Highlighting The Subtle Power of Colloquialisms to Shape Our Reality

WorkshopsYouth ProgramsCampaigns & ActivationsYouth Leadership
Written By BOHIE
Workshop participant experimenting with recycled materials during youth-led art session on identity and activism.

Young participant creating their own message for our collaborative artwork on recycled materials

 

Case Study

 

Overview
Raising young female voices through the lens of sustainability and self-expression.

Client: Northside Community Services / ACT Government
Location: Gungahlin, ACT
Year: 2022
Medium: Mixed media installation using recycled materials
Category: Youth Voice & Education

 

This creative street art project brought together young women aged 15–21 from across Canberra to explore the question: “What change would you like to see in the world—and what’s stopping it?”

Held over two days at Gunners Place Youth Centre, the project included a values-based brainstorming session followed by a full-day art workshop. Participants explored identity, belonging, social media influence, and barriers to activism—culminating in a co-designed mixed media installation made entirely from recycled materials.

The final artwork was featured in the Surface Street Art Festival’s professional artist showcase at Ainslie + Gorman Arts Centre.

 
Final exhibition of co-designed public artwork highlighting sustainability, self-expression and youth voice.

A tower of voices! Negative slogans on one side, positive on the other. You decide what reality you want to live in.

Youth-led mixed media installation on display at Ainslie + Gorman Arts Centre during Surface Festival 2022.

The installation exhibited at Gorman Arts alongside professional street artists featured in Canberras Surface Street Art Festival

Detail view of recycled-material artwork created by young women as part of a street art workshop in Canberra.

The artworks stacking up in our studio space at Youth Drop In Hub, Gunners Place

 

My Role

  • Workshop design and creative facilitation

  • Youth-led co-design process

  • Visual development and installation guidance

  • Partnership and grant delivery with Northside Community Services

  • Supported by Bonnie Porter-Greene

  • Film production by Goodshout (mentoring youth in media training)

Outcomes & Impact

  • Created a safe, inclusive space for young women to explore leadership and creative expression

  • Built confidence through participation in a professional public exhibition

  • Elevated multiple youth voices through collective storytelling

  • Fostered critical thinking around social media and activism

  • Encouraged positive self-talk and peer connection through creative leadership

Young person being interviewed during Scratchin’ the Surface project, sharing reflections on creative empowerment.

Youth participants receiving media training to discuss our project in a partnership created with talented and value-aligned videographers, Goodshout, who also provided mentorship for a young male budding filmmaker during the process.

 

What Participants Said

“I found it really amazing. We were all able to gather together and talk about such serious things and just express ourselves.” — Youth participant

“Bohie’s youth-focused approach has always left young people feeling heard, empowered and a key part of every project. If only there were more Bohie’s out there!” — Zac Noble, Project Coordinator

 
Young women participating in a creative street art workshop at Gunners Place Youth Centre, Canberra.

A group photo of young participants and youth workers and project facilitators Zac Noble and Clinton Beale from Northside Community Services

BOHIE

Based in Braidwood, NSW, BOHIE creates art, illustration, public space murals, and creative workshopping experiences that explore wonder and connection to each other and to the natural world.

She works alongside educational institutions, government agencies, community focus groups and stewards of the natural world to design change-making campaigns for each creative project. Bohie utilises a research-based methodology to find inspiration for her artworks, resulting in 2D images which are laden with deeper stories and symbolic meaning.

This narrative driven conceptual development injects her unique authenticity and grass-roots integrity into the public arena, which she sees as a conscious challenge to public advertising. In a time of rapid change, extreme instability and a globally recognised feeling of imminent threat, Bohie’s art provides messages of hope and empowerment for a changed future.

https://www.bohie.com.au
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