying adult

💔 Vale the incredible and inspirational Dr Lowi

💔 Vale the incredible and inspirational Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue 💔

From @lindaburneymp Australia mourns the passing of Dr Lowitja O’Donoghue and it is with great sadness and love that I pay tribute to her remarkable legacy.

The Yankunytjatjara woman was a fearless and passionate advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Throughout her career in public life, Dr O’Donoghue displayed enormous courage, dignity and grace.

She dedicated her life to improving the lives of Indigenous Australians and deserves our deepest respect and gratitude.

Dr O’Donoghue worked effectively with people across the political spectrum in a career that spanned almost 60 years.

She was central to some of the country’s most historic moments in Indigenous affairs - from the 1967 Referendum, to the Native Title legislation in 1993 and the National Apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008.

Dr O’Donoghue’s life was shaped by her experiences as a young child.

At two years old she was taken away from her mother in remote South Australia and placed in a mission home, where her name was anglicised and she was prohibited from speaking her own language.

She said that the seeds of her commitment to human rights and social justice were sown in a childhood where she felt powerless and deprived of love.

The Matron of the Colebrook Children’s Home in South Australia where she grew up, told her that she wouldn’t amount to anything.

How wrong she was. Dr O’Donoghue grew to become one of the nation’s most influential Indigenous women.

In her early twenties she become the first Aboriginal trainee nurse at Royal Adelaide Hospital.

She went on to be the first woman to be a regional director of an Australian federal department, founding Chairperson of the National Aboriginal Conference and the first Aboriginal woman to be made a member of the Order of Australia in 1977.

In 1990, she was appointed the inaugural Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).

Named Australian of the Year in 1984, she received many national and international accolades and awards in recognition of her work and became a National Living Treasure in 1998.

📸 Leanne King

🧡🍂 Wishing everyone in the southern hemisphe

🧡🍂 Wishing everyone in the southern hemisphere a magical Lughnasadh, as we celebrate the goals we’ve achieved, the gifts we’ve received, the things we’ve metaphorically harvested, the experiences we’ve had, the talents we’ve developed and all that we’ve learned over the past year…

💜 I’m so grateful for the many blessings in my life. For my sweet husbee, loving family and dear friends who mean so much to me. For the blessings of my health (relatively speaking), our medical system, and the strength of my body. For my writing besties who inspire me so much, and for the money I’d saved so I can keep writing books after being made redundant a few months ago…

❤️ In the spirit of Lughnasadh, I’ve donated to Children’s Ground (childrensground.org.au), which helps First Nations children and families, Oz Harvest (ozharvest.org), Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, which saves surplus food from ending up in landfill and delivers it to people in need, and Dignity (dignity.org.au), which helps those who are experiencing homelessness. My income is pretty low right now – book royalties are tiny! – but I have food, a place to sleep and a wealth of support, and feel blessed to be able to pay it forward a little. (I also support the wonderful Asylum Seekers Resource Centre and Australia for UNHCR monthly.)

💚💐 And to those in the north, have an enchanting and blessed Imbolc… This cross-quarter day marks the first day of spring, and represents new beginnings, initiations and inspiration. May you be filled with passion and creativity at this time of renewal and reawakening, may the dance of the seasons fill you with love, joy and passion, and may you feel gratitude today for all your blessings, and radiate that feeling out into the world…

@childrensground @ozharvest @dignityltd
#lughnasadh #imbolc #wheeloftheyear #crossquarterdays #autumn #spring #magicofnature #magicoftheearth #witchesofinstagram

I loved Holly Ringland’s The Seven Skins of Esth

I loved Holly Ringland’s The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, and her first non-fiction book The House That Joy Built: The Pleasure and Power of Giving Ourselves Permission to Create has her same unique voice and beautiful writing. It’s full of wonderful (and often hilarious) anecdotes, quotes from writers, artists and researchers, challenging questions to get to the heart of what’s holding you back, and tools that will help you respark your imagination and start creating again. Holly has battled her own demons of fear, judgement, writers block and criticism, and knows the vulnerability required to create – be that writing, art, cooking, sewing, gardening, singing or dreaming. With cute chapter heads and a list of provocations at the end of each one to help you create more often and more fully and with more vulnerability and heart, it’s a lovely read you can dip in and out of when the mood takes you. Much of it is what you already know – but also what you need to be reminded of to embrace joy, pay attention to your heart’s call, and start doing the things you love and dream of but put off through fear, procrastination or the belief you’re not good enough, talented enough or just plain enough. No matter what you tell yourself, you are enough. And you are allowed to, and deserve to, dive in and create and play and experiment and experience all you hope for. It echoes one of the cards from my Practical Magic oracle deck, as I’ve always thought the joy of creating is vitally important, and that you don’t have to be good at something to love doing it. (Card 30: Time for Play, featuring Selina Fenech’s beautiful Woodland Queen artwork – Create for the joy of it, not for the end result. Allow yourself to be messy and imperfect and free from constraints or limits.)
I heard Holly speak at a couple of book launches for this one, and she is such a light in the world. The House That Joy Built is a gorgeous gift for others – a few friends got a copy in their Christmas stocking! – and it’s also a beautiful gift to yourself.

