Karno is our standing cultural educator and marine trainee, and his focus while at the Marine Discovery Centre is on the high importance of environmental sustainability. He seamlessly integrates both a western and traditional point of view with a single focus; a sustainable future.
How long have you been at the Marine Discovery Centre?
I have been a part of the centre for 6 years. Through this time, I have seen great changes for the MDC, a pivotal point for the centre being its complete refurbishment. I have also grown many skills working here, and a wealth of knowledge from all other occupants that support and help the centre.
What is your role here?
One of the activities I do for the visiting schools includes a beach trail. This is where we make our way to the beach, spend an hour sifting through the sand and walking along to see what we can find, from whatever has been washed up from the night before. Another main part of my work includes, teaching students and others about aboriginal culture; be it language, stories, songs, fishing techniques, dance, art, hunting techniques and much more.
What is your favourite part of the centre?
One of the greatest things about the centre, is just to see how engaged students and teachers are when they visit us. It's great to see that there are so many young people out there, that share the same passion for the environment as we do. Seeing them leave chatting with their friends about what they learnt and saying things like “that was the best excursion I've ever been on in my life”. That's well worth it.
What do you hope visitors take with them when they leave?
The one thing I hope from this work, is that the people who venture through the centre leave changing the ways they think about day to day activities and what impacts they might have on the environment.
What do you do in your spare time?
I try to keep myself as busy as I can when away from work and do so as a dancer. I have been part of an Adelaide based dance group known as ‘Yellaka’ for over 10 years. We are traditional and contemporary dancers - through Adelaide’s festival season we perform at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. If I'm not dancing, I'm playing guitar, if I'm not doing that, I'm on my Xbox.