An Night of Inspiration

Photo www.bbc.co.uk

This week Dave and I went along to the Steve Irwin Memorial lecture by Dr Chadden Hunter for The Brisbane Institute. If you're not familiar with Dr Chadden, you might be more familiar with his work with the BBC, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and National Geographic. His work in film and TV is endless, to name a few: Planet Earth the series, Nile: In search of the flood, Wild Africa - Mountains & Coasts, Cliffhangers, which is a series about Chadden and his life living with the Gelanda baboons, and most recently directing for the BBC, LIFE: Primates and Frozen Planet.

As you could imagine, the lecture was sold out. People were eager to hear his journey with conservation, exploration and working in film and television with people such as Sir David Attenborough. His journey started here in Australia, working on the Great Barrier Reef and  moved on to the remote Simien Mountains of Northern Eithiopia, where he studied and lived with the Gelanda baboons for 3 years.

Completing a PHD, I was so impressed with his dedication to studying this one animal, all while a war was going on nearby, and not to mention contracting some sort of brain parasites and almost dying! He said that if it weren't for a BBC team being there filming at the time, he would be dead today.

Dr Chadden had many stories, too many for me to mention now, but I can tell you that he was an inspiration to everyone in the room. A love and dedication for conservation, utilising the media through his films and work in the field was something I found a huge motivation. It gave me even more belief that the media has amazing power to help influence and educate the world to make better choices for our planet.

For more information on Dr Chadden Hunter check out the following link 

Link: http://www.chaddenhunter.blogspot.com/