An education with meaning and purpose

Emrys shared his story with the school for Sophia Mundi’s 30-year anniversary celebration in 2015. We are re-sharing it here.

I can still remember sitting in a hot, stuffy portable building in Class 6 at the Canberra Rudolf Steiner School (now called Orana), then located in Yarralumla at an old rented YMCA hall. Except that I don’t remember that it was hot or stuffy, or portable. What I remember is my Class 6 teacher, Michael Simmons, telling me of Horatius, who held the bridge to Rome against the entire Etruscan army, until it could be pulled down behind him; of Gaius Mucius Scaevola whom, a year later, thrust his right arm into the flames upon being threatened with torture by the Etruscan king, to show the bravery of Roman soldiers.

I remember the Gods of Egypt – Thoth, Osiris and Anubis; the Norse Gods – Oden, Freya, Thor and Loki; the stories of the Indian, Babylonian and older civilisations; the Dreaming stories, earliest of all.

These stories, but most importantly the striving of my teachers to bring them alive in me, have given me access as an adult to deep and powerful truths about the human being and our world. These are truths that cannot be captured in a formula and cannot be tested to see whether a child has grasped them. Rather, they come to fruition as a reality in a life well lived.

Twenty-six years later, my own son is about to start Class 6 at Sophia Mundi, and will be learning the stories of the great Roman civilization, and my daughter is going into Class 4.

When my children were in kindergarten, I chaired the Committee of Management and the Little Sophia Kindergarten. I now Chair the Board of Directors of the School, having been a director for almost five years. I am deeply committed to what Sophia Mundi (and Steiner education more broadly) has to offer the world and the future of humanity.

I work as a barrister, a profession I love, in which I am privileged to work in service of my clients and the high ideals of the Courts and the Law.

This year, I am traveling around Australia with Kemi, my wonderful wife, and our children, learning together about our diverse and extraordinary country, and learning to learn more about ourselves.

I truly believe that my Steiner education provided the basis for a rich life, filled with meaning and purpose, and an understanding of the importance of listening and serving humanity and the future evolution of our world.

I can also knit rather well.

Emrys Nekvapil

Former Board Member and parent at Sophia Mundi

2026 update

Emrys is a Senior Counsel at the Victorian Bar with a broad trial and appellate practice appearing before the High Court, intermediate appellate courts, and State and Territory Supreme Courts. He is Chair of the Public Law Section of the Commercial Bar Association, and author of leading texts on VCAT practice and Victorian administrative law. In 2025 he was the winner of the Ron Merkel SC Award for outstanding pro bono advocacy. Emrys practices in constitutional, administrative, commercial, and regulatory law with expertise in complex and emerging areas.