news from the island
Winter 2017
Well, spring may have officially sprung, but we thought we’d take a minute to fill you in on the action-packed winter we had here at the Story Island Project!
Claremont College student James Finearty reads his piece, 'The Elwick Drive-In', at the Stories of the Brooker Highway exhibition launch.
stories of the brooker highway
Who on EARTH has any interesting stories about the Brooker Highway? We do! On 24 August, we launched our Stories of the Brooker Highway exhibition at Moonah Arts Centre.
This exhibition celebrates Hobart's northern suburbs as a place rich in stories, and a community filled with strong creative voices. It’s the culmination of work we’ve done with schools and community members in the northern suburbs throughout 2017.
Stories of the Brooker Highway features stories and images collected from and created by the local community about their experiences living and working around the Brooker. It includes creative stories and illustrations produced by young people who attend schools alongside the Brooker Highway, reimagining the life of the highway in new and exciting ways.
We were thrilled to have some fabulous guest speakers at the launch, including Eileen Brooker – whose father Edward Brooker first conceived of a northern suburbs highway in the 1940s – and Tasmanian author Danielle Wood, who shared her heartfelt memories of 422 Brooker Highway – the beloved house that was the hub of her family for many years. Young writers James and Dakota also shared the wonderful creative stories they wrote as part of this project.
Stories of the Brooker Highway continues at Moonah Arts Centre until 3pm this Saturday, 16 September. Do make some time this week to go and see it!
Centre: Eileen Brooker reflects on the life of her father, Edward Brooker; Danielle Wood shares her fond memories of 422 Brooker Highway.
bee literate!
It was a real buzz to be part of the Bee Literate school holiday workshop at Goodwood Community Centre in July. This workshop was a joyful celebration of bees and beekeeping, in honour of late Goodwood resident and keen beekeeper Fred House, who died last year at the age of 99.
A group of young people from the Goodwood community came along to learn HEAPS about bees and beekeeping from Anita Long of Tasmanian Junior Beekeepers, then worked with us on some writing and illustrations that conveyed the fascinating facts they learned. These pieces are being transformed into a book to teach the local community all about bees, and why we need them. Keep an eye out for the Bee Literate book, which will be published later this year!
spreading the word
In the last few months, we’ve shared our vision for the Story Island Project at the Underwood Centre’s Education Transforms symposium, the Plugged In: Ideas for an Island Economy forum at the Glenorchy RSL and a meeting of the Moonah Rotary Club. If you would like us to come and speak to your group, please get in touch!
Don’t miss your opportunity to check out our Stories of the Brooker Highway exhibition at MAC! And if you’ve been to see it, let us know what you think!