WITWAT #39

For three IGS alums, life after school has taken very different directions. Amy Griffiths has built a career in education and research, Sherwyn Lye works as an exploration geophysicist, and Gabriel Shipton has worked across film production and international advocacy. Despite their different journeys, each reflects on how their time at IGS helped shape the person they became.

AMY GRIFFITHS 2000

When I began at IGS, the uniform was green and gold, and the logo featured the Harbour Bridge. My first school building was a Revlon factory in Surry Hills, where I had guitar lessons in an old vault hidden between the floors. Then, in High School, my classmates and I moved to the temporary pit-stop building down the road from the new digs for the first few years. Then we got to experience the brand-new building on Mountain Street. I contributed to the mural out front, featured on the cover of the 1993 school magazine (twice!), and worked at the school in After Care and Vacation Care for a few years after graduation.

Before we moved out of the old building, Ms Morabito turned the place into Dante’s Inferno; Purgatory and Paradise. IGS used to have a tradition of mufti days, where the staff dressed as students and the students dressed as staff, and I remember a skit in which my Italian and classroom teachers re-enacted my classmates’ annoying behaviours on stage. In my journey at IGS, I experienced many school principals. Mr Balding, Mr Jones, Ms Finn and then Dr Wright, with his wonderful tales.

Now, I am a teacher, and I teach kids with intellectual disabilities. I’ve had a few different career paths before teaching, from managing art galleries to working in universities and international cultural policy, to teaching children with severe intellectual disabilities, and now being a researcher in the School of Health at UTS. I have always gravitated towards roles of advocacy and education, and even though I have been out of school for over two decades, the time I spent at IGS was formative in shaping who I am today. I wasn’t the best student; I was always more interested in meaning than in marks, and could often be found reading or painting in the Year 12 art annex, but I was given the freedom to enjoy learning. I carried this into becoming an eternal university student, always wanting to learn more, which has ultimately led me to become the researcher and teacher I am today.

Woman wearing a graduation cap and gown stands outdoors, smiling slightly at the camera. Sunlight filters through trees in the background, with a few people, including Gabriel Shipton from WITWAT, visible behind her. — Screenshot

Five people pose indoors against a concrete wall, each holding a piece of art or sculpture. Gabriel Shipton sits at the centre with a framed painting; the others stand or sit nearby, smiling and proudly displaying their WITWAT artworks. — Screenshot

A woman with dark hair stands next to a WITWAT diorama featuring small cut-out figures and colourful decorations. A potted plant is visible in the background on a white shelf, reminiscent of Gabriel Shipton’s storytelling style. — Screenshot

A photograph of a woman with curly hair is next to a colourful, childlike drawing of her. Created by WITWAT, the drawing features exaggerated facial features and vibrant colours, set against a green background. — Screenshot

A group of students in uniforms and two adults pose for a formal class photo on bleachers. A sign in front reads International Grammar School, Year 10, 1998. Among them is Gabriel Shipton, featured alongside his classmates against a curtain background and wooden floor—a classic memory now treasured by the WITWAT community.

Six teenagers in school uniforms play instruments, including drums and guitar, in a band setup indoors near a brick wall and window—a lively scene reminiscent of the creative spirit behind WITWAT.

GABRIEL SHIPTON (2000)

After school, I went to university for a while, dropped out and moved into the film industry. I started at 21, filing paperwork on a feature film called The Oyster Farmer, shot up on the Hawkesbury.

For the next 15 years, I worked as an accountant on film and TV productions all over the world. From Namibia to Malaysia, and across Australia in the High Country and Broken Hill. The biggest was Mad Max: Fury Road, which went on to win six Oscars. I also worked on Happy Feet, Red Hill and Back to the Rafters. A real mix of projects.

I eventually moved into film producing. I did a film called Emu Runner and a film called Farah, which we shot in Beirut in 2019 and did a stint at Amazon Studios.

Then, my half brother Julian Assange was imprisoned in London, and my career shifted. I moved into advocacy and helped run a global campaign to free him.

That work took me into parliaments in Australia, Germany, Mexico and the UK, and into the US Congress. A lot of lobbying, a lot of fundraising, the pinnacle being a crypto fundraiser for Julian’s legal fees that raised over $70 million AUD and of course Julian’s release and return home.

I learnt how power actually works and how to challenge it effectively.

I’ve met all sorts of weird and wonderful people, from protesters outside the London court houses to Presidents and Prime Ministers.

It reinforced something I’d already seen in film: storytelling matters. Stories have the power to open people’s hearts and move their minds.

