Cade Lucas
Young people from the inner-west are being invited to express their recollections of the 2022 Maribyrnong River floods, through art.
Floods + Me Maribyrnong project is a series of art-based activity sessions held over a six month period aimed at exploring young people’s responses to the 2022 floods, which devastated suburbs in the such as Footscray, Maidstone, Ascot Vale and Kensington.
Thirty young people aged 11 to 17 and who live in suburbs near the Maribyrnong River are wanted for the project where they’ll produce art such as photo essays, videos, visual diaries and creative writing to be displayed in a public exhibition in May next year.
Research Fellow from the Institute of Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities at Victoria University Dr Helen Widdop Quinton is running Floods + Me Maribyrnong which she said was modelled on a similar project held in the NSW Northern Rivers region following floods there.
“The floods and me project started with the Lismore floods and I’ve been involved in that aspect of the project and when we had the Maribyrnong River floods it seemed an obvious extension to include young people impacted by those floods,” Dr Widdop Quinton said.
The project is supported by Maribyrnong council and Dr Widdop Quinton said it was ultimately aimed at helping young people affected by the floods to recover.
“The impacts on children and young people are little understood in disaster recovery. This project will bring young people’s voices to the fore and support their wellbeing through embedded arts-based research activities,” she said.
“Arts based approaches have been shown to support recovery after disasters.”
The exhibition for the Northern Rivers Flood + Me project was held last month and dR Widdop Quinton said while it was still early days, some themes were already evident in the works young people there had produced.
“There’s definitely findings about what returning to normal looks like, what is normal after the flood and how the impacts are long lasting for young people and their families,” she said, adding that the differences between Lismore and inner-city Melbourne meant the artwork produced in the Maribyrnong project would likely be quite different.
For those interested in being involved, information sessions are being held on Wednesday November 6 and Tuesday November 12.
Details: vuau.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2nLUUm0q84yzmiW
