Healing in Healesville

It’s 10 years since the devastating Black Saturday bushfires as I write this and I remember a very beautiful Polyglot project that happened in Healesville called Our Place – one of the disaster recovery projects. Jessica Wilson, Maddy Flynn and Tim Humphreys were the core team of this beautiful process between parents and children over several weeks and resulting in an exquisite interactive sound and visual installation. The stories that were told were from children as they sorted their feelings and responses to the fires, told in intimate ways so you had to lean in to listen. They were deeply moving and very human: funny, personal and idiosyncratic. Makes you realise the power of art to create a bridge of understanding between those who have had a huge experience and those watching. Polyglot went on to do more disaster recovery projects, including our relationship with Minami Sanriku in Japan.

• Sue Giles
  Healesville VIC, Australia