Sharing the repairing
When she launched Melbourne Repair Café last year, Michelle Fisher was focused firmly on the environmental benefits of fixing things. “We kicked off during the Sustainable Living Festival. I was all about saving resources and keeping things out of landfill,” she says, “but I quickly learnt there are other, far more important social benefits that come from being part of a Repair Café. The environmental gains are a bonus.” Michelle manages a group of more than 100 volunteer ‘fixers’, who gather on the first Sunday of every month at Yarraville Community Centre to set up their tools and have a go at repairing the multitude of
Mending something for another person is an act of kindness.
household items that people bring through the door. “I’m never entirely sure who’s getting more out of the process, the person who’s brought in something special to them that they hope can be fixed, or the person who has the satisfaction out of helping someone. Both walk out with smiles on their faces.” There are currently nine registered repair cafes across Australia and more than 1300 worldwide. The movement is escalating, says Michelle, and that’s because we’re renewing our appreciation of the skills it takes to fix something. “Valuable practical knowledge is passed on at a Repair Café. We have electricians, builders and seamstresses among our volunteers, but by far the biggest cohort is the all-rounder. They’re the people who love troubleshooting and who’ll work on things until they crack the problem.” At a Repair Café the fixers ideally teach people how to repair things for themselves and give them the confidence to try for themselves next time. “We had someone bring in Art Deco lamps that hadn’t worked for decades; they left with them working. Then there was a teenager who’d inherited his mum’s turntable. He’d fixed it to a point but got stuck, so someone helped him and now he can play the records his mum had also left him. Stories like that make you realise how important it is that we can, and do, repair things.”