Newsletter and IYOP Initiatives Australian Coalition '99

A profile of Delys Sargeant

by Helen Elliott

Sixty years ago, on a tranquil farm 10 or so miles out of the Western Australian country town of Bolgart, an eleven year old girl, a very lively eleven year old, was doing some hard thinking about her future.

Would she be an opera singer? Or an actress? Or maybe a writer? She might have been vacillating between the choices, but what was certain, she now says, was "I wasn't going to stay home, make afternoon teas and play golf - which was what girls on the farm did in those days."

Delys Sargeant, or Delys Ludemann as she was then, didn't become the writer or the opera singer, although there still hangs a question mark above that of "actress". She went on to become a zoologist and psychologist. And a university teacher. Teaching, she laughs, (and any conversation with Delys is punctuated by laughter) has a great deal to do with acting.

In retrospect she's had to do quite a bit of acting in her life. It comes hand in glove with an imaginative approach to life, an approach of life as Possibility. Along the way Delys Sargeannt managed to have a hand in reforming the entire Victorian education system's attitude to sex education, managed to reform Melbourne University's medical faculty by insisting that social issues were as important as medical matters to young doctors, was a leader in Family Planning and become the founding director at Melbourne University's Social Biology Resources Centre.

There was also marriage to John, three children (who sometimes were heard to wail "Why can't you be more like an ORDINARY mother?") and the establishment of Darling Park winery on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. It produces a remarkable Pinot Noir.

Lately, though, as she's become older Delys Sargeant has become more and more fascinated at what "old" means and how older people feel about themselves - and are viewed by others. (And take note: she does find it rather annoying when some of her friends and colleagues remark that she's still involved with all that "older stuff.") Ageing, she finds, is not generally considered a sexy topic. Nor are crayfish. But crayfish are significant in Delys Sargeant's life. It was through an honors thesis on the reproducticve cycle of crayfish at the University of Western Australia that she first saw how she could be instrumental in change. The crayfish industry took her observations to heart and the changes that began then were significant in launching the vital contemporary industry.

Observing the energy created when those two diverse worlds of biological science and business came together gave Delys Sargeant a glimpse of something she hadn't considered. It was a glimpse that was to shape her life.

"I've always been interested and involved at that dynamism which occurs at the interface between two unlikes. What happens at the moment of transference between biology and organizational and social theories? It's also about a bringing together of the two cultures (of the Arts and Science) that C.P. Snow wrote about."

She has built her worldview on her early knowledge but constantly adds to that knowledge. One of the most significant books in her life has been that of the social theorist Donald Schon's Beyond the Stable State, written around 1969.

"His theories about the ways in which good ideas get well-known, his concept of a period of instability coincided perfectly with my biological training as it met with my social observation." Biological training and social observation are all very well for pure mind, but it takes something more catclysmic to cause a young woman to change her world view.

In 1948, "too unformed to go into psychological practice", Delys Sargeant took a journey into Western Australia ostensibly to test the cultural impact on the reliability of Intelligence Tests at New Norcia.
New Norcia had been built by the Benedictine monks in 1848. It was way ahead of it's time in it's determination to educate both white and black boys together to p[romote the possibilities of education for the disadvantaged. Over the years, though, like many places, the initial idealism had fallen away and New Norcia had developed into something quite different from the place founded on the wonderful Christian ideals of love, mercy and compassion.

Seeing how these ideals can become corrupt defined forever the young woman from a background that, despite necessarily limited horizons was constantly loving and stable.

"It bewildered me that there could be such cruelty to young girls and my compassion exploded like a nuclear bomb. It was a seminal time - I recognized gender inequity and cultural cruelty in the hands of men. It was another world, very different from my conservative background of the farm."

Those who know Delys Sargeant often remark that she has a commonality with pure energy itself. The swirling, dynamic logo of the International year could easily be her personal logo. It coincides with her very individual take upon the world as one of constant involvement. And not just of the mind. There's a generosity of spirit about Delys Sargeant that sweeps up everything in its path.

If there has been a consistent motif in her life it's about "change", that being alive is about change and that one's capacity to engender change must be acted upon.

"I see change as consistent with life, and I value living as change. Cautious? Well I'm certainly physically cautious, but I always like taking intellectual risks. Taking intellectual risks is not that uncommon. It's combining that risk with practical activity that produces real change in the heartland of the everyday world."

Which is where Australian Coalition '99 enters the frame. You read this now under the auspices of the Australian Coalition '99 because of one woman's drive, compassion and foresight. A few years ago, when she was involved in the International Year of the Disabled, Delys recognized that work would have to start early on the International Year of the Older Person.

"Don Edgar came out and said that the government had contributed to an unsuccessful outcome - so I thought we needed to get looking at motivating people in advance ... I knew there were so many discriminatory stereotypes of ageism and we needed to mobilize to overcome them." She pauses, her face is alight with the intensity someone feels only when they are talking with love. " Here's where social biology comes in because it shows how the mix makes for greater potential impact. I thought about the power of partnerships - the most unlikely partnerships - where groups didn't lose their autonomy or identity and an amazing amount of power and change flows in that "unlike" phase. The whole then becomes greater than the parts."

Such diversity, where humans are involved can be difficult to manage and maintain, but, she insists "managing conflict challenges you to clarify your goals, shows alternative thinking and usually results in change."

And the ultimate goal of this International Year is, she says, "substantial change in social attitudes towards towards ageing." With the extraordianry diversity of Partnerships on board in Coalition '99 an ultimate goal might just become a reality. It's about change - and it's about the optimisim, energy and foresight of people like Delys Sargeant.

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