In March 2018, two talented Queensland Aboriginal artists, Aunty Denise Proud and Alisa Walsh, dedicated their time, arts and minds to shine a light on mental health stereotypes at Anglicare Southern Queensland’s award-winning Arts & Minds 2018 campaign.
Together, their aim was to help reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness by inspiring the community through their work.
The campaign paired five leading Queensland artists from a variety of disciplines with five gifted and emerging artists. Young people were given a one-word brief around the themes of mental health and worked with the leading artists to create meaningful artwork in the space of eight hours. As each artist had experienced forms of mental health challenges, powerful conversations emerged as a result of the project.
The journey from childhood to adulthood is often full of changes and uncertainty. Anglicare’s Arts & Minds campaign was a vital step in the journey for creating open and honest conversations on mental health issues and encouraging young individuals to seek help during their time of need.
“We have people in our community with mental illness,” said Aunty Denise, “and I think our Aboriginal community is very accepting. They’re just part of the family. We treat them as we would treat anyone else. I think it’s important that we do this… to work with our young people to share that knowledge.”
The Arts & Minds project also encouraged our young people to participate in the ‘Good Grub Hub’ project which involved painting and graffitiing a food van under the guidance of graffiti artist Davey Mac (also known as ‘Teazer’). The young people involved in this project were also taught simple and safe ways to prepare, cook and serve nutritious meals. This experience encouraged our young people to talk about their experiences and discuss what they hoped to achieve in their lives.
To learn more about Arts & Minds 2018, check out the Arts & Minds page on our website.
Artwork by Aunty Denise Proud