NSW Pedal Power Team Bios | The Otesha Project (Australia): Cycling for Sustainability

	Barb has lived in the Northern Territory for the past 11 years and is currently based in Darwin. She lives in a house with her partner of seven years and has a totally amazing vegie garden with two very cheeky chooks! She went on a cycling tour with The Otesha Project (Canada) last year and is over the moon about biking in her own country.
	Dan is a writer and visual artist currently based in the Blue Mountains. She is editor of the Australian Music Centre's resonate magazine and over the last ten years she has written for various national publications, worked as a music teacher and coordinated numerous community-based projects. Using creativity to build community is one of Dan's biggest passions. This passion, however, is in fierce competition with her obssession for living sustainably, riding her bike, dancing, listening to music and rock climbing. She currently lives in the loft of a giant communal house which transforms itself into a vegan community cafe every Sunday. Rumour has it that a food coop is also forming.
	Emma is a conservation biology student living in Melbourne. Earlier this year she cycled through Cambodia and loved it. She's been interested in environmental issues since she was a little tacker camping with her fam on the Wakool River in NSW. After completing a sustainable training course at Monash Uni, she was compelled to take on this new adventure. She loves the idea of community living and "being the change you wish to see" and is looking forward to seeing more of her own country.
	Greg's obsessions in life are endless but they include music, capoeira, architecture, cycling, the natural environment and travel. He is passionate about people, the way they co-exist within such diverse environments and how they can review culture and habits to co-inhabit this planet harmoniously and happily with one another. He is looking forward to travelling with the Otesha Crew, reducing possessions to the bare necessities and moving together as a community spreading messages about sustainability!
	Jodi is currently working with OzGREEN as Program Manager and has been involved in facilitating all of their programs in Australia and overseas in India and Pakistan. 12 months ago she moved to Bellingen with her family to set up a sustainable home and life on 100 acres of organic land. Jodi is passionate about working with young people and empowering them to make change in their lives and cant wait to hit the road with this crew to do more of it!
	Mel loves stepping out of the door in the morning and welcoming the world. She wants to welcome life in its many forms and intends on enjoying it along the way! Smiles and genuine words/actions...jasmine on the breeze...barefeet dancing...sleeping under stars...meeting and being open to new peeps...inviting joy to manifest itself...respecting the land and where it comes from are just some of the ways she has learnt to allow life direct her rather than trying to direct IT...!! She's excited that it's a journey, always. She feels she has so much to learn and so much to be thankful for ... Learn to bear the beams of love... Bring It!!
	Naomi is the kind of girl who rocks up to parties with baked goods. She tends to go through life finding ways to be inspired and laughing out loud at the little things. A science communicator by trade, she loves chatting to anyone about this crazy world, especially about environmental issues and creating opportunities for Indigenous Aussies. After drifting across the deserts of Australia, and growing vegies in the cloud forests of South America, she has ended up in an office in Sydney’s CBD. Help! She needs to get her Otesha bike pedalling groove on!
	Nic is currently cycling solo up the NSW east cost. He recently completed a permaculture design certificate and is passionate about building structures that bring people closer to the earth and the systems that support them. For example, making rainwater tanks to provide water and creating home gardens or local gardens to provide food. He is also passionate about making and listening to music.
	Robyn is a homeopath, university student and concerned citizen. When it comes to sustainability, she is most passionate about food choices and their environmental impact. She lives in a cohousing co-op at the foothills of Mt Wellington, Tasmania. She is looking forward to some sea and sun while on tour.
	Rosalee lives in Canberra where she recently finished a Bachelor of Arts/Science in ecology and English. She’s interested in water issues, self-sufficiency, and landscape, and she's keen to read, write, dream about edible plants and ride bikes (luckily!).
	For Rhiannon, joining the Otesha project is the perfect opportunity to challenge and improve her own way of living, whilst maybe making the world (or at least Australia’s east coast) a slightly healthier, happier place. Rhiannon’s concern for social justice has led from working in a tribal community development organisation in northern Thailand to the bureaucracy of Indigenous Affairs. Interspersed along the way have been bouts of working with and writing about music. She hasn’t yet figured out if these passions simply coexist, or might one day prove to be complimentary…
	Shane is a recent convert to the delights of Blue Mountains living. Originally trained as a computer scientist, he worked for seven years as project manager for a Canadian computer company. Thankfully, a passion for youth empowerment and building community liberated Shane from the trauma of corporate living. He now works as director for The Otesha Project (Australia), where his home office looks out onto a sizeable vege garden, giant gum trees and teeming bird life. If Shane isn't working at his computer, he's probably on a crazy cycling adventure or knee deep in compost. When Shane finishes cycling home to Canada with his partner, he hopes to build a house from sustainable resources - ideally somewhere in the Australian bush.
	Growing up in Tassie, exploring the bush tracks of Mount Wellington, camping with her family and travelling through remote North and Central Australia has instilled in Sophie a great love for the outdoors and the big open spaces. But although she is at home in a swag, looking up at the stars, home is also Melbourne, with its creative buzz and spirit. It´s from Melbourne - the city and its people, that Sophie draws her inspiration for projects in social justice and the energy to get through her degree in International Relations and Law. Ever a wanderer, Sophie loves the open road. She´s spent the last 6 months studying in Buenos Aires and is now travelling and working in South America before she returns to complete her honours year at Uni.
	Sherida is a learner masquerading as a teacher. A love of the outdoors has heavily influenced Sherida's life. Growing up paddling the rivers and lakes of Canada she developed a strong connection with the natural environment which culminated in her obtaining a Bachelor of Environmental and Outdoor Education. She loved her three year stint living and teaching in the Western Australian desert and developed a passion for aboriginal issues. Currently living in Northern NSW she enjoys cooking home grown food, chatting to her chickens and NOT flushing her composting toilet. She is super stoked to get on her bike pedal down the coast with an amazing bunch of people.
	Thomasen is a lover of respect, theatre, good food, friendly people, curiosity, music, community, beaches and sunshine (among other things). She is a dreamer as well as a 'doer'. She is elated by the prospect of travelling with a diverse group of people on The Otesha Project's NSW Cycle Tour as this trip will combine many of her passions. She looks forward to sharing ideas, generally around the theme of living the good life, with people from all walks of life including high school students, teachers, fellow cyclists and other town folk.
	Vicky has just finished her degree in Canberra doing mostly biology but with a bit of anthropology and Spanish too. She is totally in love with her garden, and is creating a suburban veggie, froggie, butterfly wonderland. She loves op shopping and re-fabulising clothes, nothing is impossible with the power of buttons... She believes that with the power of teddy bears, everyone can be creative, inspirational, and effective in doing fun things to make happy changes: fair trade, recycling, composting, education, empowerment, art, and worm farming goodness. Her bicycle, Penelope, is especially looking forward to sharing some special times in NSW, and learning from some of the other amazing wonderfull people along the way. Yep, and she loves the beach.
	Yon is a passionate sustainability think-nit. He likes to do as well as talk. He is currently studying science and geography university at the University of Tasmania, and carries around a huge reservoir of life experience. He has always had a big veggie garden and an old car, but nowadays gets on his bike!!