L to R: artists Denise Fruit, Lee George, Doris Platt, Billy Missi and Patrick Butcher Absent: Helen Milroy. Photo: Amy Rodgers-Clarke

Artists from Far North Queensland are drawing on their cultures and personal mental health experiences to create an exhibition that gives insight into individual journeys of recovery and healing.

Healing Journeys, which opened in September at the Tanks Art Centre in Cairns, sets the artists’ personal experiences against a national backdrop in a year where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples was a critical milestone on the road to national healing.

Three Lockhart River artists, Denise Fruit, Doris Platt and Patrick Butcher, along with Torres Strait Islander artist Billy Missi joined Indigenous psychiatrist Helen Milroy and Cairns mental health clinician Lee George to depict their experiences from both sides of the mental health healing process.

Project coordinator Dr Geraldine Dyer said creativity could greatly improve mental health, not only by helping people to express themselves but also through participation in community arts projects.

The process of developing Healing Journeys was documented on film and the documentary is on show as part of the exhibition. The documentary includes interviews with the Lockhart River artists about themselves and the role of art in their lives.

The exhibition, funded through the Queensland Government’s Backing Indigenous Arts program for Building Skills and Opportunities, is a partnership between Arts Queensland and Queensland Health.

Healing Journeys is on show until 16 October 2008.

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