KERANG Neighbourhood House will host a series of free art workshops to help women deal with the effects of the 2022 floods that devastated the town and surrounding localities.
Funded by the NAB Foundation as part of Kerang Neighbourhood House’s disaster management program, there will be five workshops throughout the rest of this year and in early 2025 run by local art therapist Melanie Lane Pitto.
Each day will explore a particular theme and will involve working with different mediums of art, such as acrylic painting, weaving, mosaic and paint pouring.
Ms Pitto, a Palawa and Kaurna woman, said art had been used in her culture to tell stories and she hoped that people at the workshops could tell and engage with their own stories of experiencing the floods.
“Being in a farming community, so many people don’t talk about their feelings,” she said.
“The floods had a massive impact on people and they don’t talk about that enough.
“This is a way to get everyone together and communicate.”
Encouraging people of all skill levels to have a go, Ms Pitto said the workshop was about the process of creating and reflecting on experiences rather than the finished product.
“Not everyone is an artist but everything ends up beautiful because you’re having a go, and that helps you with whatever struggle you’re going through,” she said.
Ms Pitto said studying social work and visual arts helped her understand that art could be therapeutic and help people explore emotions and heal from trauma.
“It’s all about emotional regulation through touch and experiencing making different things,” she said.
“People can struggle to express their emotions verbally so this is something that can help them.”
Ms Pitto said through looking at a person making art she could draw questions out of them and help them open up.
“I find that at first not many people like to talk, and that’s why they come to an art therapy session, because they don’t have to speak,” she said.
“When you’re distracted by doing something with your hands, you’re more free to talk about other things as well.”
Ms Pitto said she moved into Kerang just as the floodwaters were leaving the town.
While she has been an art therapist for the last four years, the upcoming workshops will be the first time Ms Pitto will be working with people affected by a natural disaster.
“I’ve worked with children and others before to work through their trauma with art,” she said.
“It will be eye opening for me to learn a lot from people who went through something like a flood.”
Kerang Neighbourhood House manager Claire Fry said there were many women in the community who could benefit from the workshops.
“It’s really important that we have these art-based activities in the community because it brings people together,” she said.
“I was involved in the flooding and I know how it affected me.
“I know people who are still affected by what happened in the 2022 floods as well as the Christmas Day floods last year.”
“To have someone like Mel, and a space where these ladies can talk freely and release their anxiety and concerns with a group of women who are in a similar situation, is amazing.”
While the workshops are free to attend, bookings are essential.
To book, call Kerang Neighbourhood House on 4403 6640.
