When a group of young people affected by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires were asked to tell their stories for an exhibition at the Victoria Police Museum it created an organic process of healing for both them and their families that was unexpected and deeply meaningful. This paper, which was presented at the 2014 Victorian Museums & Galleries Conference held in Warrnambool,(Victoria, Australia), describes the development of the project from initial contact with staff and young people from the Wominjeka Youth Centre in Kinglake to the final reveal when young people and their families saw the exhibition for the first time. Discussion covers the collaborative process, curatorial approach, practical decisions making, dealing with sensitive and confronting issues and maintaining an ongoing relationship with members of the community.

1. Copy of paper presented at the Museums Australia (Victoria), Victorian Museums
and Galleries Conference 2014. Warrnambool, Victoria 3-4 April.
Author: Kate Spinks
Public Program Curator
Victoria Police Museum
Katherine.spinks@police.vic.gov.au
www.policemuseum.vic.gov.au
Creating Things from Fire and Ash: Working with Vulnerable Communities
ABSTRACT
When a group of young people affected by the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires,
were asked to tell their stories for an exhibition at the Victoria Police Museum it
created an organic process of healing for both them and their families that was
unexpected and deeply meaningful.
This presentation will take you through the development of the project from
initial contact with staff and young people from the Wominjeka Youth Centre in
Kinglake to the final reveal when young people and their families saw the
exhibition for the first time.
Discussion will cover the collaborative process, curatorial approach, practical
decisions making, dealing with sensitive and confronting issues and maintaining
an ongoing relationship with members of the community.

2. In February 2013, the Victoria Police Museum created the exhibition, Things of
Fire and Ash. The exhibition consisted of photographic portraits and personal
stories of 11 young people from the Kinglake region who experienced the 2009
Black Saturday bushfires.
The exhibition was conceived as a way of connecting with young people
impacted by the fires; of celebrating their strength and resilience and
commemorating the anniversary of Black Saturday: a day when 173 Victorian’s
lost their lives in the worst bushfires in the nation’s history.
Kinglake was one of the worst affected regions with 120 of the 173 deaths
occurring in communities in that district. Immediately after the fires, the
Wominjeka Youth Centre was set up to provide support for children in the area.
These young people experienced trauma that many adults have found difficult to
cope with, but in the aftermath of the tragedy there has been very little space for
their voices and experiences to be heard.
The exhibition, Things of Fire and Ash, in a very small way, aimed to provide a
space for these young people to express their ideas and emotions and create an
experience for them to feel proud of.
The initial idea for the exhibition came to me when I was having a lazy Sunday
afternoon watching an episode of Poh’s Kitchen of all things! They had a special
feature where they visited the Kinglake Youth Centre to look at the recovery
work they were doing there.
Like all Victorian’s, Black Saturday is deeply etched in my memory. After
watching the program and hearing about the ongoing recovery efforts four years
after the disaster I was inspired to look at a way for the Police Museum to play a
part in this.
Victoria Police were of course heavily involved in the state emergency caused by
the bushfires, both on the day itself and in the long aftermath that included the
dismal task of victim identification.
The Museum also acquired a collection relating to the event that includes items
such as the remnants of a burnt Australian flag that was flying outside the
Marysville Police Station: another town badly impacted by the fires.
It was with this in mind that I decided to contact Lesley Bebbington, who was the
Co-ordinator of the Kinglake Youth Centre to see if they would like to work
together to create an exhibition.
Lesley was immediately behind the idea. I think her enthusiasm for the project
stemmed from her recognition that it was not only a project that celebrated the
strength and resilience of these young people but that it had the potential to have
a therapeutic outcome for those involved.

3. After getting Lesley’s nod of approval I began the initial research phase of the
exhibition development. Because we were dealing with a group of people who
had experienced significant trauma and we were in a sense asking them to tell
the whole world about it, I felt quite anxious about how we approached the
process. In preparation I decided to seek out other exhibitions that focused on
either: young people, personal stories or trauma.
SLIDE – OBJECT STORIES
Two of the most useful exhibitions I found were the Story Pods at the Jewish
Holocaust Centre and an online community exhibition called Object Stories from
the Portland Art Museum. These helped frame the approach in terms of the kind
of tone I wanted the exhibition to take and highlighted the importance of a very
limited curatorial voice and visibility that I felt was important to achieve.
I decided that the only element of the exhibition where the curatorial voice
should be included was in the main banner introducing the exhibition. I felt some
kind of introduction was necessary to describe Black Saturday for anyone,
particularly international visitors, who were not aware of the scale and
significance of the disaster.
SLIDE – MAIN BANNER
The main banner provided basic facts about the bushfires and the impact they
had on communities and contextualised the reason for the exhibition.
I made sure that Lesley and her colleagues felt comfortable with the content of
the banner, given it was quite explicit and had the potential to cause some
distress, it was important to have their input.
I also made the deliberate decision not to include items from the Museum’s
existing Black Saturday collection in Things of Fire and Ash. The reason for this
was that I thought these would take away from the focus of the exhibition, which
was the young people and their stories. I didn’t want these physical remnants to
compete with their stories.
The only objects included in the exhibition were a box of household odds and
ends that Lesley had collected from the ashes of her own home after the fires.
SLIDE – LESLEY’S THINGS
Lesley wrote her own label for these items, describing the poignancy of these
burnt and disfigured objects that although no longer useful, she cannot bare to
throw away.

