MYRNA BULL

Myrna Bull at home, 12 October. Photo: Julie Clarke (2018

It's strange the things we recall. I remember way back in 1991 when I was at RMIT a young man said he thought I would grow old gracefully. I never really understood what he meant or how he arrived at that conclusion. More recently I have considered the word grace, which by 16th century definitions meant having pleasant or attractive qualities or the divine grace of god. In commonplace parlance it might mean to be free flowing in ones movements, gentle, soft, a quality we might associate with a classical ballet dancer. In my mind placing the words old and graceful together appear antithetical since most of the old people I've seen are rather slow and not necessarily graceful or elegant. Perhaps grace is what the individual exudes, some inner quality radiated, a characteristic that extends beyond the space of the self into the surrounding world. The notion of grace re-surfaced last week when I met a woman of note who imparted to me the quality of grace, however I still cannot pin down the word even though I think in Myrna's case grace is the glow of everything she has achieved in her life and the inability of her to contain the energy of that life within the tiny space of her body.

Myrna Bull, a mother and grandmother has a wealth of experience in management and human rights. As the Northern Territory’s Regional Director of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission she contributed to a range of policy initiatives that had a significant effect on the quality of life of the community. Myrna helped to establish the Northern Territory’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 while she was the Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity. Prior to that she worked with an Indigenous counterpart in the Aboriginal Women’s Resource Center which achieved a milestone in the history of the Uniting Church when her colleague was appointed the Center's Coordinator. She has been Assistant Commissioner, Conciliation in the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission, a management consultant, independent conciliator and investigator, and a workplace training and recruitment consultant. She developed and managed the volunteer selection and community education program for Australian Volunteers International, Australia’s largest volunteer recruitment agency, and most recently worked for Job Futures as the manager of its Victorian ex-prisoner and offender’s employment program.

It was a pleasure photographing her and her dogs were so well behaved.