Chris Dunk was born in Yallourn Victoria in 1952.. He grew up
in the country in the 50’s when Victoria was still very much a wild
natural environment, forest and the Australian society still had it feet
in the 19th century, with few cars and before much of the technological
changes and infrastructure that came with the 1960’s onward arrived. Chris
grew up in the immediate vicinity of the primary school where the Quang
Duc Monastery in Fawkner now resides when the landscape was open
pastureland.
Chris left school
early in 1967 but continued his studies part time and later gained an
adult entry into tertiary studies in 1981 after working many different
jobs, gaining experience and seeking a suitable vocation to which to pin
his experience. At aged 34 he graduated with a Bachelor of Education in
Visual Arts and Technology Education tying together his varied experience
as a wood and metal worker, a printer, an artist and as a youth worker
within Juvenile Justice Centers, to mention a few of his jobs he had held
since 1967 to the time he entered teachers college. He was employed by the
Northern Territory Teaching Service upon his graduation, and worked in
remote locations in northern Australia before he returned to Victoria to
take a position in the Ministry of Education in secondary colleges. He
went to the Technical and Further Education (TAFE) system working as a
Koori Education teacher in the early 1990’s working in Pentridge Prison,
the Melbourne Assessment Prison, Fairlea Women’s Prison, the dame Phyllis
Frost Center the and Melbourne Juvenile Justice Center in Melbourne. he
also worked some years in the Indigenous Land Rights Corporation for
Victoria as an Office Manager and also the Victorian Aboriginal Legal
Service as a Research Officer. He is Currently back working for the TAFE
sector as a Koori programs in the Broadmeadows community where he develops
and delivers community development projects and training. Chris gained
through part time studies during the 1990’s a further Graduate Diploma in
Technology a Bachelor of Art Degree in the Social History of Science, and
a Graduate Certificate of Educational Studies in Teaching English to
Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). His TESOL training took him to
Vietnam doing teacher training English classes briefly in the University
of Education and Secondary Schools and also evening Adult Education
classes in Ho Chi Minh City.
Chris has been aware
of Buddhism most of his life due to the influence of his grandmother who
was born in Shanghai, China. He remembers being deeply effected by the
protest Death of the Monk Venerable Thich Quang Duc in the early 1960’s.
Chris has sought Buddhist knowledge throughout his life received some
Buddhist training in Vietnam and China and it was when he found that the
Quang Duc monastery had been established in Fawkner in what was a primary
school close to one of his childhood homes in the northern suburbs of
Melbourne, he felt he had come full circle. He became involved as the
English Editor of the Quang Duc web site since 2001. He is married to a
Japanese national, travels regularly and escapes computers, teaching and
the world in general by reconditioning old cars as a hobby.
See my photo
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