STORIES OF STRENGTH

I had the pleasure of creating this illustration for the Stories of Strength Anthology by Bankstown Youth Development Services (BYDS). A selection of artists, poets and writers were asked by BYDS to interpret transcripts of interviews on Stories of Strength in either visual or written form. I chose to illustrate a piece on Harry Paraha - you can find his transcript here. 

"Well I started learning butterfly and I got really good at it. It took a while, but I picked it up fairly quickly and brought the times down pretty quick. And really liked the style, it’s got a beautiful rhythm to it, you know? A beautiful rhythm. When you’re in the water, you’re looking at the tiles and you’re more or less, um… You do think, but it’s a place where you can go and, uh, what do they say…

Meditate?

Meditate. So you’re actually in the water and you’ve got all that going, but you’re also meditating.” - Harry Paraha