The stress often experienced by refugees and asylum seekers during migration can lead to mental and emotional ill health. This can be a particularly difficult for women refugees and asylum seekers, and their children. It is important to find different ways to support women in this situation as they seek to rebuild their health and wellbeing and connect with others in their local communities. Art based activities are found to offer creative spaces for people to express and share in positive ways that help to restore wellbeing.
In this project we use painting as a way to re-connect with and re-imagine memories of healing landscapes from the past. The project investigates what landscapes can usefully be re-imagined, and what types of remembered landscapes exist for those who move across national boundaries, and how the re-imagining and painting experience may contribute to the therapeutic work of the Merseyside Refugee & Asylum Seekers Pre & Post Natal Support Group (MRANG) using a painting activity to support women refugees and asylum seekers.