Dad.Lab emerged from a simple yet powerful idea: to bring fathers from across Australia together, each with their unique experiences, to connect, learn, and grow. Through a blend of silence, nature walks, and innovative exercises, we embarked on a transformative two-day journey designed to deepen our understanding of fatherhood and the challenges and opportunities it presents.

Activities & Insights

• Listening to Nature: Our first step was to embrace silence and let nature speak, guiding us to select objects that resonated with our journey as fathers.
• Creating Dad Bios & Posters: Through the treacherous yet fun walk to the waterfall, we crafted our own 'dad bios' using the frame of "I have, I am, I can," and explored our past, present, and future relationship with fatherhood on our 'dad posters'.
• The Power of Sharing: Returning from the waterhole, we shared our chosen objects, posters, and bios within a safe circle, uncovering patterns in our experiences – from mental health struggles and the impact of our own fathers to the gratitude for our privileges.
• Building Soil Networks: We delved into our shared themes, creating soil networks that visually represented our interconnected journeys, emphasising that our collective experience is a web of interlinked roots and soil systems.
• Dreaming & Ideating: Identifying key problems in fatherhood, we brainstormed solutions, forming 'how might we' statements that led to a vibrant ideation session. The culmination was a shared commitment to actionable ideas that we presented on our living tables.
• School of Dads & Knowledge Circles: A highlight was the School of Dads, where deep knowledge circles provided space for sharing and learning about the nuances of fatherhood, from difficult conversations and discipline to relationships and technology.