After watching the apocalyptic bushfires of January 2020, actor and writer Magda Szubanski was determined to do something to help survivors.
“I was ringing anyone I could get in contact within state government and federal government, saying if there’s anything I can do to help.
That bit of ‘Sharon’ that is in me, that little volunteer spirit, you know,” she says of the character she made famous in Kath and Kim.
In an unlikely pairing, Szubanski found herself joining forces with 18-year-old Will ‘Egg Boy’ Connolly.
After cracking an egg on the head of then Senator Fraser Anning to protest against his anti- immigration remarks after the Christchurch massacre, the teenager was struggling to make sense of his newfound global recognition.
“Magda was like, come around to my house tomorrow. And my mum was like, oh, my God, do you know whose house we’re going to?”
Together the pair raised almost $190,000 for the long- term mental health of people impacted by the fires. They then had to decide where to spend the money.
Australian Story joins them on the road as they visit the bushfire-ravaged Snowy Mountain Valley townships of Tumbarumba and Batlow to set up specially structured art workshops as a way of providing ongoing trauma support for survivors.
Szubanski has her own personal experience of trauma. Her father joined the Polish resistance during WW2 where he was tasked with killing collaborators. For the first time she shares the footage she filmed of her father as he relived his experience. It provides a unique insight into what shaped Magda.
“If we can learn to get the measure of (generational) trauma, if we can learn how to cope with that suffering, how to help others who are going through that suffering, I’m all in. I’ll do whatever I can to help,” she says.
Australian Story: An Unlikely Match airs Monday 15 March at 8pm on ABC TV + iview.
You can watch replays on ABC NEWS channel on Wednesdays at 12:30am, Saturdays at 6:30pm and Sundays at 2:30pm and 9:30pm. All times are AEDT.
