Artists

Hamish Dunlop interviews prize-winning children’s book illustrator, mother, activist and proud Bundjalung woman, Charmaine Ledden-Lewis about the power of storytelling and how we can inspire our children to build a better world.

Artist Joel Mitchell tells the story behind his public sculpture in Blackheath, Reveal: A Celebration of Blue Mountains Orchids. He talks about his inspiration, the beauty of intergenerational collaboration and how the artwork, in-situ, invites us to experience the wonder of the natural world.

Hamish Dunlop attended the launch of ‘Somewhere to Live’, a song written and performed by The Blue Gums, Voices for Social Change. The song and accompanying video aim to raise awareness about the impacts of homelessness and housing insecurity in the Blue Mountains and across the Greater Sydney region.

In this series of events to restore the songlines of the Seven Sisters across Australia, seven song women from Uluru visited the Blue Mountains to return ancestral knowledge to over 40 women and children who came from east coast mobs living in an area ranging from Queensland to the South Coast.

The Swamp Diaries is an initiative of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute. Over 12 months, artists are spending time with precious and endangered upland swamp ecosystems across the Blue Mountains and creatively documenting the flora and fauna they observe.

A Blue Mountains program called Connect at Home started during COVID to support early childhood language development. Through the program families access high quality storybooks and are guided on how to optimise learning at home.

  To celebrate #NAIDOCWeek2021, and with nostalgia for a pre-Covid time, we’re reprinting this fabulous article by young Blackheathen Annabel Pettit, advocating for us all to be speaking, hearing and acknowledging Indigenous languages as a part of our collective Australian history.   “Tell me how it was in the beginning of our land, We’re like in the Dreamtime, shedding our …

G7 agree on ‘historic steps’ to make climate reporting mandatory; EPA rules to phase down manufacturing and use of HFCs; and more than 2000 American’s participate in Ann Morton’s ‘Violet Protest’ against polarization These stories and more in today’s Solutions Digest: • Our young writer Annabel Pettit interviewed Blackheathen Jeffrey Crompton about his new podcast ‘Mick and the Phatman Talking …

Annabel Pettit shares her inspiring conversation with Barbara Armitage, former Mayor of Waverley, about her passionate dedication to family, community and creativity.

Annabel Pettit speaks with Blackheathen Jeffrey Crompton (above) about the podcast he started during Lockdown: Jeffrey and Mick were raised in a Sydney that had never known any lockout laws, where you could walk into the Riverwood Hotel on any given night and be unsurprised to catch Split Enz or The Church earning their stripes on the city’s vibrant pub …