Are you proud to live in regional Queensland? Do you believe that creative expression and storytelling can create a conversation about hard-hitting topics and instigate change?
Telling Our Stories to the World is a creative initiative that celebrates regional communities by telling their own stories in their own ways. The latest Queensland-wide project opens a dialogue with communities on the challenges of climate change and weather extremes, helping them to share stories on how they are adapting to increasingly severe and frequent drought, flooding, cyclones, storms and bushfires. It aims to empower Queensland writers, strengthen a range of existing skills, and build resilience. It is proudly supported by Queensland Writers Centre (QWC), Department of Environment and Science (DES), and the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ).
Project case studies:
Writing Friday
Writing Friday is a Queensland Writers Centre initiative that runs out of our office at the State Library of Queensland and in local libraries and community centres across Queensland. The goal of Writing Friday through this project was to engage communities in writing and storytelling. QWC shared the Sector Adaptation Plans and DES climate change tools and resources at these events, as inspiration for story-making and to help contextualise individuals’ stories of adaptation. While COVID-19 significantly impacted the capacity of the libraries to adopt Writing Fridays, QWC has still been able to establish regular writing sessions for those in Mareeba, Malanda and Townsville, and over a dozen more regional locations in 2022 alone.
Postcards
As part of a new creative initiative to help inspire our regional communities to write, a series of postcards with writing prompts were created, featuring 6 images provided by photographers and artists throughout Queensland, in addition to the 6 images that had been created for the pilot project. These postcards were distributed to a range of venues, interest groups and events in the target Local Government Areas, including author workshops, Writing Fridays and Showcase events. Community members were encouraged to respond to the writing prompt on the front of the postcard, or simply share something about themselves and their lives in the context of resilience and adaptation to climate change. The prompts were framed to invite responses that considered how they might already be adapting, or how they will become more resilient in the face of climate change.
Author workshop TOURS
Talented Queensland writers and tutors were given the opportunity to tour the regions and conduct creative writing and story-making workshops with target groups in local areas. The workshops encouraged participants to integrate their own stories – past, present and future – into a broader narrative of climate change and resilience. Each writer on tour provided writing prompts and supported participants to tell their own stories of climate change adaptation.
School Visits
Telling Our Stories to the World also allowed us to engage school students in workshops that were designed to develop an awareness of the localised effects of climate change by inspiring students and teachers to create their own conversations, relevant to their localities and lifestyles. These lessons allowed children and teachers to think about how climate change is affecting their environments through personal experience and observations, without telling them how or what to think.
WQ magazine
Writing Queensland (WQ) is QWC’s quarterly magazine for members, covering the art, craft and business of writing. As a component of the Telling Our Stories to the World pilot project in 2019, a Central West special edition was produced featuring stories from project participants. A similarly regionally-focussed, themed edition was produced for the state-wide Telling Our Stories to the World project in 2022. The WQ ‘Climatic’ edition was published in print and electronically in February and sent out to over 1600 members, and to all participating Councils.
Online Community
Join our Facebook group ‘Telling Our Stories to the World – Queensland Writers Centre’ for news and updates, as well as special giveaways and opportunities for regional writers. Connect with other writers and Tell Your Stories to the World!
Program Partners & Funding
Telling Our Stories to the World is funded through the Queensland Government Department of Environment and Science’s SAP+ program, with the vision of ‘An innovative and resilient Queensland that manages the risks and harnesses the opportunities of a changing climate’. Queensland already experiences climate extremes – such as floods, droughts, heatwaves, and bushfires – that is likely to exacerbate in frequency due to climate change. Therefore, it is important for Queenslanders to understand the risks that a changing climate presents to communities, businesses and the natural environment, and the economic opportunities for new sustainable industries.
The project is partnered with Local Government Association of Queensland.
