Creative Producer Christopher Saunders

The Northcott Narratives project examined the issue of public housing and traumatised communities in Surry Hills in Sydney, Australia. The Northcott building is a vertical suburb, with many high-needs tenants. When Big hART was invited to become involved, the community was traumatised by murders and suicides. It was a dangerous place to live and frequently on the evening news. The project partnered with New South Wales police and the New South Wales Department of Housing and many others. Big hART's contribution resulted in numerous creative outputs involving Northcott residents and community members. These included music workshops, photographic exhibitions called 'Tenant by Tenant' and the ABC television documentary '900 Neighbours'. The most significant was sell-out performances of the show 'StickybrickS' staged in the Northcott building's car park for the Sydney Festival.

The Northcott Narratives Project is ground-breaking because of its longevity and brevity, but also because the positive effects on the community have actually been independently measured. The first public housing estate to be Awarded Safe Community Status by the World Health Organisation, it was also awarded a COAG Crime Prevention Award, as well as achieving some major cultural outcomes. The Northcott Narratives Project, is a model example of a city's cultural services being used as tools to effect positive changes within a community.

"We will never go back to the way things were before. We have seen what we can do." -Northcott Tenant