In 40 years of international travel as an author, speaker
and researcher, Professor Nell Arnold studied and
worked with many inspiring people. Some were famous,
including artists Marjorie Lawrence, Carol Neblett,
Leonard Bernstein, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo
and Robert Feist, or futurists including Alvin Toffler,
Buckminster Fuller and Harold Shane.

She also found inspiration in people whose names were
unknown, but whose stories of courage were founded in
a spirit of inner greatness. It is their quiet leadership that
has inspired people living in improbable urban or rural
landscapes.

Professor Arnold’s speaking tours crossed Australia
several times, starting in 1974 and then more regularly
after she immigrated in1992. Beyond her responsibilities
as a professor, she continued in leadership roles,
serving on numerous councils committed to
internationalising and later globalising industry,
business, education and the arts.

During these tours she met inventors, community
leaders and artists – the quiet leaders, often unknown,
but whose story, if told, could leave a lasting impact.
In this third series of literature contribution, Professor
Arnold features six individuals whose efforts in Australia
now reach out to the world. Each individual mastered a
form of communication – warrior dance, design, piano,
oratory, negotiation and advocacy.