The title of the IGA project we’re showcasing is ‘Adapting Uncle Greg Simms Stories of Country’, and was formulated for 87731 VC Design Studio: Narrative, Form and Time. This is a subject taken by second year undergraduate students within the Visual Communications Design degree. Our main goals were to teach visual communication design students correct principles and protocols when dealing with Aboriginal cultures, artefacts and content.
Building the project
The stories that the students adapted are from a collection of recordings from Aboriginal elder Uncle Greg Simms, (Gadigal, Dharug, Gundungurra Elder). The recordings were made by Aboriginal academic Danièle Hromek (Budawang, Yuin). The recordings are a teaching and learning resource initiated by Danièle to educate people about and share Aboriginal knowledge and perspectives.
Danièle and Uncle Greg gave us permission to adapt his stories to 3 outcomes.
- A comic
- A motion graphic
- An interactive tap essay
Danièle was the Indigenous lead on the project and Uncle Greg was a guest and consultant to the subject.
Challenges involved
A big challenge was giving staff the support needed to feel confident in dealing with Uncle Greg stories. The solution to this was to utilise the DAB Cultural Principles and Protocols book as developed by Daniele. This provided the frame or lens which which to approach teaching. The other solution was to support the teaching staff with a day long workshop that introduced them to Uncle Greg and Daniele and provided a space from which to confidently ask questions and make decisions from.
Outcomes
A major highlight has been having an engaged teaching cohort. Because of the content and need for community building this created a very supportive teaching environment.
Feature image by Jay Galvin, CC BY 2.0