A new podcast by MakeShift that explores creativity as a prescription for challenging times. Can sewing, knitting, painting, writing or singing be good for us - even if we're not very good at it? What are the mental health benefits of a creative habit? In The Making talks to artists and makers about their creative practice and how it helped them through a difficult time. They also share the tools in their creative first aid kit.

Our first two episodes are available to listen now!

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Kirli Saunders, Poet, Writer, Educator, proud Gunai Woman

How do we as Australians reconcile the collective trauma of dispossession and the cultural disconnection of Australia’s First Nations people? For Kirli Saunders a proud Gunai woman and Award Winning Poet and Author - healing comes from writing. In this episode Kirli talks about reconnecting with her language Gundungurra which she weaves into her poetry collection, Kindred and Bindi, a novel in verse for school kids. Bindi was also written in response to the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires that devastated Gundungurra Country in the Southern Highlands.

Kirli talks about establishing a self-care creative habit and how writing poetry in Language is both a form of resilience and resistance.

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Drew Fairley, Actor, Cabaret Performer, Comedian

What happens when you find yourself quarantined, at sea on a cruise ship for months on end. For actor and performer Drew, it very nearly became an unravelling, a lockdown-on-steroids experience that would send anyone deep into some dark times. But Drew found, through the solitude, a call to create, and out of his tiny cabin came the viral instagram daily comedy show: Actual Cabin, Actual Fever.

Drew takes us on the voyage, both on the ocean and in his mind, as he reveals the life-saving practice of creating and performing characters to an invisible audience.

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Executive Producers: Caitlin Marshall & Lizzie Rose

Producer: Jennifer Macey - jennifermacey.com

Theme Song: Elana Stone

Sound Engineer: Chris Hancock‍

Artwork: Kiara Mucci

This podcast was produced on the lands of the Wodi Wodi people of the Dharawal Nation and supported by a small cultural grant from Wollongong Council.