Special Guest Talk: Writing Memoir - A Life Worth Telling

Join researcher and cultural specialist Marie Geissler to learn about how you can write your personal memoir or family history.

Marie will then be joined in conversation by one of her students- John Keelty, a yachtsman and Life Member of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and who has over seven decades of sailing experience.

About the Speakers

Dr Marie Geissler is a writer, researcher, and cultural specialist with over three decades of experience spanning the arts, education, history, science, and Indigenous cultural studies. She holds a PhD in Indigenous art and culture alongside qualifications in science and fine arts, her skills combining analytical rigour with creative insight. She is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wollongong and Investigation Team Member to the Garuwanga Project Research Roundtable of the Indigenous Knowledge Forum, chaired by Professor Natalie Stoianoff at the Law Faculty of the University of Technology Sydney.

A Board Member of the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Australia and the South Pacific, Dr Geissler actively promotes Australian innovation and culture to international audiences. Her deep commitment to memoir and personal history is reflected in her current course, Writing Memoir. A Tale Worth Telling. The Human Story. A Sensory and Historical Method for Memoir and Reflective Writing which she has convened at Kirribilli for the past three years

John Keelty is a yachtsman, a Life Member of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, an Inaugural Life Member of the Australian National Maritime Museum and has over seven decades of sailing experience.

Born 1934 in Waverley, John started sailing in skiffs at age 12. In the 1950’s-1960’s he went from 16’s into offshore sailing, entering his first yacht Menabilly in the Sydney to Hobart in 1965. That same year he joined the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and he has been a central figure at the CYCA for over 60 years. Work wise John was a Refrigeration Engineer, having his own company and doing projects for well-known companies such as Kellog’s and Cahill’s and later specialising in eutectic refrigeration for boats which saw him working on many well-known yachts and motor vessels.

He has collected many tales over the years and always been ‘going to’ write his memoirs and, inspired by Marie, and has now commenced writing.

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