Living Stories Mural Project: Help Bring Our Community Story to Life
Advocacy WA is inviting expressions of interest from people who identify as having a disability and would like to help shape a new community mural project in Bunbury.
The Living Stories Mural Project will be guided by the cultural model of disability.
This means the project will not focus on disability as something that needs to be fixed, hidden, or treated as a personal problem.
Instead, it will explore how disability is shaped by the world around us: our communities, stories, attitudes, buildings, services, systems, language, and culture.
This mural will not just be artwork on a wall.
It will be a public story about access, inclusion, identity, belonging, pride, barriers, and change, told by the people who know it best.
What is the Living Stories Mural Project?
The Living Stories Mural Project is a community mural led by lived experience.
It will be created on the side of Advocacy WA’s Bunbury building and will focus on what access and inclusion mean to people with disability in the South West.
It will ask bigger questions about how communities include or exclude people.
It will explore the signs, spaces, attitudes, systems, and everyday experiences that shape whether people with disability feel welcome, safe, respected, and able to take part.
We want the mural to reflect real stories, real experiences, and real hopes for a more inclusive community.
What is the cultural model of disability?
The cultural model of disability helps us understand disability as part of identity, community, history, and culture.
It reminds us that disability is not just medical information.
It is also shaped by how people are treated, what stories are told, who is represented, who is listened to, and who gets to belong.
For many people with disability, barriers are not only physical.
They can also be cultural and social.
They can show up in language, assumptions, low expectations, inaccessible information, exclusion from decision-making, and the way communities decide who is “normal” or “welcome.”
The cultural model asks us to look at the bigger picture.
It asks:
What does inclusion feel like?
What stories about disability do we need to challenge?
What parts of community life make people feel welcome or unwelcome?
What does access mean beyond ramps and buildings?
How do attitudes and assumptions shape participation?
What would change if people with disability were seen as leaders, storytellers, creators, and experts?
Why lived experience matters
People with disability are experts in their own lives.
Too often, decisions about access, inclusion, and community are made without listening properly to the people most affected.
This project is about changing that.
The Living Stories Mural Project will create space for people with disability to share their ideas, experiences, and perspectives in a creative and meaningful way.
Through this mural, lived experience will not just be included.
It will lead the story.
Who can be involved?
We are inviting expressions of interest from people who identify as having a disability and would like to contribute to the project.
This may include people with:
Physical disability
Intellectual disability
Psychosocial disability
Sensory disability
Neurodivergence
Chronic illness
Acquired disability
Invisible disability
You do not need a formal diagnosis to express interest.
If disability is part of your lived experience and you would like to be involved, we would love to hear from you.
What could involvement look like?
There will be different ways to take part.
You might want to:
Share your story
Talk about what inclusion means to you
Share what makes you feel welcome or unwelcome
Share ideas for the mural
Take part in a creative workshop
Help shape the themes and messages
Share a written, audio, or visual reflection
Be part of conversations about access, culture, and community
Support the direction of the artwork
You do not need to be an artist to be involved.
This project is about lived experience, storytelling, culture, and community voice.
A mural shaped by community
The final mural will be created with the support of artists, but the heart of the project will come from the stories and ideas shared by people with disability.
We want the artwork to reflect the strength, diversity, creativity, and leadership of people with disability in the South West.
We also want it to start conversations.
A mural can make people stop, look, and think.
It can help challenge assumptions.
It can show that disability is not something that belongs only in services, systems, appointments, or paperwork.
Disability is part of community life.
Disability is part of culture.
Disability stories belong in public spaces.
How to express your interest
If you identify as having a disability and would like to be involved in telling your story and bringing this mural to life, we invite you to submit an expression of interest.
You can complete the EOI form here:
If you need support to complete the form or would like more information, please contact Advocacy WA.
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