Dorinda Hafner
Dorinda Hafner (born 1947) is an Ghanaian-born Australian storyteller, actress, dancer, choreographer, public speaker, writer and television chef. Early life. Hafner was born in 1947 in Ghana, when it was British crown colony called Ashanti. Her father was a surgeon, and her mother a midwife, with her family part of the Ashanti royal family, and she grew up in an affluent family but with a mother who taught her how to do manual work as well. Her maternal great-grandfather emigrated to Ghana from Scotland in the 19th century. Hafner was affected by a violent civil war  in her country when she was still in primary school. She won a scholarship to the Wesley Girls' Senior High School, Cape Coast, Ghana, where her education taught her more about the British royal family and Europe than Africa and she was influenced by its Methodist ethos. After leaving school, aged 18, she went to London to train as an ophthalmic nurse. She was the first black registered nurse (RN) trained at St George's Hospital. In London she met her future husband, psychiatrist Julian Hafner, with whom she emigrated in 1977 to South Australia. After settling in Adelaide, she  worked as an RN. At that time, there were very few people of African descent in Adelaide, and she was met with a lot of misunderstanding, and mostly "just annoying and stupid" discrimination rather than deliberate racism. Career. Hafner is a registered nursing sister, optician, author, actor, and public speaker. In 1988, she was one of a four-woman dance troupe who called themselves the African Dance Group and performed a show directed by Robyn Archer at The Space Theatre in the Adelaide Festival Centre for the Adelaide Festival of Arts, entitled "AKWANSO (Fly South)". The others in the group  were Pitjantjatjara dancer/actor Lillian Crombie, African-American dancer and choreographer Aku Kadogo, and Jamaican Jigzie Campbell. Each woman tells her own story of racial prejudice, which is followed by a dance by all four women, choreographed by Mary Barnett of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She worked as a television chef and presenter with Bert Newton on "Good Morning Australia" for ten years. Other roles. Hafner also espouses humanitarian causes and has worked for several Australian charities. She founded her own charity, called Australian Sponsorship for African Kids. She is also a qualified marriage celebrant. Personal life. Hafner  has two children with her ex-husband Julian: medical specialist James and television presenter and registered psychologist Nuala Hafner, and is described as "first a mother" on one of her agency websites. She had a brief second marriage to an African diplomat, but remained on good terms with her ex-husband Julian. She speaks five languages, and has spoken openly about the battle with her weight. Over the five years up to 2012, she reduced her weight from to She wrote the book "Honey I've shrunk the chef", published in 2012, about how she did it. Publications. Hafner is  the author of at least eight books, including: