Southern Cross University is hosting an exhibition at its Lismore campus, featuring work resulting from a significant research project responding to the devastating 2022 Northern Rivers floods.

Floods + Me is a collaborative research project funded by the Vice Chancellor’s Flood Recovery Scheme involving five universities, a team of academic researchers, and youth and child researchers from local schools and the community. It was led by Southern Cross University Executive Dean, Faculty of Education, Professor Amy Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, and SEAE Research Centre academics.

“We wanted to understand the flood experiences of children and young people and how these events impacted their education,” Professor Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles said.

“Over hundreds of years, the public record has been written by adults - people like historians and reporters - who have interpreted what they have seen through those lenses.

 “We sought to bring young people and their unique perspectives into that record in powerful and creative ways, and that’s what is really compelling about this exhibition.

“The exhibition’s title reflects the feelings of displacement expressed by one young researcher, who likened their experience after their home and school were flooded to that of a ‘flood rat’.

(At Wednesday's launch of Flood Rats. Photo: supplied)

“This sentiment resonates with many young people’s experiences of disruption and alienation during such climate-induced disasters.”

Research partners to ‘Flood Rats: After the Rain’ include La Trobe University, The University of Sydney, RMIT, Victoria University, and Southern Cross University.

You can view the exhibition throughout October at the Gallery Walk in the SCU Learning Centre.

To get there, use the car park below the gym and pool. Walk past the gym and pool and through Goodman Plaza.