@hollygoeslightly #thehousethatjoybuilt #createforjoy #bookaweek #02of52 #januaryreads #booksandtea #practicalmagic

#SupportDiverseBooks Thank you Emily from Coffee

#SupportDiverseBooks
Thank you Emily from Coffee Books and Magic for bringing this to light. Although the original tweets have been deleted and now denied, several people have screenshots, and past and current employees have confirmed this attitude is true and this behaviour is just the tip of the iceberg xx

💜 From @coffeebooksandmagic

FYI, for anyone even remotely interested in books:

I’m bringing this out of stories and onto main because it turns out a lot of people hadn’t seen this and I think it needs to be brought to the attention of the book community.

I’m not one for willy nilly “cancelling” but the comments made by the owner of Robinsons Books, a fairly large shop in Victoria with multiple stores, on the platform now known as X, are so wildly out of pocket that I have no problem suggesting a widespread boycott would be appropriate.

She has not only said she wants more white people on covers and in books, but goes further to say that she won’t be stocking anything that... well, what, exactly? Isn’t about white people? And then somehow manages to claim that she’s fighting division. An absolute WILD take to really say with your whole chest.

I’m sharing this for your information. You have free will and can do with the information what feels right to you. I certainly would not feel good giving this woman my money, and if I were an author or publisher, I would certainly also think twice about having my books associated with her in any way.

This kind of mentality has no place in the modern landscape and I truly hope it will eventually die out with the generation that’s as archaic as her website.

Please feel free to share.

Although it pains me to reproduce her words, for the sake of accessibility, they will be in my comments.

#bookstagram #ausbookstagram #aussiereader #readdiversebooks #theworldisdiversegetusedtoit

🖤💛❤️ Today is Invasion Day, and Survival

🖤💛❤️ Today is Invasion Day, and Survival Day.
For those who asked, here are some of my favourite books by First Nations authors, but there are many many more! All of these are not only award-winning and vitally important stories, they’re also utterly compelling, masterfully constructed and beautifully written.

Home, Legacy and After Story by Larissa Behrendt
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, Tiddas, Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms, and many more, by Anita Heiss
Too Much Lip, Edenglassie and Mullumbimby by Melissa Lucashenko
The Yield and Swallow the Air by Tara June Winch
The White Girl and Dark as Last Night by Tony Birch
Welcome to Country by Marcia Langton
Living On Stolen Land by Ambelin Kwaymullina
Terra Nullius and Lies, Damned Lie by Claire G Coleman
Tell Me Again by Amy Thunig
Sixty-Seven Days by Yvonne Weldon
Bindi by Kirli Saunders
The Boy from the Mish by Gary Lonesborough
Tell Me Why by Archie Roach
Another Day in the Colony by Chelsea Watego
Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson

@dranitaheiss #larissabehrendt #tarajunewinch @tony_birch_ @marcialangton @clairegcoleman @amythunig @yvonneweldon_ @kirli.saunders #ambelinkwaymullina @garylonesborough @nardiga @chelsea_watego @archieroachmusic 💜
#firstnationsauthors #importantreads #brilliantbooks

🌕💕Full Moon Blessings! Wishing you love, jo

🌕💕Full Moon Blessings!
Wishing you love, joy and passion as the moon becomes full. May you be illuminated by its golden glow, and reminded to shine your own precious light 🌕💕

#fullmoonblessings @lunarmagic #shineyourlight

🖤💛❤️ Post 2 of 2 Today is Invasion Day,

🖤💛❤️
Post 2 of 2
Today is Invasion Day, and Survival Day.
For those who asked, here are some more of my favourite books for kids by First Nations authors, following my previous post, but there are many many more! Let me know your favourites too…

Bidhi Galing by Anita Heiss and Samantha Campbell
Cooee Mittigar, Open Your Heart to Country and more by Jasmine Seymour
Found and Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe and Charmaine Ledden-Lewis
Home to Mother by Doris Pilkington Garimara
Growing Up Wiradjuri edited by Anita Heiss
This Book Thinks Ya Deadly by Corey Tutt and Molly Hunt
My Culture and Me – and many more – by Gregg Dreise
Welcome to Country for Young Readers by Marcia Langton
Welcome to Country by Aunty Joy Murphy and Lisa Kennedy
Respect by Aunty Fay Muir, Sue Lawson and Lisa Kennedy
Shirley Purdie: My Story by Ngaginybe Jarragbe

