Bushfire Recovery Storytelling Project
Our storytelling project was a collaboration between Andrea Ketterling and Danielle Carey. It aimed to build emotional resilience through therapeutic stories, creativity and play with Wild Ground families after the devastating 2019-2020 Bushfire Season.
The program ran for six weeks and was offered FREE to Wild Ground families thanks to our crowdfunding supporters after the Wild Ground’s private bushspace was destroyed by the fires.
The six weeks included the writing and performance of therapeutic stories written by Andrea and Danielle; song sharing; bushwalking, nature play, art-making using charcoal and other nature materials. Through a social media campaign we offered support, ideas and information for children’s recovery as Danielle documented the story of her own children’s recovery after their own house was almost destroyed. We also invited a WIRES volunteer to visit our program to provide an opportunity for the children to participate in animal recovery and support post-bushfires. The groups were able to help release two Kingfishers and a long-necked turtle at one of our favourite bush play areas on Darug and Gundungurrah Country.
