The Carrolup Story project brings together three kindred spirits who believe strongly in the healing power of Story. The project is based on the core values of authenticity, belonging, connection, courage, creativity, empathy, empowerment, safety and trust.
Our core team includes psychologist David Clark and anthropologist John Stanton, who bring together complementary knowledge and skills to the project. When they first met in March 2017, John had been involved with the Carrolup Story for over 40 years and David was planning a book about the Carrolup child artists.
Our enthusiasm and passion are shared by our other core team member, website developer Ash Whitney. Ash was a natural choice to help produce the planned Storytelling, Education and Healing resource, since he had developed David’s websites in the past.
Our team aims to:
- create cultural pride amongst Aboriginal people, thereby facilitating connection to culture and, in turn, healing of historical trauma.
- enhance awareness amongst non-Aboriginal people, thereby helping reduce the racism and prejudice which are barriers to healing.
- ensure that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people walk alongside each other on equal terms to help improve society.
Noongar Elders and other Aboriginal people have made it clear to us how important this Story is to them. They have expressed their full support for what we are doing. We will be bringing together a group of highly respected Advisors to facilitate the development of this project.
We partner the Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia, in part to help ensure that the Carrolup Story and our educational content impact on future generations of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
The Team
David Clark is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology who has spent the past twenty years developing initiatives that empower people to improve their social and emotional wellbeing. He developed Sharing Culture, an online educational resource to help Indigenous peoples heal from historical trauma and its consequences (e.g. addiction, mental health problems).
John Stanton, former Director of the Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia (UWA), commenced the Carrolup Project in 1985 at the request of the Marribank Community, present-day Carrolup. He has worked in the cultural heritage sector with Aboriginal communities throughout the state and beyond since 1971, and is an Adjunct Professor at UWA.
Ash Whitney of Wired up Wales is an experienced web developer based in Wales (UK) specialising in WordPress development. Ash has 19 years web development experience and a client base that includes customers from small business, government, publishing, charity, community organisation, academic and health sectors.
The Berndt Museum at The University of Western Australia (UWA) holds one of the most significant collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural material in the world, manifesting in art, objects, archives, manuscripts, film and sound and photographic collections.