Neomad

Last updated

Neomad is an Australian three-episode sci-fi fantasy adventure series that includes a comic book as well as an interactive comic that runs on an iPad. It was created in part of the Yijala Yala project run by art and social justice organisation Big hART between 2011 and 2015, in collaboration with around 50 young Aboriginal Australian people in Roebourne, Western Australia (known as Ieramugadu to the locals). It lays claim to being the "world's first Aboriginal interactive comic book".

Contents

Background

Big hART, which initiates large-scale, long-term community cultural development projects in disadvantaged communities across Australia, [1] ran the Yijala Yala project in concert with the Roebourne community from 2011 until 2015. Its aim was to help develop skills and create future opportunities for young people in Roebourne, incorporating its cultural heritage. [2] Yijala Yala means "now" in both of the local languages, Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi. [3]

The project was established in late 2010 after senior women Elders invited Big hART to collaborate on a project with the leramugadu community. [3] The primary funders of the project were the Australian Government and Woodside Energy, [4] who have signed a conservation agreement. [5] The project produced a variety of content in different media, including theatre, films, exhibitions and video, many of which were well-reviewed and awarded. Apart from Neomad, other titles included Hipbone Sticking Out, Murru, and Smashed Films. [2] The project included 21 short films, which were made available on DVD. [3]

In the early stages of the Yijala Yala project, Big hART set out to begin building digital media skills, creating content and passing on stories through everyday technologies including mobile phones, computers, television and radio. A group of 15 boys, a worker from a resource company, and two young mothers came together under the mentorship of a professional filmmaker, choreographer, and actor, resulting in a comic film called Love Sweet Love Punks. [4] [6]

A series of workshops was conducted by Stu Campbell (aka Sutu), at Roebourne District High School, developing a game called Love Punks, [4] with around 50 young people aged between 7 and 14. [7] Neomad built on Love Punks' themes and characters.

Description

One of the project objectives of working with sponsor Woodside was to promote Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) as a significant cultural heritage site, so Neomad features Murujuga. [4] The work is science fiction and humorous, but draws on real characters, places, and stories from the Dreaming. It is located in the ancient landscape of Murujuga, which includes famous petroglyphs. [8] It aims to help connect young people to their country and highlight the rich Indigenous culture of the Pilbara region. [9]

The young people who helped to create Neomad also star in the work, designated as 14 heroes and heroines known as the Love Punks or Satellite Sisters. [10]

Neomad was first published in 2012 as an interactive iPad comic. [5] Campbell drew the line art, while the children, after learning to use Photoshop, coloured the 600 scenes in them. [5]

The books are published by Gestalt Publishing, in collaboration with Big hART. [9] drawn from , In the interactive version, the user can click the speech bubbles on the animated panels, to hear the recordings of the narrative made by the children, in their voices. [5]

There are three episodes of Neomad: [8]

Neomad was free to download over April and May 2016. [5]

Documentaries

Big hArt made a short documentary film How Do We Get To Space? The Story Of Love Punks and Satellite Sisters, which won the Best Documentary – Short Form award at the 2014 ATOM 2014 IP Awareness ATOM Awards. [11]

Neomad was featured in the 2014 ABC documentary about artist Stuart Campbell called Cyber Dreaming. [12]

Reception

Neomad has been presented at conferences throughout Australia and has been profiled extensively throughout the media sphere and academic journals.[ citation needed ] It was featured in the Bucheon International Comic Festival in South Korea in 2012, [4] and was described by Kirkus Reviews as "dazzling". [13]

Neomad was optioned to a Melbourne-based animation company to be adapted in to an animated series. The comic has been profiled on The Guardian [5] and The Huffington Post . [14]

Accolades

Impact

The project had a positive impact on school attendance by children, boosted their confidence, and boosted their digital literacy skills. [5]

The 2020 NITV / ABC Me series Thalu was inspired by Neomad, and initially given the same title. It too involved working with children from Roebourne, and involved extensive community collaboration. It was produced by local producers Tyson Mowarin and Robyn Marais [20] [21] of Weerianna Street Media, in association with the ACTF. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dampier, Western Australia</span> Town in Western Australia

Dampier is a major industrial port in the Pilbara region in the northwest of Western Australia. It is located near the city of Karratha and Port Walcott.

The Pilbara is a large, dry, thinly populated region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Aboriginal peoples; its ancient landscapes; the red earth; and its vast mineral deposits, in particular iron ore. It is also a global biodiversity hotspot for subterranean fauna.