4. These objects had a more personal resonance than the objects in our collection
and I felt they illustrated the domestic, everyday, life-changing impact of the
disaster.
They spoke to a world turned upside-down for the kids involved - of family
dislocation and a loss of the familiar.
I liaised closely with Lesley about the process of getting a group of participants
together and how best to facilitate the story-writing part of the project. This
aspect of the exhibition development was particularly sensitive.
Many of the young people in areas affected by the bushfires have suffered from a
myriad of health issues including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress
disorder, disengagement from school, work, family and friendship groups. Even
the youngest children in the area who were pre-verbal during the disaster have
exhibited behaviours potentially linked to the stress of what they experienced.
The importance of getting it right in terms of encouraging these young people to
open up about their thoughts and feelings without being too confronted by the
process was paramount.
Initially, I wrote a letter to the potential participants and their families about the
project. I outlined the inspiration for the project, the aims and intended
outcomes and the steps involved. I worded the letter in a fairly informal way as I
wanted it to come across as quite personal but at the same time I included all the
information they needed to make the decision as to whether it was something
they wanted to be involved in.
SLIDE – RECORDING AUTHORISATION FORM
The key document I included with this letter was a Recording Authorisation
Form to be signed by parents or guardians. In preparation I had contacted the
State Library Education Unit for a template permission form as I was aware that
they frequently photograph and record school students for advertising and
programming. I was keen to ensure we covered all the relevant permissions and
copyright information and sought their advice as to what should be included.
Apart from getting signed permission to take the young person’s photograph,
acknowledging ownership and copyright of the images by Victoria Police was
important. It was also crucial to explain to participants that the Museum could
continue to use the images, including posting them online, at any time without
further consent being required.
This has turned out to be very important clause in the permission form, as an
online version of the exhibition has been requested for a fundraising and support
organisation involved in bushfire recovery. If we had not covered this aspect of
reproduction and copyright in the initial permission form we would be faced
with contacting the families all over again.

5. Although my details were always made available, it was decided from the outset
that Lesley be the main point of contact for the participants and their families.
SLIDE - LESLEY BEBBINGTON
She is a trusted member of the community, the children all respond to her in a
very positive way and she and her colleagues at the Youth Centre were best
placed to take control of certain elements of the exhibition development process
– particularly the story writing.
Her understanding of each individual’s personal experience was crucial. As was
her understanding of the personal issues each young person was facing.
For example, one of the participants has dyslexia. This was managed by Lesley,
who offered extra support to the young person; getting them to dictate their
story to her, in private, so that she could record it on their behalf.
Another participant suffered an emotional breakdown during the period the
exhibition was being put together- something that although not precipitated by
the project itself was an issue that needed to be monitored closely in terms of
assessing whether they were up to sharing their story.
As it turned out in the cases of both these young people, what they eventually
shared with us in the exhibition was really significant to their journey of
recovery.
The sensitivity and background knowledge required in both these cases was
incredibly important and the Museum relied on Lesley for her expertise in this
area. She and I also discussed the fact that there needed to be a certain amount of
flexibility built into the project. We knew that some people might drop out of the
project along the way because of the confronting nature of what they were being
asked to do – which did occur – but because we had that possibility covered from
the onset, it did not cause any difficulties.
SLIDE – LIST OF OBJECTS
As a way of getting participants to open up, they were asked to select a
meaningful object that they could use as inspiration for telling their story. Their
object could be a person, place or thing. This approach seemed to work well as it
gave participants a starting point for their stories and got them to centre their
discussion around the important elements of their experience. For example, Tim
chose his IPod.
SLIEDE – TIM’S IPOD
He and his mother had been trapped in their home after being turned back by
CFA when they tried to flee at the last minute. Like many of the participants
directly caught up in the fires on the day, they did not know whether they would
live or die. In the twelve months after the fires, Tim barely left his house. To take

