From early to mid-year 2022 I participated in the Mapping The Understories Project. The project facilitated by Hand Bent Banana Arts and NiCA aims to connect the stories of the natural ecology of areas with the human stories. Supported by the Australian Government’s Bushfire Recovery Program for Wildlife and their Habitat, the project aims to gather the stories of a region and trace the lines of deeper connections that run between and across the landscape and people.

For the first part of the project, long term residents of the Tallebudgera Valley in South East Queensland were interviewed regarding their personal histories and experiences with past bushfires while I sketched them using charcoal I have made from native and invasive species from the Valley.

The first five portraits formed part of a showcase exhibited at Hand Bent Banana in Tallebudgera Valley in July 2022.