Karratha is a city in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, adjoining the port of Dampier. It is located in the traditional lands and waters of the Ngarluma people, for whom it has been Ngurra (home/Country) for tens of thousands of years. It was established in 1968 to accommodate the processing and exportation workforce of the Hamersley Iron mining company and, in the 1980s, the petroleum and liquefied natural gas operations of the Woodside-operated North West Shelf Venture located on Murujuga. As of the 2021 census, Karratha had an urban population of 17,013. The city's name comes from the cattle station of the same name, which derives from a word in a local Aboriginal language meaning "good country" or "soft earth". More recently, Ngarluma people have indicated the name may actually relate to an early interpretation of "Gardarra", stemming from the sacred site for the whale, located in the Karratha area, called "Gardarrabuga". The city is the seat of government of the City of Karratha, a local government area covering the surrounding region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roebourne, Western Australia</span> Town in Western Australia

Roebourne, also known as Ieramugadu, is a town in Western Australia's Pilbara region. It is 35 km from Karratha, 202 km from Port Hedland and 1,563 km from Perth, the state's capital. It is the only town on the North West Coastal Highway between Binnu and Fitzroy Crossing; over 2,000km. It is located within the City of Karratha. It prospered during its gold boom of the late 19th century and was once the largest settlement between Darwin and Perth. At the 2016 census, Roebourne and the surrounding area had a population of 981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cossack, Western Australia</span> Town in Australia

Cossack, known as Bajinhurrba in Ngarluma language, and formerly known as Tien Tsin, is an historic ghost town located 1,480 km (920 mi) north of Perth and 15 km (9.3 mi) from Roebourne in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The nearest town to Cossack, which is located on Butcher Inlet at the mouth of the Harding River, is Wickham. The former Tien Tsin Harbour is now known as Port Walcott. Since 2021, the townsite is managed and operated by the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi Foundation Ltd (NYFL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murujuga</span> Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia

Murujuga, formerly known as Dampier Island and today usually known as the Burrup Peninsula, is an area in the Dampier Archipelago, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, containing the town of Dampier. The Dampier Rock Art Precinct, which covers the entire archipelago, is the subject of ongoing political debate due to historical and proposed industrial development. Over 40% of Murujuga lies within Murujuga National Park, which contains within it the world's largest collection of ancient 40,000 year old rock art (petroglyphs).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Dog (Pilbara)</span> Pilbara Wanderer and Dog of Northwestern Australia

Red Dog was a kelpie/cattle dog cross that was well known for his travels through Western Australia's vast Pilbara region. Red Dog had a series of owners and lengthy periods travelling on his own, essentially becoming a beloved friend and mascot of the greater Pilbara community. A statue was installed in his memory in Dampier, one of the towns to which he often returned. He is frequently referred to as a "red kelpie" or a "red cloud kelpie".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North West Shelf Venture</span> Oil and gas project in the north west of Western Australia

The North West Shelf Venture, situated in the north-west of Western Australia, is Australia's largest resource development project. It involves the extraction of petroleum at offshore production platforms, onshore processing and export of liquefied natural gas, and production of natural gas for industrial, commercial and domestic use within the state. North West Shelf gas is processed at the Woodside Energy operated Karratha Gas Plant, located on the Murujuga Cultural Landscape. The construction of the Karratha Gas Plant included one of the largest mass-destruction events of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage. The North West Shelf Venture is often cited as the single largest industrial emitter for Australia according to the Clean Energy Regulator.

The Flying Foam Massacre was a massacre of Aboriginal people around Flying Foam Passage on Murujuga in Western Australia by colonial settlers. Comprising a series of atrocities between February and May 1868, the massacre was in retaliation to the killing of a police officer, a police assistant, and a local workman. Collectively the atrocities resulted in the deaths of an unknown number of Jaburara people, but with estimates ranging from 15 to 150 dead men, women and children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gestalt Publishing</span> Australian publishing house

Gestalt Publishing is an Australian independent graphic novel publishing house. They primarily publish Australian graphic novelists, and have an ethos of supporting and developing emerging talent.

Big <i>h</i>ART Australian arts company

Big hART is an Australian arts and social-justice company based in Tasmania.

Hunter Djali Yumunu Page-Lochard is an Australian stage and screen actor of both Aboriginal Australian and African-American descent. He is known for his roles in the films The Sapphires (2012), Around the Block (2013) and the 2016 TV series Cleverman.

Stuart Campbell, producing work under the name Sutu, is Australian artist and director who works with digital media. He has produced interactive webcomics, augmented reality stories, virtual reality films and virtual concerts. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

The Ngarluma are an Indigenous Australian people of the western Pilbara area of northwest Australia. They are coastal dwellers of the area around Roebourne and Karratha, not including Millstream.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pilbara shrublands</span> Terrestrial ecoregion in Western Australia

The Pilbara shrublands is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion in Western Australia. It is coterminous with the Pilbara IBRA region. For other definitions and uses of "Pilbara region" see Pilbara.

