An extract from the book Women Living Fearlessly by Liz Courtney – one mother’s journey from working in stilettoes to travelling the world and directing films about our precious planet earth.
Liz will be appearing alongside The Carousel and Women Love Tech founder Robyn Foyster, Mosman Mayor Anne Marie Kimber and global influencer turned AI specialist Elise Strachan, at the Women Love Tech’s International Women’s Day Breakfast at Mosman Rower’s Club on Wednesday 5th March, to share her sliding door moment, a new life chapter in climate solutions, and how we can all help accelerate change.
Qaanaaq, Greenland, 72 Degrees North, minus-fifteen degrees Celsius, and we are heading out towards the Arctic North Pole looking for the edge of the sea-ice to film our first episode – The Tipping Points of the Greenland Icesheet. A tent, a thermal mattress, snow boots on my feet, and not a real toilet for thousands of miles. To the horizon, all we can see is flat ice. With nowhere to hide and nature calling, I realise how inconvenient it is to be female in this place. The next best option? Using collection bags for toilets. I traded my high-flying corporate job in advertising – paid a generous salary, wore shoes to die for, and owned a glamour wardrobe – to experience all this!
Some might call me crazy, but I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.
Travelling on the first day of our expedition, I was overcome with the realisation that I was totally at peace, amidst a sea of white glistening snow, my huskies in front of me, wind hitting my face and a film crew relying on my direction – wow ‘hello who are you’ I said to myself?
‘Why, I am your adventurous self, one who has been asleep for so long. Glad to finally meet you – we have a lot of work to do to save this planet, so let’s get going.’ My heart was racing, tingles all over my body, I realised this world is my world, it is my home, and I was happy beyond words to have met my true self in the most far-flung place on the planet – the arctic sea ice in -20 Celsius!
We travelled for hours, until we unexpectedly saw ocean, shimmering in the distance. We approached a break in the ice, called a lead, and it was deemed best to run hard at the ice crack, jump with the dogs and sled across the break and land on the other side. Seemed like a plan, albeit I really had no idea because our Intuit hunters were our guides.
My sled was first to go, and I closed my eyes. We landed, and the second sled landed behind, but the dogs went crazy. The ice was moving, it was soft, like marshmallow, and in a nano second, I knew we were in danger.
Adrenalin rushed in and we clicked into survival mode. The Inuit guides were shouting, as they worked to settle the dogs and quickly turn our sleds around; the danger was apparent, and the sea ice was unstable. At any moment it could give way, and we would all be facing certain death in an icy sea.
We ran the dogs hard back across the gap. In that moment there was only time to focus on getting back to safety, no time for any other thoughts or conversations with self, only the moment to be very present, and very focused.
Checking everyone was okay, we stopped for a short break, some cheese and bread, and then followed the open lead for hours until we found a solid ice bridge across. Totally forgetting the sun never sets, I checked the time. Wow. At 11pm, sun high in the sky, we called it a day, set up tents, fed the dogs, and made a little circle, boiling up fresh water which brought our dry packed vegetable curries to life! Although we were all extremely tired, I had never felt more alive, living with purpose, passion, courage, kindness, and a greater awareness of how we define ourselves on this planet. We discussed the film sequences for the next day and retired to our Inuit tents for the rest of the sun-drenched night.
I felt life had brought me here to witness the rare beauty of mother nature and record the rate of change happening at the edge of our planetary system.
Meet the author: Liz Courtney, International Film Director
