Blooms of Change: Periods Without Poverty Mural for Mount Barker CBD
The Mount Barker District Council applied for one of the Commissioner’s Period Justice Grants at the start of the year and the result is a blooming beautiful mural! The council’s goal was to address period poverty and close existing gaps in resources and awareness, to ‘create meaningful change within the community’.
The grant funding was used to cover the costs of:
– A mural painted by a local artist
– 6 x period product dispensers
– 200 x period packs
– Pads and tampons to stock local dispensers across the community; and
– 2 x period education kits.
Including the education kits that were delivered to two local schools, other outcomes include ensuring easy access to period products through local relief centres and public toilets throughout the community, increased awareness and sparked conversation about the important topic of menstruation and period poverty.The mural is designed to integrate education, awareness, access to menstrual products and collaborative efforts across the Mount Barker Community. The Mural was painted by local artist TaylrJay and installed in a prominent location within the Mount Barker CBD. Project organisers explained that “throughout the project, local relief centres and opportunity shops shared their stories about how the products would impact their customers and make a difference to the lives of young people who are currently struggling with period poverty. Increased cost of living seemed to be a common denominator to period poverty.
“A memorable story was from a local church. The Pastor had a lady visit one day asking for period supplies for her young daughter as they could not afford to purchase and so we made sure this Church received a dispenser to place in their toilets. The Church committed to stocking the dispenser with their own products going forward.”
The new mural has also attracted many positive Facebook comments including the following:
“That’s awesome!!!! The amount of women who have to go without the comfort of period products is absolutely devastating. I can’t believe they aren’t free! It’s something we have no choice to endure yet have to pay more for than toilet paper.”
Mural Artist, TaylrJay, also had this to add about her experience designing and painting the mural:
“While I was working on-site it was great to see locals getting excited about the mural! Thank you again for having me for this project – it has been so lovely to work on and I am excited to see the community’s response.” – TaylrJay
Mount Barker District Council Arts Officer, Sally Hardy had this to say about the new mural: “This project was a beautiful example of the Arts being utilised as a tool for social change, and I applaud our Public Health team for thinking ‘outside the box’ and commissioning a mural to raise awareness around this very important issue. I think the artist Taylr Jay has achieved this goal of awareness-raising beautifully – while also beautifying a public space, for everyone.”
Emily Pitta who coordinated the project shared her highlights which included meeting with local artist, TaylrJay to pitch the mural idea. TaylrJay “was thrilled about having the opportunity to work on such a meaningful mural. The pitch in the original meeting was “use bright colours, pastel, inspired by florals, implement a range of contemporary fonts with hints towards retro and hippie cultures reflecting playful, free energy with floral reference, features a range of local flowers, depicts inclusive human figures in poses of freedom and celebration”.
“Another highlight was meeting community members who run relief centres, churches and community pantry’s, and hearing about the impact that our donations would have on the community. It was great to see the high volume of other donations (food etc) that the community have donated for those in need.”
Also “getting our team on board with restocking the period dispensers we installed in public toilets across the community and the organisation wide fundraiser we held to raise extra funds so that we could continue purchasing period supplies to stock said dispensers. We plan to keep doing this so that we can keep the dispensers continuously filled with products. We are also currently planning a media release in response to the completion and installation of the mural.”
Images:
1. Blooms of Change Mural by TaylrJay.
2. Artist TaylrJay at work on the mural.
3. Samueal Hately from Adelaide Hills Salvation Army and Emily Pitta from Mount Barker District Council.
4. Kiarra and Lily re-stocking free period products for the community.
