(Recorded on 16th April, 2025)
Watch the video here.
A hidden gem/light in Bali. This conversation took place in Audreys home and library nest in Bali very close to the Green School. You can hear the sound of drilling in the background which is the felling of trees outside her house which was instigated by her neighbour who wants to build a through road to his house. There is a dirt track there already. She tried to call me when the work began a few days earlier in a panic but I was unavailable. When I called her back she was calmer and sitting under a tree to protect it and told the people who were instructed to do the work that they take her arm before the tree. She said “how can they do this knowing that I speak with the birds and the squirrels who live there”. The work has paused. The conversation also includes the sound of her dogs and puppies who are all rescues. As well as the occasional sound of a cuckoo on her phone. Audrey was as excited as me to have this conversation. I hope you learn as much as I did by someone who was actively part of history as a direct witness and enjoy it too. If you would like to get in touch with Audrey you can contact her via email at audreyshabbas@gmail.com.
In gratitude for having been present to her wisdom, knowledge and experience..
Bio by Audrey
“Have you heard of ‘The 100 Year Life’ – the book that lots of 40s and 50s were reading last year. The idea being that if you are going to live to be 100, be prepared to have many different careers, and many different “lives”. I grew up across the street from a great university and I went there – UC Berkeley. International Relations – The Middle East is/was my area of concentration. My current passion is thinking about need to educate/raise Biocentric children (not Egocentric) and all the delicious connections to our natural world and the “knowing” that we are part of something wonderfully and comfortingly connected. I live alone (with three dogs) down the street from a wonderful school where I am a part of that school family – as a volunteer. I hope more adventures are forthcoming. . . .greatest so far have been a slow boat up a river in Borneo and trekking to Timbuktu to look at its ancient libraries and photograph their valuable (to the field of knowledge) manuscripts. Baghdad, the marshes of southern Iraq, Cairo and everything Egypt holds my heart. Audrey’s Library Nest is part of my life journey at the moment. May be the biggest private library here abouts. . . or is it a museum. You’d never guess that the small couch/cot is where I sleep at night. . . surrounded by floor to ceiling book shelves full to overflowing. And tables are covered with leather-bound old goodies. Community – particularly of parents of international school nearby are welcome to drop in. . . .stay, bring food, use the kitchen… even find a day-bed and take a nap. Some are waiting the time to pick up their children at end of school day. If anyone comes or not. . . it’s all good. . . it’s all OK. It’s here that Green School parents have given me two new titles: ‘Biblio-therapist’ and ‘Knowledge Curator’. I humbly accept them both. They seem a good fit.”
Official Bio
Audrey Shabbas has more than forty years experience in teaching, curriculum development and teacher training about the Arab World, the wider Middle East and about Islam as a world faith. Her curriculum works have included The Arab World Studies Notebook, The Arabs: Activities for the Elementary and Middle School, A Medieval Banquet in the Alhambra Palace, and The Timbuktu Curriculum. Each year under the auspices of AWAIR, she has conducted approximately forty teacher training workshops in partnership with school districts, county and state offices of education, museums and universities throughout the United States. She returned again and again to conduct such training for: Harvard, Yale, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Stanford and UC Berkeley. She has also worked with the United Nations training non-profit organizations in “how to” conduct successful teacher training workshops. Shabbas has trained more than 40,000 teachers in all fifty of the United States, and for IB schools abroad. A long time member of The National Council for the Social Studies, she has served as a presidential appointee to its Equity and Social Justice Committee, and as Chair of the International Human Rights Education Special Interest Group. Her work has been honored by the University of Pennsylvania which presented her with their Janet Lee Stevens Award for contributions to Arab American understanding. And the Middle East Studies Association’s Middle East Outreach Council presented her with their Lifetime Achievement Award (only the second time in their then twenty-year history the award had been given). In 2012 Shabbas was nominated for the prestigious UNESCO Prize!