Dr. Cheryle Yin Lo

I have lived in the Blue Mountains World Heritage area since 2001 and continue to enjoy
living close to the bush.My first year at Christmas living here was smelling the waft of bushfire smoke. My daughter was born during a bushfire. Before I moved to the Blue Mountains I also lived overseas. In countries such as Peru close by to the famous Machu Picchu , another World Heritage area and then living in Bangladesh often devastated by natural disasters. Both countries where people’s lives are so intertwined with agricultural lands and nature for their spiritual and economic livelihood.

Even after living here for so many years there is still so many amazing places to discover for magnificent bushwalks and views that leave you in awe. The recent devastating and intense bushfires in 2020 and the high impact of fires in the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area saw the disappearance of flora and fauna that has changed the landscape and the ecosystem forever.

From 2005-2011, I was fortunate to be the first Cultural Development worker with the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute when it was established . I undertook socio- cultural research with local diverse communities using community based arts projects, bushfire storytelling workshops and exhibitions exploring World Heritage values and Connection to Country. These projects were part of my Doctorate of Cultural Research (WSU 2013) and my investigation on ‘Creative Arts as a Catalyst for Community Participation in Environmental Stewardship in the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area’. As part of these studies I went to UNESCO in Paris to undertake a Masterclass on ‘Sharing Our Heritage’ and met international delegates living in World Heritage areas.

I graduated from Sydney College of the Arts in photography and printmaking and continue to explore working in mixed media, digital art , solar plate etching and more recently nature journalling . My work for this exhibition explores the intertwining of people and the natural environment  and its inseparability. Often after the events of bushfire and natural disasters there are often fragments of people’s ‘untold stories’,  memories and healing. The bush also has its layers of memories of  the  inner life of ‘stories’ and ‘if  the  trees could  talk’ they hear the whispers and witness the cycle of  its dynamic natural cycle of recovery.