Marilyn Garson

I grew up in Halifax, Canada, the youngest of four sisters. From the outset, I was wired to notice power and vulnerability. A few weeks before I was due to enter law school, I discovered the backpack and absconded.

I traveled for several years and immigrated to the Hokianga, in the far north of New Zealand.

In 1998, I began to create jobs in communities affected by war. I worked with former child combatants and Cambodians with disabilities (1998 – 2001), imported global handmade goods as the first director of Worldstock.com (2001 – 2003), worked with Afghan family businesses and led an enterprise that employed at women at home in Afghanistan and Pakistan (2005 – 2010).

In 2011, I received an unsolicited offer to work and live in the Gaza Strip. Gaza overturned much of what I thought I knew about conflict and aid, about Palestine and justice. As a Jew, Gaza made me dig deep into the content of my own beliefs. I wrote Still Lives – a memoir of Gaza to add adjectives to our narrow public image of the community of Gaza: educated, ambitious, and audaciously human behind a blockade wall.

I live in Wellington and Hokianga, usually with a pen in one hand and a ball of wool in the other.

To see more or to get in touch, please visit www.marilyngarson.com