Shining a light on our local heroes - The Age

Some time ago, I wrote about the need for journalism in these times to cover the breadth of experience in our community. The news is often awful. The anxiety is understandable. The politics is intense and often ugly. We need to cover these issues well, but we do try to provide context to the politics, and give the health and scientific perspective of coronavirus prominence, too.

Local Hero: Jazz singer and violinist Fem Belling on the Band Wagon.Credit:Chris Hopkins

Everything is linked, and from my perspective, there are few “right” answers. We need to hold governments and authorities accountable for their decisions, but it can be too easy to jump to blame one group or another and, usually, there is little point to it.

I wince at the term “good news” journalism because it can sound lame, so much sugar-coating of what is undoubtedly the biggest challenge of our lifetimes. Millions have died around the world, and locally we remain in a debilitating lockdown, our health system already stretched.

But I am not one of those journalists who believe that only conflict makes a good story, that outrage is always better than nuance and an allowance for human frailty. Victorians are a diverse bunch, although if anything this crisis has brought a greater sense of shared experience and community (I’d be interested to know if you agree with that).

We would be telling only part of the coronavirus story if we avoided the acts of generosity, innovation and kindness as people think of ways to make things work, to look after each other, or to establish new kinds of enterprises that respond to emerging needs.

We have done many of these stories. At the end of last winter’s lockdown - how long ago it seems - we launched Marvellous Melbourne, an unashamed celebration of all our city has to offer.

Now, we are publishing a series called “Local Heroes”. I tried to avoid the word “hero” because it’s overused and most people doing good things don’t think of themselves as heroes at all. But we couldn’t think of something better.

It is designed to shine a spotlight on people who are controlling what they can control. The loss of control, the uncertainty, has been one of the biggest challenges during this pandemic. So for individuals or organisations to use what control they can muster to make a difference for themselves or for others can be inspiring. The Age also publishes a newsletter called Greater Good, which compiles stories that you may have missed in the blitz of the daily news.

Here are a few stories we have published recently that seek to celebrate the best of humanity, or the most amusing, or the truly quirky.

Senior writer Tony Wright wrote about jazz singer and violinist Fem Belling, who is preparing for the return of live music. She has a pop-up mobile jazz club ready to roll.

Cassandra Morgan reported on three Melbourne year 9 students, Jack, Darcy and Wesley, who set up CovidBaseAU to track coronavirus data. They at first wanted to keep their age secret for fear they would not be taken seriously. Now, CovidBaseAU is a website and has more than 26,000 Twitter followers.

“We were like, well, if these other people can do it, there’s no reason we can’t,” Jack said.

Lastly, from Good Food, a lovely story about Solidarity Pancakes, a pandemic cook-up dreamed up by VicHealth CEO Dr Sandro Demaio. What started as a Sunday morning ritual to cook pancakes for his partner Olivia, a doctor, and his 98-year-old grandmother, Bette, was shared online, and Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver gave it their approval. Hundreds of others have joined in as an act of solidarity with our healthcare workers.

Do send us ideas about people or groups doing extraordinary things. They can be tiny acts of kindness, or large projects that reach thousands. After we began Local Heroes, we realised how many there are.

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Shining a light on our local heroes - The Age
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