Against a backdrop of cost-of-living pressures, devastating flooding events, an ongoing pandemic and global uncertainty and conflict, we could all use some good news, writes Occupational Therapy Australia on their new Australian Anthology. Released last month, Doing Our Best adds faces and names to the story of humans using creativity to grow through adversity.
In the curated collection of first-person stories are three Canberrans who have tried to find meaning and community amidst two years of hardship.
Deirdre Hyslop, Shafiq Khan, and Georgia Pike-Rowney are among the storytellers sharing how they coped through bushfires, floods, and COVID-19. The stories demonstrate how having a meaningful occupation can be just as valuable as resilience in hard times.
Old friends Deirdre, Ro, Rachael, and Penny, who have been separated by states and oceans since the 1970s, “exoticised the domestic” by creating art and sharing the stories of trinkets around their homes through weekly Zoom calls.
Shafiq worked through the emotional pain that followed a Parkinson’s diagnosis, on top of home confinement and social distancing through creating powerful ‘pandemic poetry’.
Dr Georgia Pike-Rowney, of the ACT-based Music Engagement Program (MEP), has sung her whole life, professionally, as a researcher and an educator, “but most importantly as a way to connect with others”.
“Never before have I felt the act of singing – something I firmly believe should be shared with others for communal wellbeing – would become a threat to people’s health,” she writes.
“Thanks to COVID-19, singing with others became dangerous, especially for those with complicated medical issues.”
MEP regularly works with the “dis”-ability sector, through specialist schools and community care organisations, and is founded on the philosophies of Dr John Diamond, who wrote “Inside each of us is the deep desire to open our hearts and sing out with love”.
“This desire is never more profoundly expressed, in my experience, than by some of our participants who live with so-called ‘dis’-abilities,” says Georgia.
“At the beginning of May, we began to sing together online. This was more complicated than it sounds! Making music online requires only one microphone to be active at a time. When there is a big group, all joining from different locations, it can get chaotic!
“So how can you share music making when we are all apart, and you can hear only one person at a time? Well, firstly, while only one person might be able to lead, everyone is encouraged to join in enthusiastically, with their camera on and microphone off.
“Being able to see each other engaged is still a great way of sharing music making.
“When lockdown eased a little in 2020, we continued to meet online, as face-to-face singing was still unsafe for many of our participants. But they could begin to attend their carer group settings again and join online as a larger group. So again, we encouraged them to sing with, and for, each other. It was beautiful to see, even if we couldn’t hear it ourselves.
“One of the carers emailed me: ‘If only you could hear it, too!’ My colleague, who was able to visit one of the groups, said similarly: ‘You can’t be heard, they are so loud!’ This was music to my ears.”
In November last year, MEP was able to collaborate with a similar online program based in New York, joining the groups together for the program’s first international singing session, an event that Georgia writes wouldn’t have been possible were it not for adapting to online platforms.
“And when we can safely sing together in person again, how wonderful it will feel!”
This is an abridged version of Georgia’s story. The full version is available as part of ‘Doing Our Best’ at otaus.com.au
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