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Category Archives: community issues

WHO #Film4Health – Dalal’s Story …

Dalal’s Story is one of 16 finalists in the World Health Organisation‘s 2024 Health for All Film Festival – Category 2: Emergencies, Migrants and Refugees Health. The film was produced by Laundry Lane, illustrations: Simon Kneebone, animation: Santiago Dutil, edited by: Claire Cooper-Southam, sound: Alex Armour. The film was commissioned by STARTTS Refugee Support Services. A longer version combined two refugee family stories, one Yazidi and one Rohingya; see the post for Mohammed and Dalal here.

From the Film Festival: ‘The public is encouraged to choose one of the films they would like to champion and comment about its story/topic, before the end of May 2024. Comments can be posted on their social media using #Film4Health or through the posts inserted in those YouTube playlists‘.

‘We know what we want …’

Cartoons from the Alliance Building Day – Climate Impacted Communities Canberra Delegation – 25th March 2024, ‘For too long others have spoken on our behalf, or assumed what communities want and need.’ Preparation for the Advocacy Day on the 26th, ‘advocating in Parliament House for key asks that would improve the outcomes for climate impacted communities‘.

An alliance of: Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action (BSCA), Climate Action Network Australia (CANA), The Sunrise Project, The Grata Fund (re The Australian Climate Case), Sweltering Cities, Plan C, Reclaim Our Recovery and more!

Cheltenham Cemetery Stobie Pole Project …

The Cheltenham Cemetery Stobie Pole Project is engaging artists to paint the sides of stobie poles adjacent to the Cheltenham Cemetery with themes reflecting local history and figures buried in the cemetery. I have painted two sides.

One portrays Adelaide Miethke OBE, 1881 – 1962, an educator and teacher, initiator of the School of the Air, which used the existing Royal Flying Doctor Service radio network to connect teachers with students in remote and outback Australia.

The other side illustrates Henry Franson’s unfortunate death. He was head lighthouse keeper of the Wonga Shoal Lighthouse, marking the channel into Port Adelaide. At about 2.30 am on the 17th November 1912 the lighthouse was run into and destroyed by the sailing ship Dimsdale. Both lighthouse keepers drowned.

Adelaide Miethke and Henry Franson are buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery.

Tapping the staff resource …

Cartoons from the Auditor-General’s Department ( South Australia) ‘world cafe’ style workshop for all staff to workshop thoughts and ideas to help develop the department’s new Strategic Plan; held in Adelaide, 12th March, and facilitated by the wonderful Denis Picton, Oztrain. One key message was to better promote the range of work that the department does and its value to the community – it is annoying to staff that the department is often confused in people’s minds with the Tax Office…

Each staff member had a ‘passport’ to be stamped as they moved from table to table – each table tackled a particular aspect of the department’s work…

Changing the narrative …

Changing the narrative – artwork for the South Australian Council of Social Service (SACOSS) Annual Report 2022-23.

Moving on …

‘Protesters at a government-backed housing project in Adelaide’s north have condemned the way Aboriginal ancestral remains have been treated at the site, after what the premier conceded was “one of the largest findings of this type” in the country.’ The remains of at least 29 people have been uncovered in a burial ground across the site. A good overview from the ABC here.

Long journey towards justice …

The vote in the referendum on 14th October was NO.

On 22nd October a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders, community members and organisations who supported Yes released an open letter to be circulated to the Australian public and media, The Statement for our Peoples and Country.

From the statement: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are in shock and are grieving the result. We feel acutely the repudiation of our peoples and the rejection of our efforts to pursue reconciliation in good faith. That people who came to our country in only the last 235 years would reject the recognition of this continent’s First Peoples – on our sacred land which we have cared for and nurtured for more than 65,000 years – is so appalling and mean-spirited as to be utterly unbelievable a week following. It will remain unbelievable and appalling for decades to come.

‘All Australians should read this statement from Indigenous leaders, regardless of how they voted’.

NO? Then …

Read the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and about the Voice Referendum.

A change is coming …

CO-designing Arts Future …

Australia’s Arts & Disability Associated Plan – cartoons from a series of online consultation workshops with people with disability and others to shape the plan, run by The Science of Knowing .