Who is Melanie Poole?

After living in northern NSW and Tasmania, Melanie completed school in Canberra, where she was active in student activities including Rotary’s Model United Nations conferences, and in community groups including Amnesty International, ACT refugee support services and Canberra Youth Theatre. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2002 Model United Nations Assembly in Hong Kong, which encouraged her interest in the role of young people in international policy.

During her ‘gap’ year, Melanie lived in a small village in southern Kenya, where she worked in a HIV orphanage. She then began studies in Arts/Law at the Australian National University, where she joined several student groups. Melanie contributed regularly to Woroni, the ANU student magazine, and edited ‘The Brief’ (law school newspaper). She was also published in academic journals, anthologies and newspapers. She pursued her interests in creative writing through her involvement with Block, the ANU Literary Magazine.

Melanie returned to Kenya after her first year of university, to work for the UNHCR at Kakuma refugees camp, on the border of Kenya and Sudan. She worked with young Sudanese women who had escaped the horrors of genocide in Sudan. She was deeply moved and inspired by their stories.

Melanie is passionate about Australia’s Indigenous history and culture. Between her second and third years of university, Melanie completed an internship with a women’s legal service in Darwin. This involved travel to Arnhem Land and Tiwi islands. She went on to work in a policy role for the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations while continuing her university studies.

Melanie later spent 6 months on exchange in Germany, studying international politics. Following this she spent 5 months in Pakistan, where she worked for an NGO completing fieldwork research on women’s education. Her travels took her along the borders of Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Kashmir and into Iran, India and the countries of Southeast Asia, usually staying in the homes of those she met enabling her to learn a great deal about non-western cultures.

Since high school, Melanie has held a variety of part-time jobs in hospitality, retail, childcare, legal/academic research and the public service. This has provided her with valuable, diverse skills and insights.