Masks
by The Edinburgh Headway Group
Edinburgh Headway Group is a registered Scottish charity and provides day service rehabilitation for people with an acquired brain injury over the age of 18. The primary aim is to improve their cognitive, physical, and emotional abilities to improve their quality of life and help them re-join their communities.
The primary aim of our project is to uncover this ‘invisible’ condition and give our members the opportunity to tell their stories and give their lives their own narratives. Many of our members engage in creative art-making every week and have expressed this to be a very enjoyable and therapeutic activity. The use of the art materials has enabled them to express themselves freely and helped communicate difficult emotions without having to use words.
For the past three months, members have been creating their own masks made of papier-mâché. Each one represents an individual’s journey of living with an acquired brain injury, depicting challenges, achievements, feelings, and emotions they have experienced in the past or are still having to face today.
This project was inspired by an existing international programme called Unmasking Brain Injury, which has been adopted and exhibited in different parts of the world, particularly in the United States. The message behind this is that: “There is a story behind every mask and behind every mask there is a person, a person that has been touched by brain injury.”
As you can see, the masks have brought the complex layers of living with a brain injury to life. We are very proud to present our members’ creations to you, their carers, family members, and friends.
Each is accompanied by a short description written by the maker, some of whom wished to remain anonymous. We hope that you feel as touched and inspired by these stories as we do!