Heart Maps

2024  The below Heart Maps collages, poetry and sounds are part of the Way Beyond national survey exhibition of the newly formed network of Australian Walking Artists showing in Sydney, February 2024. Proof that you never know where your heart-led wandering will take you! x  

And a taster of the audio walk event at WinterWild festival with images by Jade Forest and filming by Aimee Chapman

Heart Maps Audio Walk taster. Apollo Bay, Gadubanud Country. August 2023 from Amy Tinderbox on Vimeo.

December 2023

A big heart-felt thank you to all the project collaborators and participants this year who have made Heart Maps the joyful success it has been. The full interviews and more are now available on the museum’s Victorian Collections page– enjoy! And access all the other bits and pieces at the links below. Lots of love, Amy

Listen to the Heart Maps Story Trail from WinterWild and a specially made soundscape here

 Catch stories and photos from locals Val Flitton, Richard Collopy, Nelly O’Meara, Russell Frost and Val Cameron in this compilation of audio slideshows. Thanks for sharing your amazing lives and hearts!

Amy and Val Flitton out recording at Paradise, Apollo Bay

Sep 2023 Massive thanks to all, especially the Collopy family, Gadubanud custodians – we had a sold out show on Sunday and lots of people out enjoying Heart Maps stories. See the gallery below for some beautiful photos of the event by Jade Forest, access the audio walk here  (free but consider a donation of your choice). I’ve also entered the walk into the international group Walk Listen Create’s Sound Walk Awards. Check it out here and submitted the fellowship project from first half of the year for the PROV Community History Awards. Wish us luck!

Preparing for Heart Maps scene on the beach with Vini Melzak, Scotty, Amy Tsilemanis, Richard Collopy and Pete Collopy. Apollo Bay WinterWild Festival 2023

-Min Manifold

“I really enjoyed Heart Maps  – I found the overlay of timeframes quite profound, the very tangible and temporal but relatable local anecdotes, contrasting with the long term, almost infinite indigenous experience of connection to the town we know as Apollo bay. As an occasional local , it definitely increased my love and knowledge of this place!”  -Ian 

“It was a wonderful experience to wander the streets, beaches and historical buildings of Apollo Bay to hear the story of Apollo Bay told through such a personal perspective. The combination of performance, traditional museum display and oral histories delivered a history lesson in the best way possible – through the personal experiences and knowledge of the people who have lived and loved there.

I especially loved the integration of ancient and recent histories – Gadubanud storytelling showed both the depth of traditional knowledge that exists with our indigenous heritage, how that story has evolved since colonisation and the possibilities to be found in building stories together.” -Stacie Bobele, Regional Arts Victoria

August 2023

Heart Maps at Apollo Bay’s WinterWild festival August 25th-27th

Sunday August 27th: Heart Maps, Down the Line, an ambulatory audio adventure. A two-hour moving feast of creative oral history. Limited capacity-    

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!  

Or enjoy the free Heart Maps Story Trail at your own pace over the weekend (or listen at your leisure here)

Hear stories of Apollo Bay – past and present – and explore the rich layers that connect us all in this self-guided and self-paced story trail produced by Amy Tsilemanis. Find the QR codes around the festival site, pop in your headphones, and stop in for food and art as you walk your own heart map. 

Apollo Bay Cable Station 1930s and 2023

May 2023

May 17-21st I will be in residence at the museum: Come and visit me and add your voice to the project!

The Apollo Bay Cable Station was the site of a feat of undersea engineering that connected Apollo Bay to Tasmania linking them for the first time to the mainland. Since the station ceased functioning in the 1970s, much volunteer work and advocacy secured the building as a wonderful museum of displays and stories from the region. The former residence next door holds more of the collection and spaces, and this collaboration with Heart Maps opens possibilities for ways that people can engage with the museum and its treasures in new ways. I’ve now completed a series of interviews for the museum with local residents (and am working with the museum to make them available for all to enjoy in the coming months!). I’ve also run community workshops where participants have walked and mapped their connections to place and collected audio that along with the interviews will feed into the new creative audio experience on offer at the WinterWild Festival this August.

While in residence at the museum, some of my audio and mapping works in progress will be on display along with a portable recording studio to collect memories and stories of the region. Any associated photos people would like to bring in are also welcomed. Some of the themes being captured, past and present are: communication changes through time; relationships with local land and water; local industries and the shift into tourism (and development of places like Greenacres); local dances and entertainments (the Mech Hall, the Fishermans Ball, visiting circus and more); and favourite places in Apollo Bay such as Paradise, Marriners Lookout, the harbour, walks, beaches, and hopes for the future of the area.

Love to see you there!

Heart Mapping Workshop Apollo Bay March 2023  (Image by Jade Forest)