Dr Josephine McDonald is an Australian archaeologist and Director of the Centre for Rock Art Research + Management at the University of Western Australia. McDonald is primarily known for her influence in the field of rock art research and her collaborative research with Australian Aboriginal communities.

Thalu is an Australian children's post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama television series made for National Indigenous Television (NITV) and ABC Me, broadcast in April 2020. All cast members are Indigenous Australians, and the children are first-time actors. There are guest appearances by seasoned actors Elaine Crombie, Trisha Morton-Thomas, and Hunter Page-Lochard. It was filmed in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyclone Damien</span> Category 2 Cyclone in 2020

Severe Tropical Cyclone Damien was the strongest cyclone to make landfall on the Western Australian coast since Cyclone Christine in 2013 and the second-strongest cyclone in the 2019–20 Australian region cyclone season after Cyclone Ferdinand. The fifth tropical low, and the third named storm of the 2019–20 Australian region cyclone season, Damien originated from a monsoon trough over Kimberley.

Manuwarra Red Dog Highway is a major road currently under construction in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, between Karratha and Tom Price. Originally known as Karratha–Tom Price Road, it acquired its new name in September 2020 after community consultation. Manuwarra means "'heaps' or 'masses'" in the Yindjibarndi language and is the indigenous name for the Red Dog Gorge in the Millstream Chichester National Park. Both the gorge and the highway acquired its English name from the eponymous Red Dog, a famous Kelpie/Cattle Dog and Pilbara mascot from the 1970s.

Beck Cole is an Australian filmmaker of the Warramungu and Luritja nations. She is known for her work on numerous TV series, including First Australians, Grace Beside Me, Black Comedy and Wentworth, as well as documentaries and short films. She is based in Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory.

References

  1. ↑ Ros Lehman (16 November 2017). "Big hART's business of art: Marking 25 years of shining a light on hidden stories". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Past Projects: Yijala Yala". Big hART . 2 April 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 "Yijala Yala films". Big hART. 9 July 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Myers, Debra; Palmer, Dave (March 2015). "View of What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love (Punks)". Cultural Studies Review. 21 (1). doi:10.5130/csr.v21i1.4434 . Retrieved 22 August 2024– via UTS ePRESS. CC-BY icon.svg Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under a Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Tan, Monica (18 April 2016). "Aboriginal sci-fi Neomad wins Australia's top comic book award". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "NEOMAD: Creative Learning In Remote Communities". Education Technology Solutions. 30 May 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  7. ↑ Campbell, Stu (28 November 2015). "Full interview with Sutu, creator of NEOMAD". Australian Comics Journal (Interview). Interviewed by Castle, Anthony N. Archived from the original on 10 May 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  8. 1 2 Stitson, Roger (20 February 2014). "Comic caper gets Pilbara pupils animated". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  9. 1 2 "Neomad Book 1". Gestalt Comics. 29 July 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  10. ↑ "NEOMAD – The Complete Collection". Big hART. 17 August 2024. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  11. ↑ "2014 IP Awareness Atom Awards: Tertiary & industry winners announced!" (PDF). 28 November 2014.
  12. ↑ "Cyber Dreaming (2014)". Screen Australia . Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  13. ↑ "NEOMAD INTERACTIVE COMIC". Kirkus Reviews. 24 May 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  14. ↑ Dengate, Cayla. "Indigenous Sci-Fi NEOMAD Glows Neon With Praise And Culture". Huffington Post. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  15. 1 2 "NEOMAD wins Best Game/Multimedia Production". Gestalt Comics. 3 December 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  16. ↑ "IPAF ATOM Awards" (PDF). 29 November 2013.
  17. ↑ Berger, Lee R. (20 August 2024). "Best Apps & E-Books of 2013 for Middle-Grade…". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  18. ↑ Dengate, Cayla. "Indigenous Sci-Fi NEOMAD Glows Neon With Praise And Culture". Huffington Post. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  19. ↑ "The Ledger Awards". The Ledger Awards. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
  20. ↑ Tan, Teresa (1 August 2020). "Kids TV show Thalu works with Pilbara community to create positive role models". ABC News. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  21. ↑ Siemienowicz, Rochelle (22 April 2020). "Film & Television Jobs, News, Reviews & Screen Industry Data". ScreenHub Australia. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  22. ↑ "THALU Television Series Premiere on NITV & SBS OnDemand". Amie Batalibasi. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 20 August 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.