Combating Farmer Suicide With Art
This is a story of finding hope in a drought ravaged community, through the creative transformation of farm yard junk.
The Spirit Of The Land Festival in Lockhart (a tiny Australian outback town) originated during the worst drought in the Shire's one hundred and ten year history. It started with one family that was about to lose the family farm. Out of desperation they made some sculptures using rusty barbed wire that was lying around. To their surprise, these unusual pieces of art were snapped up by city dwellers willing to pay a good price. The farm was saved and an idea was born, one that could save a whole community suffering from extreme economic hardship.
Lockhart is a farming area in the Riverina region of inland New South Wales. The long drought had made many families virtually destitute. Entire livelihoods precariously sat in the palms of a dry arid land. Amid escalating concerns over rural suicide, the local community decided to rally together and host a farm sculptures festival. The festival has grown in numbers and strength over the past ten years. It is now somewhat famous for its amazing elaborate sculptures made from recycled farm materials; rusty machinery, tools, rope, tin metal, corrugated iron, wrenches, wood. Whatever can be found laying around the farm.
The festival competition boasts major prize money and has placed Lockhart on the art buyers map.
It is an incredible festival to visit. The usually sleepy town is alive with music, pop-up art galleries and local food. Market stalls set up under the towns deep verandahs and of course the highlight is the sculptural exhibition down on the banks of the lagoon.
This is one creative rural community, determined to survive living and working on the land.
The stories of farmers finding restored hope through art, as they overcame severe depression is moving. Tourism has increased and morale boosted. The farmers doing it tough have found mateship down at the local Men's Shed where welding and sculpture techniques are taught and shared.
We stayed in Lockhart for a week during the Spirit Of The Land festival. The town folk are friendly, proud of their work and the camaraderie is contagious. It is just brilliant what can be done with a bit of junk. Go Lockhart!
Until next time,
xx Isabella
That's such an uplifting story.
"One man's trash is another man's treasure"
It's amazing that the farmers saw this possibility lying in the rubble that would have been tossed away. To create art that would be an amazing conversation piece out of old rusty pieces is such a creative idea. I would love to have a piece like this someday to display in my yard. Because it is already rusty, there is no need to worry about any further rust! Brilliant!
Thanks for sharing this.
I appreciate the creativity of the farmers coming up with this idea in stead of succumbing to suicide and giving up all hope.
I will be following you and hope to see more great content like this.
Thanks @bendjmiller. Some of the sculptures had a shiner look to them but I love the rusty ones the most too. That jacket on the dancing sheep made from old tyres looked pretty cool though. There is power in a strong community and some Australian towns sure know how to harness that spirit.
I agree! I love the dog, the wrenches welded together that show a sheep being sheered, and the metal "fencing" used on the dancing sheep.
Having struggled with suicidal thoughts myself, I am glad that these creative artists found a venue to create something beautiful and valuable.
Steemit has actually helped me get through my own anxiety and depression and I will be forever grateful for the avenue that it has allowed me to speak through. Without it, I would continue to dread when people asked what type of job I had (currently jobless, but I consider myself an aspiring blogger learning my voice).
I have a lot of hope to help others and use the platform of steemit to allow me to watch my nephews so they don't have to go to daycare, fund my return trip to africa to visit friends and continue to fight injustice there, and allow me the flexibility to be there for friends and family in a way that a normal 9-5 will not.
I'm not at that point yest, but am working hard to learn from others with success and learn about myself in the process. It's a great time to be a part of steemit.
Thanks again for posting this. Have already showed the pictures to a few others who shared my love of creativity.
It is a funny how when we are unemployed aspiring creatives, we feel embarrassed when people ask us what we do. Like we have to justify ourself worth. One thing I learnt though is most people ask it just as a conversation starter, to break the ice. The 'judgement' we feel is something we project out not necessarily something people are doing to us. I have been there before. I wish I had Steemit back then too :) I have started following your blog and wish you all the best with finding your voice here.
Many thanks! Make yourself at home in the comments section as I always appreciate seeing what people enjoy or dislike about my work. Unlike some, not every post I make is successful by most people's standards. Some pieces are more for me like the tribute to my dog/ best friend. Tribute Piece
I love this incredible artwork made out of rusting scrap, Beautiful and Amazing. Such skill to take a hard wasted object and bring it it life.
The suicide of our Farmers should be a much higher profile national issue here in Australia. These tough men ( and Woman)are taking their lives at a staggering rate. Pushed to the brink by financial pressure from the banks, unpredictable weather ( Australia is the land of Drought and Flooding rains) and finally the lack of support due to isolation.
Every Time You Eat Thank A Farmer
Amen! Well said @stephen-somers. Awesome to see another Queenslander here on Steemit.
Art can rebirth any person because through a new perspective in life. Glad you went through one yourself. Most people never get to try it.
Art is defintetely very therapeutic! Thanks for stopping by @kyriacos.
This is inspiring, poignant, and awesome. Thanks so much for exposing this to us, I never would have thought about finding this on my own. Those sculptures are so beautiful, yet pained, but also playful. It's a rare mix, and a great one.
What a lovely way to describe them @carlyle.
Taking a bad situation and turning it into art that ultimately remedies the situation is beautiful. The dancing bulls are amazing. This is such an important issue all over the globe, small scale farmers are at risk for various reasons. Thank you for highlighting it
Thanks @tinyhomeliving. Those dancing bulls (which I think are meant to be sheep) actually won first prize that year.
Wow, this makes my problems seem trivial.
I love outbacks in Australia. Crazy ppl but they are so friendly!
Art is amazing
Me too! We stumbled upon this festival quite by accident during our camper van travels and ended up staying for the whole week. I think you have to be a little crazy to live in these parts. I guess it is the isolation by distance that stops many people getting out to these hidden gems. It seems more and more that small towns need to come up with really quirky innovative events to get the visitors.
excellent post!! my heart goes out to the Aussie farmers. I am very familiar with a lot of drought struck areas in Aus. great pics to, what amazing art and the "mens shed" in all areas of Australia are such a wonderful thing I go to a lot of fundraisers and donate a lot to this great cause. once again wonderful post thank you
Thanks @jbones. Yes the Men's Shed is a genius idea. Our local one here builds a lot of great things for our community.
👍wow amazing art, very nice pictures @bridgetbunchy
I was blown away at the detail, talent and time invested in these junk masterpieces. Just my kind of thing!
are these your original photos?
Hi @razvanelulmarin. Yes these are my photos. I took them during our visit to the festival in 2012. We were travelling around Australia in a camper van at the time. The sculptures are particularly photogenic. We are hoping to go back again this year, but it is a 12 hour drive from where we live now.
so happy for you bridget:)
I have always been a fan of scrap sculptures, and these are exquisite!
Thanks @plasticpainter. I thought so too :)