Writing the Future of Health
The Writing the Future of Health Fellowship was created by the RMIT-Cisco Health Transformation Lab (HTL), evidencing an ethos for anti-disciplinary innovation.
“Creativity at the heart of systems change”
The fellowship was created to make space for imagination and storytelling as tools to envision new possibilities in designing the future of health. Literary practice was recognised for its unique ability to articulate future possibilities with clarity, emotional resonance and depth, and to inspire new thinking about transformative, inclusive change.
In collaboration with RMIT Vocational and Higher Education Creative Writing programs, HTL awarded the inaugural 2022-23 Fellowship to acclaimed writer and poet, Andy Jackson. Through an unexpected but powerful decision, Andy employed 22 writers with disability, to co-create the resulting work, Collab/Oration, responding to the prompt ‘What is the Future of Health.’
This poignant and deeply moving body of work, now published as ‘Raging Grace: Australian Writers Speak Out on Disability’ (Puncher & Wattman, 2024), was showcased in an official public event at State Library Victoria.
Due to the relevance and success of Collab/Oration, the work was selected for the Big Anxiety Festival and events at the Wheeler Centre in the same year. Bringing together audiences of health care and literary professionals, innovation specialists, creative arts and medical students, The ‘Writing the Future of Health’ Fellowship model has been active in generating dynamic dialogue about the power of creative practice in designing health futures.
Collab/Oration (now the Raging Grace anthology) lays bare the realities of our healthcare system, from the perspective of those who use it, as inspiration for a better future – highlighting that we cannot move forward without fully understanding the present.
Due to the relevance and success of Collab/Oration, the work was selected for the Big Anxiety Festival and events at the Wheeler Centre in the same year. Bringing together audiences of health care and literary professionals, innovation specialists, creative arts and medical students, The ‘Writing the Future of Health’ Fellowship model has been active in generating dynamic dialogue about the power of creative practice in designing health futures.
Inviting us to explore ideas of ‘shared vulnerability’ and the wisdom of lived experience, the project was selected for the RMIT Enabling Impact Platform’s Strategic Impact Thought Leadership Grant. The resulting project ‘Collab/Oration in Conversation’ to explore the critical relationship between creative practice and lived experience, and what this could mean for shaping a more inclusive future of health.
Testimonials from the event:
“This has made me think differently about my approach to patients and how I should deliver care in” – Psychiatric nurse
“This event has made me see real possibilities for creative expression and [related] interactions to form more current and relevant health policy” – Academic and policy advisor