Abe Killian & Sarah Mashman

From the Embers - The Voices of Communities in Danger

In 2020, the CBAA saw the need to tell the stories of the extraordinary bushfires of 2019/20.With Community Radio having taken a huge part in keeping communities informed of what seemed like, and for some was, the impending firestorm, we saw a place to tell stories from communities in their own words. We planned to work with Producers from communities, and brought Sarah Mashman – a well respected Producer from inside and outside the Sector – to bring these Producers together to build a narrative around a community’s experience of what would likely be one of the seminal experiences of their lives. With the support of the Paul Ramsey Institute and the Judith Nielsen Institute, these producer produced pieces of extraordinary poignancy, in the voice and the emotions of people who had seen Hell, and lived through it. One of the key points many of them made – their story had only been told through the filter of mainstream media, and this was the first time their voices were truly heard.