Philippine Australian Ambassador for Culture and the Arts Recognition Night 2016

Violi Calvert
Ambassador for Culture and the Arts in the field of Media
Violi is a Freelance Writer who has been contributing to some Fil-Aussie print and online publications
for several years now. She won the 2015 Multicultural & Indigenous Media Award - Coverage of
Community Affairs and was a Finalist at the 2013 NSW Premier’s Multicultural Media Award - Editorial
Reporting. She also received 2013 - Community Service Award - Parliament of Australia, House of
Representatives presented by Tony Burke for her role in promoting the Walk for Respect which was a
protest against the then proposed amendments of the Anti-Discrimination Act.
In addition to being a prolific writer, Violi was a co-producer and co-broadcaster for Radio Sandigan
at Radio 2rdj 81.1FM for five years, and then joined in 2015 Radio Tagumpay, a two-hour live radio
show at Triple H 100.1FM [Fridays, 2-4pm].
Violi attributes her passion for ‘story telling’ to her teachers at the Philippine College of Commerce
High School. She completed Bachelor Elementary Education [Cum Laude] and Master of Arts in
Education from the University of the East. She was a recipient of the Distinguished Achievement
Award at UE’s Diamond Jubilee celebration in 2006. She undertook additional studies when
got to Australia, which included Bachelor Business from UTS and Graduate Study on Public
Sector Management from Flinders University and certificate courses on Media and Freelance
Journalism.
Violi co-founded the North Shore Filipino-Australian Association in the 90’s and is an active
community volunteer supporting initiatives by the Philippine Consulate General and other
organisations. She is also one of a number of Fil-Aussie volunteers at St Mary Mackillop
place in North Sydney.
She and husband John are blessed with two sons, Timothy who works in IT and Bevan
who plays handball in Germany.
Marilyn Andres Chun
Ambassador for Culture and the Arts in the field of Education
Malyn hails from Lallo ,Cagayan. She graduated from the University
of the Philippines (UP) with a Bachelor of Science degree in
Education (BSE) Biology Major. She taught at Jose Rizal College for 5
years before migrating to Australia in 1973. She has been with the New
South Wales Department of Education for 43 years as a high school science
teacher and on several occasions as acting Science Head Teacher. She was a
Science Examiner for the HSC for Biology.
Malyn is a very active community leader, having founded the Ilocano
Association of Australia (IAA) where she served as President for 12
years. She was also elected president of the Philippine Community
Council of New South Wales (PCC-NSW) in 2002 and president
of the Filipino Communities Council of Australia (FILCCA) in
2007. She was also past president of Filipino Co-operative Ltd.
Malyn is now semi-retired but her passion of teaching
has not dwindled. She still does casual teaching in several
state schools in the city. In her free time she volunteers in the
main stream community and was awarded the “Most Spirited
Volunteer” by Bicycle NSW in 2014.