Photos above: Pieter Badenhorst and EMMA JACKSON [below right]

The importance of sharing untold stories and regional voices is critical for soft diplomacy and preserving culture. The impact we can collaboratively make to employ regional creatives and empower people to tell their own stories will not only benefit regional people but will also enhance a greater national understanding that will bring Australians closer together. Some stories have been sitting dormant waiting to be told for many years, others are like young seedlings bursting to grow. This week we’re announcing a major creative partnership with Southern Forest Arts, highlighting 'The Creative Grid', which will elevate inspiring stories about regional artistic projects occurring state wide in Western Australia to shine light on the talent and their respective artistic processes. It’s extremely heartening to uncover these hidden gems in the crevices of the bush and our work as storytelling geologists has only just begun.

If you want to help us create a productive environment for regional stories please send us an email – we’ve got projects you can be involved in, an expert database of Media Stringers you can engage for your creative projects or you can simply join us in advocating for increased exposure of their work. And if you don’t understand the need to share stories from the sticks, told by people in the sticks, you should head bush and run the red dirt through your fingers to remember why it matters.

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