The Carrolup Story project brings together three kindred spirits who believe strongly in the healing power of Story. The project is based on the core values of authenticity, belonging, connection, courage, creativity, empathy, empowerment, safety and trust.

Our core team includes psychologist David Clark and anthropologist John Stanton, who bring together complementary knowledge and skills to the project. When they first met in March 2017, John had been involved with the Carrolup Story for over 40 years and David was planning a book about the Carrolup child artists.

Our enthusiasm and passion are shared by our other core team member, website developer Ash Whitney. Ash was a natural choice to help produce the planned Storytelling, Education and Healing resource, since he had developed David’s websites in the past.

Our team aims to:

  • create cultural pride amongst Aboriginal people, thereby facilitating connection to culture and, in turn, healing of historical trauma.
  • enhance awareness amongst non-Aboriginal people, thereby helping reduce the racism and prejudice which are barriers to healing.
  • ensure that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people walk alongside each other on equal terms to help improve society.

Noongar Elders and other Aboriginal people have made it clear to us how important this Story is to them. They have expressed their full support for what we are doing. We will be bringing together a group of highly respected Advisors to facilitate the development of this project.

We partner the Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia, in part to help ensure that the Carrolup Story and our educational content impact on future generations of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.

The Team