A song written in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic has lit up the 2025 Defending the Arts Festival, held in Canberra.
Squadron Leader Aleisha Croxford returned from deployment in 2020 to an internal battle that threatened to overwhelm her.
Her obsessive-compulsive tendencies had worsened during deployment, and the return home - coupled with the uncertainties of the virus - pushed her symptoms to a full-blown disorder.
"My kids must hold the record for the most PCR tests in Canberra because I was just so paranoid about it," Squadron Leader Croxford said.
With therapy and medication, she was able to wrest back control and was relieved at the freedom that gave her.
Then when a close friend started their own struggle with OCD, Squadron Leader Croxford was inspired to channel her journey into music.
The result was Light, an original song she performed at this year's Defending the Arts Festival.
A singer and dancer since childhood, after joining the ADF Squadron Leader Croxford juggled her performance passion with military life.
But as her career progressed, creative pursuits took a backseat.
"Once you get into the real career of ADF and move around a lot, there [remains] very little time for that creative passion," she said.
That changed when the ADF Creative Arts Association launched.
"When it started up a few years ago, I was like, absolutely let me at it. This is a chance to get back in touch with that side of me," Squadron Leader Croxford said.
'I was like, absolutely let me at it. This is a chance to get back in touch with that side of me.'
Since then, she has immersed herself in local musical theatre and song writing, with her style shaped by what she's listening to. Light drew inspiration from the synthy Nordic pop of Norwegian artist Sigrid.
"Listening to artists on the radio while you're writing, sometimes you think, 'My music is never going to sound like that'," Squadron Leader Croxford said.
"But when you hear the finished song and it does, it's an incredible feeling."
Her motivation, however, was bigger than music.
"If there's just one person who hears it and thinks, 'Maybe I should do something about whatever it is', that's an exciting thing to get the opportunity to do," Squadron Leader Croxford said.
The festival was held from March 10-14 and consisted of an exhibition and workshops, and finished with a performance night.
The exhibit featured 39 pieces of visual art from 20 ADF artists and included paintings, sculptures, writing and interactive art.
Artists participated in workshops covering painting, writing and music, and tours of the National Gallery and the Australian War Memorial, to inspire and expand their understanding.
The week ended with a performance night at the ADF Academy - the perfect way to finish, according to festival director and curator Major Anne-Maree Hunt.
"The performance was a mixture of vocalists, dance, poetry and musical instruments. It had a nice representation of all of them," Major Hunt said.
The theme of this year's festival was storytelling.
"Each of those artists that stood on stage put themselves out there, made themselves vulnerable and represented their stories using that theme of storytelling," Major Hunt said.
'Sometimes performing as a leader requires you to lead the performance.'
The exhibit also featured Major Hunt's children's book Mateship, which she wrote and illustrated last year for the Army Storytelling Competition.
It is about the different phases of mateship over the years, with instances out of every major conflict from World War 1 through to present day.
Major Hunt said the aim of the festival was not only to display art produced by ADF personnel, but was a way for artists to connect. It is the major annual ADF Sport carnival for the ADF Creative Arts Association.
"A lot of the time we're siloed and work in isolation. There's not a lot of creative licence to chat with your peers and get feedback," she said.
"This one week means we can get together and talk about each other's art, pat each other on the back and congratulate people for what they've achieved over the year."
ADF Creative Arts Association president Brigadier Isaac Seidl praised the pair.
"These are but two of the many stories told during the week of Defending the Arts," Brigadier Seidl said.
"Creativity is capability. Sometimes performing as a leader requires you to lead the performance. That is exactly what we've seen this week from some outstanding artists."
