RECLUSE WHO CHANGED HIS LIFE
AUTHOR Gregory Smith was born into a life of violence.
A victim of his alcoholic father’s physical abuse, he was sent – by his parents – to an orphanage where he suffered institutionalised violence.
As a boy he began committing petty crimes before drugs, alcohol and incarceration led him to homelessness.
Gregory Smith retreated to live “in the wild” for 10 years.
Calling himself Will Power, he lived in near-total isolation in northern New South Wales, foraging for food, eating bats and trading for produce.
When he finally emerged from the forest, emaciated and close to death, he was deter- mined to reclaim his life.
Mr Smith went to Southern Cross University and gained an undergraduate degree in social science followed by a PhD, in which he had investigated the impact of institutional life.
He now works at Southern Cross as an academic and has published his first memoir, Out of the Forest.
Mr Smith said he believed the two most powerful things in life were education and health.
“I believe that education is the most powerful tool on the planet to work with any of us dealing with homelessness, mental illness and poverty,” he said.
“Now I get to work in education. How cool is that?
“I’m actually participating in what I believe in and facilitating that change for other people.
I BELIEVE THAT EDUCATION IS THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL ON THE PLANET TO WORK WITH ANY OF US DEALING WITH HOMELESSNESS, MENTAL ILLNESS AND POVERTY
GREGORY SMITH
“What else could you ask for?”
Out of the Forest by Gregory P. Smith (William Heinemann Australia, $34.99) is out now.