James Deakin, Founder of North Wales Recovery Communities (NWRC), organised an ‘Evening with David Clark’ on Friday, 26 April 2024 at Bwyd Da Bangor, the ethically, environmentally sustainable cafe/restaurant on the high street of Bangor. I had previously visited the restaurant, which is part of NWRC, with Wulf in September 2022.
Tasty canapés were provided prior to my first talk, which was focused on addiction recovery and My Journey From Brain Chemicals to Human Connection, to an audience of around 30 people. We then had a gorgeous dinner cooked by chef and restaurant manager Jason Hughes, along with his staff. The meal was outstanding. During the dinner break, I spent time visiting the tables and meeting people.
I then talked about the Aboriginal child artists of Carrolup, a trauma healing trauma from Western Australia which I had researched and written a book about. My colleague, Social Anthropologist Professor John Stanton, and I have a website focused on this topic which you can find here.
My talks were filmed by Marcus Fair, Founder of Eternal Media, which was really great. Marcus and his team at Eternal have had a very busy year, so they have only recently finished all the work that is required to make a film of the two talks. I am so impressed by what they have done, combining film of me talking along with the slides that I showed, highlighting key parts of text as I spoke.
Thank you so much, Luke Gabriel, Head of Post-Production and a Producer at Eternal, and Marcus. I am forever grateful. Mind you, I was nervous watching the film initially as I have never seen myself talk on film. Here is the film from the Eternal Media YouTube channel. Please share the link with your colleagues and friends.
David Clark, a Professor Emeritus of Psychology who lives in Perth, Western Australia, visited a number of peer-led recovery communities in the UK in April/May 2024. On 26 April, he gave two talks at Bwyd Da Bangor (Good Food Bangor) in North Wales as part of an evening celebrating recovery, organised by North Wales Recovery Communities.
In his first talk, David describes his personal journey from being an award-winning neuroscientist to working in the addiction recovery field, where he has been an educator, storyteller, researcher, online community developer, recovery advocate, and Founder of the Wired In grassroots initiative. He also briefly talks about Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), Aboriginal healing practices, and the importance of connection, relationships and community for social and emotional wellbeing, and for the healing of addiction, mental health problem. and trauma.
In his second talk, David describes a project he conducted with Social Anthropologist Professor John Stanton on the Aboriginal Child Artists of Carrolup. In this Story, traumatised Aboriginal children living in the squalor of a 1940s government native settlement in Western Australia are inspired by their white schoolteacher to create beautiful landscape drawings that gain international acclaim, challenge a government’s racist policies, and inspire four generations of artists. This is a Story of trauma, and the healing of trauma. David describes factors that contribute to the healing of trauma, and emphasises the importance of community for recovery/healing.