ABSTRACT

Digital storytelling (DST) is a community engagement and participatory action research methodology that combines the cultural power of first-person narrative with digital technologies to support participants to explore and represent life experiences that are particularly meaningful to them. This chapter introduces Finding our way, a project where ten people from immigrant and refugee backgrounds created short digital stories during a four-day facilitated workshop. It discusses the experience of one modern standard Chinese-speaking participant in depth, the story she made and her personal reflections on the impact of the project. Reflecting on the process of using visual methodologies we explore an emerging and contested concept – mental health recovery – as it relates to vulnerable and often marginalized populations. Photographs and video stills documenting the workshop process, the digital stories and other outcomes are also included.