During NAIDOC Week 2021, we thought this would be a good time to share the story of the cover of our most recent book, Working with Emotional Health and the Enneagram. The cover features a beautiful piece of art entitled ‘You Are’ by Indigenous artist Patrice Muthaymiles Mahoney. Patrice is a dear friend and colleague and an alumnus of the Gippsland Community Leadership Program in Victoria.
Patrice created this painting especially for our book. She describes it as follows:
As we move along the many pathways throughout our lives, we come across challenges in all aspects of our lives, not just professional spaces.
This painting was made with the thoughts of how, why and where we lead in our lives and what that looks like. The serene blue moving line represents the life each of us is moving with. The motion of living our journey with fulfilment can be solid and confident, hard and translucent, and wide with many challenges.
The dots surrounding the journey of life are all the decisions we make to stay on our path.
The blue-grey circular marks are the supports you have in life: mentors, family, partners or spirituality to help you on your journey. Your narrative is your story – no-one else can understand all the challenges you have on your journey, your life of leadership.
The circular dots inside these lines are the supports behind your supports. We often forget that we are from our parents, our parent’s parents and so on for thousands of years. Our ancestral past has helped us be where we are today and our supporters have thousands of years of ancestors who’ve helped them all be where they are today.
The yellow circles are the stages we experience, grow and move through during our lives, in and out of loneliness, intention or participation.
All these elements, choices and intent together make this piece of work’s elements relate together to create a narrative of leadership.
Living the life you want with intention and joy is the powerful leadership we are all seeking in ourselves.
We will always be grateful for Patrice’s wonderful contribution to our book.
The theme of NAIDOC Week 2021 is ‘Heal Country!’. Global Leadership Foundation continues to acknowledge the First Nations People of Australia as the custodians and traditional owners of the land on which we do our work. We pay our respects to Indigenous elders, past, present and emerging, and acknowledge and uphold their continuing relationship to this land.