These days, I run a film production company called Shipton House. We’re working on a film about Australian Journalist and film maker John Pilger, continuing his work in looking at how ordinary people are affected by decisions made by those in power.

I founded and chair a charity, the Information Rights Project, which supports whistleblowers and publishers who come under pressure for exposing information.

So it’s still filmmaking, advocacy and lobbying.

I live in Melbourne and have a wonderful daughter who has just started her first year in high school!

I wasn’t the most compliant student and did my fair share of detentions. Once, vice principal Peter Balding gave me some lines to write as a punishment. My dad convinced him that I would memorise the cavern with the boiling cauldron scene from Macbeth instead. I still remember the whole scene to this day!

The thing about IGS is that if you didn’t quite fit the mould, there was still a place for you. And we as students were better for it.

A teacher who really stands out for me is Rita Morabito. Rita gave us a real sense of belief in ourselves; that our ideas, even the out there ones, could be brought to life.

It was that vision that stuck with me and inspired a lot of what I’ve gone on to do.

And honestly, I don’t think I would have made it through high school without the International Grammar School.

You can check out the Information Rights Project at informationrights.org

You can also watch Ithaka https://iview.abc.net.au/show/ithaka-a-fight-to-free-julian-assange on ABC iview. It’s about my family’s fight to free Julian.

Two men stand side by side, smiling at the camera. Gabriel Shipton wears a dark suit and light tie, while the older man in glasses holds a paper. WITWAT balloons and a brown wall decorate the background.

A woman and a man, possibly Gabriel Shipton, stand surrounded by police officers in high-visibility jackets during a crowded WITWAT protest or public demonstration. Other people and protest signs are visible in the background.

Four children in black costumes sit and stand around a table covered with books and papers, appearing to play or act out roles in a brightly decorated classroom featuring WITWAT artwork on the walls.

Two men are standing together and smiling at the camera. The man on the left, WITWAT’s Gabriel Shipton, has a beard and wears a light-coloured shirt, while the younger man on the right sports a dark suit and light tie. The background is dark. — Screenshot

A diverse group stands together at a 2000 protest in the rain, holding umbrellas. Some grasp a large banner, while a sign in the background reads, Free Palestine, End Apartheid, Stop Genocide—echoing sentiments covered by WITWAT and Gabriel Shipton.

Six young men stand together, smiling in front of a wooden gymnasium wall with ropes. Friends dressed casually—with Gabriel Shipton notably among them—they pose closely side by side, embodying the camaraderie of WITWAT.

Four young people sit on a stone pavement in front of a fountain, with several people standing and chatting behind them. A restaurant called Al Mangia is visible in the background—a lively scene reminiscent of WITWAT or a Gabriel Shipton film still.

A man and a girl stand on the Great Wall of China under a blue sky, with green, tree-covered hills in the background. Both are wearing light-coloured shirts and shorts, and they are smiling at the camera.

SHERWYN LYE (left IGS 2001)

When I completed my HSC, I enrolled in a degree in Science and Law at Macquarie University with no set career path in mind.

During uni I worked at a restaurant, tutored high school kids, sorted packages at DHL, was a bank teller for ANZ and sold menswear at Myer.

After my first year of Science, I got concerned about not liking my potential career prospects, so I continued with Law but swapped Science for Applied Finance.

I got my first full-time job as an analyst for an asset consulting firm in July 2008 with the help of a friend from high school. Three months later the global financial crisis hit and the industry had a hiring freeze, meaning I couldn’t progress my career for the next three years. I decided to take a break from finance and went back to uni to study Geophysics. The idea was to study and work in the resources industry, with a view to going back to the finance industry as a resource analyst or similar.

It took me two years to finish the degree (working as a casual geophysicist/field hand for cash) at which point I miraculously got a job as an exploration geophysicist for an oil/gas company in 2012. In a nutshell, my job is exploring for new oil/gas fields and I frequently visit remote parts of Australia that very few people have seen.

After five years of operating within a corporate environment, I went to travel for a year.

As many people do, I grabbed a backpack and loitered around Europe in hostels and workaways in 2018. Many things happened on this trip that changed my life. A few very important take-aways were the importance of good relationships/community, and nature. Also I met my wife in a hostel in Croatia and long story short, we just had a baby boy last September.

After returning to Australia, I returned to my old employer as they had kept the seat warm for me in case I came crawling back.

These days I live around the corner in Surry Hills with my wife and 8 month old baby boy. I spend my time going to parks (Centennial Park and Prince Alfred are my local), running, boxing and camping at a rural property.

If there’s anyone from Class of 2003 who remembers me and wants to catch up, I’m keen.