@dranitaheiss @jasmine_seymour_gudyung @ledden_lewis_art @corey_tutt1 @greggdreise #firstnationsbooks #firstnationsbooksforkids #importantreads #brilliantbooks xx

🖤💛❤️ Post 1 of 2… Today is Invasion D

🖤💛❤️
Post 1 of 2…
Today is Invasion Day, and Survival Day.
For those who asked, here are some of my favourite books for kids by First Nations authors, but there are many many more! Let me know your favourites too 🖤💛❤️

Day Break by Amy McQuire and Matt Chun
Seasons by Aunty Munya Andrews and Charmaine Ledden-Lewis
Sorry Day by Coral Vass and Dub Leffler
Who Am I? by Anita Heiss
Hello and Welcome (and many others) by Gregg Dreise
Freedom Day and Finding Our Heart by Thomas Mayo
Heroes, Rebels and Innovators by Karen Wyld and Jaelyn Biumaiwai
Took the Children Away by Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter
Willy-Willy Wagtail and all the Bush Mob books by Helen Milroy
Sea Country by Aunty Patsy Cameron and Lisa Kennedy
Silver Leaves by Gladys Milroy
Girls Can Fly by Sally Morgan and Ambelin Kwaymullina
Kunyi by Kunyi June Anne McInerney
My Country by Ezekiel Kwaymullina and Sally Morgan
Come Together by Isaiah Firebrace and Jaelyn Biumaiwai
Charlie’s Swim by Edith Wright and Charmaine Ledden-Lewis
Wombat, Mudlark and Other Stories by Helen Milroy
Looking After Country with Fire by Victor and Sandra Steffensen
First Scientists by Corey Tutt and Blak Douglas

@amymcquire_ @matt.chun @thomasamayo @ledden_lewis_art @jaes.illustrations @dranitaheiss @evolvecommunities @coralvass @dubleffler @corey_tutt1 @blakdouglas @greggdreise @archieroachmusic #helenmilroy #sallymorgan #ambelinkwaymullina
#firstnationsauthors #importantreads #brilliantbooks

“As uncomfortable as it is, we need to reckon wi $“As uncomfortable as it is, we need to reckon with our history. On January 26, no Australian can really look away.” Today I’m working, and finishing reading Australia Day by Stan Grant, although it could also have been called Invasion Day, Survival Day or the Day of Mourning, for this conflicted day is all these things and more. Acclaimed journalist and broadcaster Stan is also many things, and this book is his attempt to reckon with this country’s black history, the melting pot of his Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous ancestors, and the place of all people in today’s Australia. It’s also an offering of ideas for how we can heal this country’s fractured, dark history and move forward together. He has suffered many racist attacks in confronting our current situation, questioning the status quo and speaking his truths, but he perseveres because it vital that this country experiences truth-telling so we can all learn and grow, and for reconciliation to have a chance. The book combines his own thoughts, as well as wisdom from other great thinkers, philosophers, writers and artists, and it not only offers information, answers and suggestions, but also asks questions – important questions – of us all. Who are we? What is our country? What can we do, individually and together? And how do we move forward from here? Stan’s book Talking to My Country is also an important and informative read. #stangrant #australiaday #survivalday #invasionday #dayofmourning #firstnationsauthor #wiradjuriauthor #importantreads #reckoning #reconciliation #voicetreatytruth #bookaweek #03of52$

Love this 💜 xx From @wonders_of_a_loner

Love this 💜 xx

From @wonders_of_a_loner

Off to see Tiddas the play, based on Anita Heiss’s beautiful novel Tiddas, a story of love, friendship, books and a book club 💜 I totally recommend the book too! 📚 xx

@dranitaheiss @tiddastheplay @belvoirst #tiddas #booksandtea xx

Happy news from my favourite account. Full stories

Happy news from my favourite account. Full stories for each on their page 💚

From @the_happy_broadcast

Conservationists have discovered two kiwi chicks in Wellington, the first wild births recorded for the bird in the New Zealand capital in over 150 years.

The two new chicks come just a year after the Capital Kiwi Project reintroduced the country’s iconic national bird to the city of around 400,000 people.

Their birth in Makara, a suburb just 25 minutes from Wellington’s city center, takes the local total to 65 North Island brown kiwi.

Another 18 brown kiwi chicks are expected to hatch as part of the Capital Kiwi Project, which hopes to restore a large-scale wild population of kiwi to New Zealand’s capital. The project plans to use transmitters to monitor the two new kiwi chicks as well as any others that hatch.

The flightless birds, which once numbered around 12 million in New Zealand, have seen their population plummet to just 68,000, according to the Save the Kiwi charity. The charity is among approximately 90 Kiwi conservation programs aiming to boost the population.

