Stories

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Chantal

“I wasn’t born here, but I moved here when I was one. Kangaroo Island is all I remember. Because there is so much open spaces and nature, you are always kind of outside at the beaches. Growing up, that had a huge impact on my inspiration, my work, and what connects me back to my…

Jarod

“Family legend has it, that I was conceived on Kangaroo Island in the winter of ‘69. Which says a lot about my innate love of the ocean, beach, eucalyptus and of course, the dreaded koala. My wonderful grandparents once ran a farm in Cygnet River. My mum and her siblings grew up on the farm…

Adam

“It was very different growing up here compared to living in the city, and so very enjoyable. I got to spend lots of time outside, going to the beach and working on the land. When I was a young kid, we stayed a fair bit down at Island Beach and I still love it there.…

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Video stories

The journey of disaster recovery and mental health is a difficult one to describe, so we decided to let the community do it themselves.

Two years after the devastating bushfires on the island, a group of locals got together at a shearing shed to have a sausage BBQ and a chat. Together with Junction Australia and the Breakthrough Mental Health Research Foundation, Humans of Kangaroo Island wanted to capture what it is that people are still working through.

The video shows the layers of recovery and everyone’s personal journey. Thank you to all involved and I hope it will impact you in a positive way watching this:

Documentary Film

Following the 2019/20 Black Summer fires, I decided to share my journals from the summer and create a documentary film telling the tales of fire-affected Kangaroo Island residents.

I connected with local filmmaking crew en plein air and we started filming in March 2020. During the many interviews with islanders, we learned about how the events of the most tragic bushfire day in Kangaroo Island history have impacted their lives and what their recovery journey since has looked like.

Many tears were shed during the months of filming and together we embarked on a storytelling adventure to create a memorial film for our future generations.

‘January 3rd’ has been written by myself based on this original idea and was produced by David Foreman and Ruth de la Lande and their sound engineer Gethin Craegh. We have been supported by the fire-affected Western Districts Memorial and Community Sports Centre and had financial grant funding through Wellbeing SA.

We are grateful to all the local residents who have shared their tales with us and the many people who will watch this film in the future. I believe that this has helped us all through our personal recovery battles and has helped us bond as a community even more.