Turning the tide on climate grief

By DANIEL CLARKE
24/06/26

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Anger. Fear. Helplessness. 

 

All words that capture people’s feelings as the onset of last year’s algal bloom spread across the South Australian coast, killing millions of marine animals, leaving local industries devastated and ocean lovers displaced.

 

In the face of so much uncertainty and existential distress caused by unwanted change to her home environment – a phenomenon known as solastalgia - musician Jamie Lena Kerslake found solace in writing songs “to vent and share vulnerability”.

 

When community organisations began banding together to run various eco-action campaigns to combat isolation and spread hopeful messages, Kerslake wanted to contribute with skills that could help others. 

 

She settled on the idea of using song to translate feelings of helplessness about climate grief into tangible pieces of art that could provide a cathartic emotional release. 

 

A number of current and former Kangaroo Island residents attended Kerslake’s most recent climate grief songwriting workshop at a Southern SAGE community event in Aldinga last week. 

 

Using imagery – some of algal foam and washed-up fish but others more abstract - participants were asked to reflect on what they saw and write short lyrics on pieces of paper that were used to create improvised songs.

 

What followed was a remarkably gentle but equally powerful sharing of each ad hoc creation that had been worked on in groups of two or three.

 

“It always surprises me how willing people are to try a hand at songwriting,” Kerslake reflects. 

 

“Even as a songwriter myself it feels very vulnerable and exposing to embark upon writing a new song. So honestly, I'm quite surprised that anyone is willing to participate, especially those with little music experience.

 

“But it's been so inspiring to witness members of the community share so vulnerably and do the best they can to tap into their experiences and form them into music that can be shared.

 

“I think that songwriting is just a tool to allow folks the time of day and the focus to settle in to their feelings and to express perhaps what words can't always on their own accord. It's also an opportunity to share how you're feeling without needing it to make sense.”

 

Penneshaw mother and daughter Clare Ruth and Pip Bruce found the session “inclusive and profound”. Both are still singing one of the songs created in the session called This Changing Planet.

 

“Coming together and participating in something that's so light-hearted and creative is a very good way of dealing with the uncertainty of the future and the grief that is a very isolating feeling,” Pip said.

 

Clare agreed, noting that there was no pressure to write good lyrics but that “singing together is very powerful and uplifting because it promotes connection”. 

 

“You can hear other voices mingled with your own and you create something hopefully that's not out of tune but that's beautiful or resonant. 

 

“There’s been so much song singing throughout political protest history. I think it sort of joins our voices with voices in the past. It's what you do when there's nothing else you can do. You sing or you pray or you dance. It’s kind of primal in a way.”

 

Keen snorkeller and swimmer Pip was particularly affected by the impact of the algal bloom and still gets emotional talking about it.

 

“I remember going to Pennington Bay and finding leafy sea dragons washed up and wondering if there were any of them still out there,” she said.

 

“Then I went to Stokes Bay and I dove under these shelves and all the sponges and all the seagrass that should have been growing on the rocks were just dead. There were no fish and the sound underwater was just quiet and eerie – it was a silent ocean.

 

“Everything was coated in this brown filamentous algae just suffocating the underwater world. That was definitely the hardest thing for me to process. I came out of the water and it's this feeling of being alone with the grief and not feeling understood. I remember just being silent.

 

“I couldn't even express what I felt in that moment. I was just shocked and people were trying to crack jokes and be all normal and I felt so depressed.

 

“That's the importance of this songwriting and coming together and letting the emotion out and being silly and a light-hearted activity where you’re all together. It lightens a lot of that grief.”

 

The songwriting workshop followed an absorbing scientific presentation about the bloom’s impact and its current status by another former island resident and coastal research scientist Enya Chitty.

 

“We’d really love to bring science and art together to start delivering some educational programs,” she said.

 

“Scientists and artists have a really similar way of exploring the unknown. They work best as a team and are comfortable with uncertainty. You need to be looking for differences or patterns to work towards something so they present a really powerful medium to engage with communities and young people. 

 

“Losing access to the ocean as a place of regulation and processing has been really rough but I also have so much faith and I know that we can address this problem and that a better future is possible.

 

“We have all the resources to address this. We just need them to be applied appropriately with meaningful action.”