Burning Generation: An exhibition of art from young people who experienced the Black Summer Bushfires

In 2019-2020 Australia experienced a severe series of bushfires known as the Black Summer Bushfires. In the Snowy Valleys region of NSW a fire began on December 27th 2019, near Adelong, and continued through to the 24th February 2020. The Dunns Road fire burned through an estimated 333,940 hectares. In Batlow, a town with a population of 1270 people, where the project took place, 1 life was lost; 20 properties and homes were destroyed; orchards, logging forests, paddocks and livestock were destroyed; and countless wild animals and native forest were decimated. Across the Snowy Valleys, a population of 14,500 people with towns including Tumut, Tumbarumba, Adelong and Batlow, 186 homes, 27 businesses, thousands of livestock and an estimated $56 million in damage were reported.
Burning Generation presents an exhibition of art and comments, opinions and experiences creatively communicated, by a group of young people aged 12-18 years old who live in the Snowy Valleys and experienced the Black Summer Bushfires.

With the support of a grant from Sustainability at Charles Sturt University, in 2022 Rachael and Andrew partnered with Claire Harris at Create Hub Riverina – Claire is a local artist who has a background working with young people to express themselves creatively in relation to difficult issues. Workshops were free and open to any young people in the Snowy Valleys aged 12-18 years. We met with the young people over 6 afternoon workshops, in Batlow. We had fun, built up art skills and other skills, and supported the young people to create high quality finished pieces of art that express their experiences and opinions of the Black Summer Bushfires. At the end of the workshops we also interviewed some of the young people, in order to complement their art works with their words. This booklet and a series of exhibitions are outcomes that we hope inspire reaction from community, locally in the Snowy Valleys and beyond.