{"id":2,"date":"2006-04-08T04:33:35","date_gmt":"2006-04-08T11:33:35","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-11-05T08:03:43","modified_gmt":"2017-11-05T08:03:43","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/about","title":{"rendered":"Who is Murray?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"http:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/images\/mag.jpg\" alt=\"MAG\" title=\"MAG\" class=\"g2image_float_right\" \/>I grew up in Sydney, Australia, in a family that considered international guests a matter of course and took an interest in cultures from an early age.  I began travelling at 16 with a short exchange to Japan with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.labo-exchange.com\/\">Labo<\/a> and later spent a year in Japan as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.afs.org\/afs_or\/home\">AFS<\/a> Sydney Nagoya Sister City Scholar.  The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.afs.org\/afs_or\/view\/about_us\">AFS values<\/a> of peace and understanding and the exchange student&#8217;s motto &#8216;it&#8217;s not right, it&#8217;s not wrong, it&#8217;s just different&#8217; have guided me through life.  In 1998, I began travelling in earnest, living and working in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/?cat=12\">Japan<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/?cat=9\">Belgium<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/?cat=1\">Bhutan<\/a>, collecting stories and trying to understand the why of behaviours in different cultures.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way I found a passion for writing and began sharing my experiences by email, this blog and travel articles.  My first published book, Dragon Bones, was released in March 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Having lived and travelled in developing countries, I have seen the damage done by outsiders imposing their values on local cultures.  I strongly believe in the need for people to identify their own problems and determine their own solutions.  I do what I can to support local organisations in their efforts.<\/p>\n<p>I am currently back in Australia, where I completed a Masters of Applied <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aaanet.org\/about\/WhatisAnthropology.cfm\">Anthropology<\/a>.  I volunteer with AFS and continue to learn by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.afs.org\/afs_or\/focus_on\/hosting\">hosting<\/a> young cultural explorers.   As soon as I can, I will head back out into the world to help local organisations and collect stories for more books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I grew up in Sydney, Australia, in a family that considered international guests a matter of course and took an interest in cultures from an early age. I began travelling at 16 with a short exchange to Japan with Labo and later spent a year in Japan as the AFS Sydney Nagoya Sister City Scholar.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/about\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Who is Murray?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/1703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/murraygunn.id.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}