Source: CNN (link in bio)

#newzealand #kiwi #conservation

The Visitors by Jane Harrison is a fascinating and

The Visitors by Jane Harrison is a fascinating and important book – and the perfect read in the lead-up to Survival/Invasion Day next week. It’s also the January read for @aboriginalbookclub. An imagining of what happened on January 26, 1788, when 11 ships sailed into Kamay (now known as Sydney Harbour), it features seven First Nations elders from surrounding clans who have come together to decide what to do. Should they welcome the visitors to their Country, with the expectation that they’ll replenish stores, perhaps trade tools and share wisdom, then return to where they came from – or gather their warriors and send them on their way? Tragically, they couldn’t conceive of people who would be so cruel and wasteful of resources, and it hurts knowing the sad outcome of the story.

There’s no over-romanticising of the elders – they have wisdom, and varied skills and strengths, but there’s also one who is young and petulant, one harbouring a grudge that may sway his vote, and another whose optimism and curiosity make him overlook the danger. Their decision must be unanimous, and so they argue and bicker all day, reminding each other of their protocols and responsibilities to visitors, recalling the impact of the visit 18 summers previously, but ultimately assuming that, like Cook in 1770, the aliens had no plans to stay.

It occasionally took me out of the story that they have British names – Gary, Gordon, Lawrence, Joseph – wear business suits for their long journeys through the bush, and use modern words and phrases, but it also reinforces that the questions raised are ongoing, the injustices begun that day continue, and that First Nations people have always been here, and are still here, and there is much we can learn from them.

It was originally written as a play, and sometimes the text leans heavily on that, but it’s a story that shares fascinating culture and lore about life pre-colonisation, with a little humour at times too. I do wish I’d read the book rather than listening to the audiobook, as there are frustrating gaps between sentences, and sometimes within them, but it’s definitely worth reading, worthy of study in high school, and very timely.

🌙💕 Wishing you all the love, joy and magic o

🌙💕 Wishing you all the love, joy and magic of this enchanted new moon day. Set your intentions, and be very clear on them, then plant the seeds of whatever it is you’ve been longing to manifest into the world. Tap in to the energy and potential of this lunar phase for new growth, new ideas and new dreams, and BEGIN. Right now, take one step, no matter how small it is, towards your goal, and then continue to work at it over the next month to make it come to fruition. What will you dream into being? I’m doing final edits on a 6000-word story for an anthology, then writing a 1000-word story for a mini course, which I’m taking because I suck at writing short! 😂 I’m harnessing the new moon energy swirling around me to stay focused and get it done…

🌙💕 #newmoon #newmoonwishes #newmoonblessings #lunarmagic #magicofthemoon #newmoonmagic #blessingsofthemoon #moonmagic #newbeginnings #makeithappen #justdoit #magicoftheearth #magicofnature #witchesofinstagram

💜📚 I read so many incredible books last year

💜📚 I read so many incredible books last year – 80 that I reviewed, plus a few I forgot to mention – and it’s almost impossible to narrow down the ones I loved most. But here are some of my very-very favourite.

💜 Morgan Is My Name by Sophie Keetch
💚 After the Forest by Kell Woods
💙 Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
💛 The Yield by Tara June Winch
🧡 The Lights of Sugarberry Cove by Heather Webber
❤️ Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko
💙 The Dictionary of Lost Words and 💚 The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams
❤️ Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier (a re-read)
💛 Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
💙 Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
💛 The Wonderful Thing About Phoenix Rose by Josephine Moon
🖤 Dark As Last Night by Tony Birch
(Eight Aussie authors, three US and two UK in my top 13.)

I also adored all of these:
South of the Buttonwood Tree by Heather Webber
Still Life by Sarah Winman
The Witch of the Woods by Helena Nyblom (thanks to Holly Ringland’s beautiful book The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding)
Wifedom by Anna Funder
A Wish of Ashes and Glass by Selina A Fenech
The Voice to Parliament by Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien
The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
The Cake-Maker’s Wish and The Gift of Life by Josephine Moon
The Study of Poisons by Maria V Snyder
The Brightest Star by Emma Harcourt
The Emporium of Imagination by Tabitha Bird
Alchemy by Kate Forsyth and Wendy Sharpe
Like A Curse by Elle McNicoll
The Edge of Madness by K. A. Last
Being Jimmy Baxter by Fiona Lloyd
Curse of the Dragon Shadow: Shadow Dragon Saga Book 1 by Selina A Fenech
The Memory Tree by Britta Teckentrup
Seasons by Aunty Munya Andrews and Charmaine Ledden-Lewis
Highland Raven by Melanie Karsak
Philoxenia: A Seat at My Table by Kon and Sia Karapanagiotidis

All up, 23 of 37 were by Australian authors, 7 by European authors (Welsh, Scottish, English, Danish, German), and 7 by American authors.

#bookaweek #beautifulbooks #brilliantreads #australianauthors #readingismagic #booksandtea

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