Victoria University is hosting an exhibition at its Footscray campus, titled Extreme weather in Melbourne’s West: stories from culturally diverse communities.
The exhibition is part of the Lord Mayor’s Charitable funded project which is called, ‘Adapting to extreme weather events: knowledge and practices in culturally diverse communities in Melbourne’s west’.
The project looks at how people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds understand and react to extreme weather events.
VU academic Dr Karen Willis said the exhibition comprises findings from small group discussions and individual interviews with 79 people from culturally diverse backgrounds.
“It was interesting to hear people come along and say what they thought about and what they experienced in their own country,” she said.
“And what they do when they’re faced with extreme weather and what they would like local government and community organisations to do to provide the support they need.”
The exhibition details not only how people think and feel about extreme weather, but also how they support each other, as well as the community-based and government support they would like to see.
Dr Willis said the participants were given free reign over what they wanted to produce, making an exhibition which holds several forms of art including transcripts of discussions, drawings and poems.
One participant from Sunshine West (73) who is originally from Malta said, “I’d never had asthma and I put it down to allergies because that’s when it happened, when the weather changed so quickly that I became, I couldn’t breathe. I had to go on the ventilator.”
The exhibition is on display until November 29.
Jennifer Pittorino
