Dr Rachael Fox and A/Prof Andrew McGrath of the School of Psychology received a grant of $51,679 as part of the Children and Young People Wellbeing Recovery Initiative Large Grants program funded by the NSW government. For this project, we built on our pilot study in Batlow but extended it to the far south coast, which was badly impacted by bushfires in the Black Summer fires of 2019/20.
Over a period of 12 months, 16 workshops were held in Bega and Cobargo, involving 33 young people. A range of art was produced that spoke to experiences of bushfire in particular, but also wider environmental themes.
The young people used a variety of mediums including clay, paint, and video in these workshops and an exhibition of these works will be held in Bega between 22 March and 10 April. It is hoped that an exhibition of all work produced across Batlow, Bega, and Cobargo will be held on the Wagga campus later this year.
