Firefoxes Australia in conjunction with Black Saturday survivors, filmmaker Helen Newman and the Victorian Women’s Trust, launch a new   documentary “Creating a New Normal”.

Creating a New Normal follows the extraordinary story of Firefoxes as they try to rebuild their community from a grassroots level. Featuring candid interviews about the rollercoaster ride of recovery it’s a story of passion, vision, hope, love and leadership.

Founding Firefoxes, Jemima Richards and Kate Riddell, say the documentary gives a voice to women’s stories and promotes the leadership roles they can fulfill in disaster recovery.

“We hope the wisdom shared in this documentary will help other survivors recover from the trauma of disasters and inspire them to recognise the incredible power in simple things like women gathering to share and support each other” says Kate. Creating a new normal highlights what women can do and achieve when they work together to build stronger, more resilient and prepared communities for whatever may happen in the future.

The documentary was made possible because of a special grant from the Victorian Women’s Trust. VWT have supported Firefoxes long term, both financially and with relationship building. VWT recognised the incredible value of documenting and sharing the wisdom of women throughout their journey of recovery and community (re)building.

Download  “Creating a New Normal” PDF

Preview!

Full Version Documentary “Creating a New Normal”

How can you help?

The documentary can’t cover all recovery topics in detail in such a short time. This is ‘chapter one’, a conversation starter tackling emotional self-care, insurance, children’s recovery, community building, trauma & much more.

Firefoxes needs your help to distribute the documentary throughout communities touched by disaster and trauma. They hope it will also reach all levels of Government, and inform and educate those supporting the recovery process, in order to rebuild communities person by person. This broad distribution is aimed at reaching those who know they are affected, those who don’t realise just yet, and for others who may not think they qualify (due to location, level of loss, role they are playing, etc). This way, individuals can access the messages, but so too can groups if it is shown in a public forum. We hope that it is the start of some conversations and the deeper exploration for others on the recovery journey.

Valuable Tool

Funded by the Victorian Women’s Benevolent Trust.
Graphic design by Bron Milne @ Source Design

The simple, yet powerful messages are already being utilized by disaster affected communities around Australia & across the globe.

“This film clearly shows that connecting as women, with women, and for women is a powerful strategy for meaningful recovery both at the individual level and for the family and community. This wonderful new awareness and training resource will be widely shared and – one hopes – put to good use in support of women, men and children affected by disaster or trauma. Congratulations to Firefoxes for bringing disaster recovery to life in such a powerful way!”

Dr. Elaine Enarson (Researcher and Founder of the US-based Gender and Disaster Resilience Alliance)

DVD ARTWORK

Jesse is a regular participant in Firefoxes events.  She volunteers in the Firefoxes ‘office’, frequently working on events, activities and other projects.  Jesse is also a very talented artist who produced the artwork seen on the documentary DVD cover.

Click on this link to find out more!
Jesse Odgers ‘Homage’

All graphics work for the DVD cover was produced by another amazing Firefox – Bron Milne.  Bron was the creative genius behind the fabulous cover.  She has her own graphic design business – Source Design.  She can be found at www.sourcedesign.com.au – Check her out!

Our thanks go out to:
Helen Newman at Nomad Films
The Victorian Women’s Trust
Source Design