6. his mind off the harrowing experience, he constantly listened to music on his
IPod, wearing out several pairs of earphones.
One of the practical aspects of coordinating the project was carefully planning an
achievable time frame for each step of the exhibition development. Time-frames
are always important for developing any exhibition, but when you throw 11
young people into the mix, it becomes a much greater challenge! Once again
Lesley’s support in this was essential.
Her contact with the kids through the Youth Centre meant we had to rely on her
ability to coordinate them for certain tasks – particularly when the time came to
have their photograph taken. Lesley was so dedicated the project that she even
went out of her way to collect some of the participants from school or home so
that they were there for their scheduled date with our photographer Lilli. Again,
we had to be very flexible with dates and there were a couple of false starts, but
managing the time schedules of museum staff, the photographer, Lesley and the
11 participants was no mean feat!
During the initial development phase, I had gone in search of an appropriate
artist to take the photographic portraits.
SLIDE – MUSEUM SEEKS ARTIST
I wanted the portraits to be very striking and atmospheric and I also wanted the
process of having their photograph taken to be quite creative for the young
people and for it to be a special experience where they got enjoyment out of
being the centre of attention for the day.
I discovered the work of Melbourne based photographer Lilli Waters. I thought
that her aesthetic would be perfect for the project. Lilli was very keen to be
involved in the exhibition and after a couple of meetings to discuss the look and
feel she proved to be the perfect person for the task: producing the perfect image
of each of the young people that shows a combination of strength, beauty,
individuality and vulnerability.
SLIDE – CREATING THE PORTRAITS
Having their portrait taken by an artist, as we had hoped, was a unique
experience for all the young people. They really embraced the process and did all
sorts of crazy things like trekking through the forests to find the perfect location,
lying down in long fields of grass and were even happy to potentially have a
bucket of water chucked over them for the sake of art!
SLIDE – EXHIBITION OPENS: AYDEN
When the day came for them all to see their portraits hanging in the Museum for
the first time there were smiles and tears and a very palpable sense of pride
amongst the participants. The Museum organised a bus to collect the
participants, their families and friends for a private opening of the exhibition. We

7. very much wanted them to have the opportunity to see the exhibition first, as a
group.
SLIDE – EXHIBITION OPENS: GROUP IMAGE
It was a great evening – albeit an emotional one. We arranged for each
participant to take home their own framed copy of their portrait and had the
Chief Commissioner, Ken Lay officially open the exhibition.
SLIDE – EXHIBITION OPENS: BEAU & GIRLFRIEND
During the evening I got a real sense of how much the exhibition meant to those
involved. I had three parents come and speak to each with a similar story about
how being involved in the project had been quite emotionally profound for them
and their children.
They each said that in the four years since the fires, their child had not expressed
these thoughts and feelings to counsellors let alone family members. Yet, here
they were laid bare for everyone to read the exhibition.
It may have been the fact that writing their story for the exhibition was a bit like
writing a page in their diary in that the audience was unknown or even invisible:
making it easier to share their inner thoughts.
Or perhaps it was the fact that a group of peers all took up the scary challenge
together to open up about a shared trauma…I’m not sure, but the fact that each
of these young people did, is a really wonderful thing.
One mother wrote me an email during the exhibition development. In it she said:
I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for not only my son but for
our youth up here. When I heard about the exhibition and read your letter about
the project, I did not know what impact it would have for me until Leslie showed
me the photo.
I don’t know if you understand how proud my son actually is of it. What you are
doing here is something that must be commended. Thank you for taking the time to
show that our youth are excellent, but we already knew that.
SLIDES X 10 – THE PORTRAITS
Annie & Olivia with their waterpistols
Ayden and his CFA uniform
Lewis and his artwork
Michael standing on the property where he and his family sought refuge during
the fires
Bec and her dog Goldie
Emily and CDs of her favourite bands

8. Beau and his drumsticks
Mikey and his mobile phone
Oscar and his skateboard
Tim and his Ipod
In the period since the exhibition, myself and colleagues have remained in
contact with Lesley. It has been important to me and the whole nature of the
project that there be some kind of ongoing relationship between the community
and the Museum in some way.
This has included a fundraiser by my colleague Monica Cronin. She was inspired
by the plight of the Youth Centre who have struggled to attract continued
funding to support these vulnerable young people. She organised an exhibition of
donated artworks with 100% of sales going to the Kinglake Youth Centre.
In February this year we took Things of Fire and Ash to Kinglake for display at an
event held for the fifth-year anniversary of Black Saturday; and more recently we
have been involved in developing an online version of the exhibition for a
fundraising and awareness organisation called Smouldering Stump that is
dedicated to community bushfire recovery and in particular raising awareness
about mental health issues caused by natural disaster trauma.
We also have a project bubbling away in the background that involves the
permanent display of the portraits and stories in the yet to be built Kinglake
Cultural Centre – in our view the perfect home for the exhibition.
Some final facts about the exhibition: all up the exhibition cost under $5,000 to
produce. It was a simple exhibition and very cost effective but it had a big impact.
The costs included:
Photographer’s fees
Printing of artworks
Printing of text labels and main banner
Framing of portraits
Printing of promotional postcards
SLIDE - TIPS/THINGS LEARNED…WORKING WITH COMMUNITY GROUPS
> Keep the project simple.
> Having one main contact for a community project is important – too many
channels of communication can create complications.
> Make sure you have clear processes, timelines and responsibilities outlined.
> Cover everything in writing: emails are good.
> Delegate tasks to the most appropriate people. This includes those within the
community group.

9. > Check with key people in the community group you are working with on
aspects of content and interpretation – make sure they are happy with content
and tone. You are telling their story, it’s really important you do that in a way
that they feel comfortable with.
> Be flexible and be open to change at every turn!