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Road
Open: The Kimberley DVD
'A
sharing of culture'
More
about Alan and Sandra...
Sandra
Brogden is Director of the Catholic Education Office in Broome.
Alan Pigram is a musician (a member of the well-known Pigram
Brothers band) and co-producer of the DVD. They discuss the
project.
| Where
did the original idea come from? |
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| Sandra: |
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It
probably came from both of us. I had originally thought
that maybe we could do a video. You see little kids
watching the Wiggles and things like that where there's
music and dance, some little songs, and I was thinking
about something like that, but based in the Kimberley.
I phoned Alan and talked to him and he had his own ideas… |
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| Alan: |
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Yes,
I'd had some ideas like that too. I'd just starting to
talk to this bloke who's a cameraman and film director
and he was doing Russell Crowe's DVD in New York. So he'd
given me this DVD technology and I was analysing it in
terms of the learning power that I could see within the
interactive side of it. Like the way there could be so
many levels and ways of organising it. And I saw that
as a good learning tool.
He's done Pigram Brothers video clips before so we had
a working relationship and I was able to ask him to
help. He was willing and so we thought 'why use video
when we can use the DVD technology?' You've got to go
and get the raw footage anyway, but the difference is
that when you think DVD you can do much more. |
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| Sandra: |
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We'd
been doing a little bit with music in the early years
and we originally put this up as a proposal to the CEO
as part of IESIP funding. It came out of a consultative
forum and it was an early childhood thing. We wanted music
and dance that was based in the Kimberley and that children
could do and succeed at. And also something where parents
could be involved in schools in a non-threatening way.
But what we've actually got is something much bigger than
that. |
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| Alan: |
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In
the early part I was thinking more in terms of the stories
that are in each place. I was thinking of a cartoon character,
where the Elders tell a story and then it's depicted by
a cartoon character. So there would be a character involved,
a story, the animals and the linking of the whole lot
back to the dreaming. That was what was running through
my mind. But then we thought it would be better to depict
real people so, we would have an Elder as a kind of icon
to introduce every different place. And that gave it more
body because people could be part of it. |
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| What
happens when you play the DVD? |
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| Alan: |
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The
first thing you get is a cultural warning. You can't
bypass that. Then you go into the map of the Kimberley,
with all the school icons and as you go to each school
or community, you are then welcomed. Again, you can't
bypass that. Every time you go back there, even if you
go in and out, you have to go back through the Elders'
welcome in their language and/or English.
And
then you get a menu. First, we've got our song and
dance. You can see the words and if you click certain
things you can get further in there. Like, you can
have the music without the words, so it's karaoke
version as well.
And
there's a documentary about each community in there
as well. The songs actually make sense after you've
watched that.
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| What
was the initial contact with communities? |
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| Sandra: |
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We
did a pre-visit to every community just to talk to and
get permission from the Elders, to see if they wanted
it, too. We explained what the idea was behind it and
every place was opened hearted to it. And I think that
the success of it came from the fact that it was Aboriginal
people consulting with Aboriginal people. We sent people
who had links into all of those communities. |
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| Alan: |
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Yes,
that community thing behind it was major. There was one
place I went to, I started talking for about two minutes
and this Elder from the community he started telling me
exactly what I wanted to do. So I knew I was on the right
track. And I said that's exactly what I want to do and
it's what I want to come back for. That really boosted
me up in terms of knowing I was on the right track.
Some of these communities are pretty vulnerable. You
know, in the past they've spoken to someone, showed
them a painting and then they see their painting on
the TV. And they didn't know, they didn't give permission.
With the stories, you're not dealing with just the person
telling you some words, you're dealing with the existence
of those people, which stands for a long time to come.
So you've got to treat that with respect. But they've
learned. At first they want to know 'Why are you asking
these questions?', 'Why do you want that information?'
So we had to take it easy and talk with the right people. |
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| Sandra: |
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What
came out of the communities in the end was a lot more
than what we expected. They wanted to show us everything
and tell stories and I think they hadn't had the opportunity
in that sort of manner to do that before. |
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| What
was the process of shooting? |
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| Alan: |
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When
it was all agreed we went to shoot in the 13 communities.
The whole thing was done in three days in each community,
that was to shoot all the footage, get all the stories
from the community as well as to write the song and create
the dance. We
tried to involve the Aboriginal teachers' aides in each
community, to get some communication happening with
the kids. The first step in this whole thing was to
write the song. Then we can the dance after that. Because
I was trying to get an inside out view rather than do
it as someone from outside, I wanted a lot to come from
the kids. So when you sing the words you know it's about
that community.
So
in each school I just did a big storyboard kind of workshop,
with about eight or nine questions. Each school got
the same questions. Some of them were 'how important
are the old people?', 'How important are kids?', 'What's
your favourite things to do in your community?', 'What
special things would you show everyone in the world
about this place?' So it got deep into what they felt.
Not what other people feel, or what you hear about the
place.
Then
I'd have 10 or 12 boards full of all these ideas and
language words. And I'd have just one night to write
the song! Because then the dancers would come and the
time frame was very clear and couldn't be changed. But
I'd tried to absorb all the little things the kids had
told me and the pressure of it was blanked out because
it was exciting and important.
I
tried to make the melodies out of the way people spoke
at the community, and phrase words that way as well.
And I asked people what sort of music they liked and
tried to get a feel for that as well.
The
dance was always the same couple, Naomi and Trevor.
They interpreted little specific moves within each community's
dance feel and used the way the kids move as well. And
we consulted the Elders closely because a lot of the
stuff we weren't sure about. We didn't know any of their
particular rules or anything but when we got in there,
we soon found them out because we consulted with them.
We had to make sure the dancers were doing it just right.
And we wanted to have something relevant for Kimberley
kids, to have a dance that makes more sense to them. |
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| What
happened next? |
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| Sandra: |
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We
took it back to the communities after the first lot was
finished, to get approval to use it, and to keep going.
And they said they were so proud of it. I went to one
of the communities and the people were just buzzing, you
know, 'when are we going to get this DVD?', That's what
they wanted to talk about. And the Principal, all she
wanted to do was know how she was going to teach the music
and dance. An old man was talking to me after we had just
had a certificate presentation for some kids. He said
you don't have to explain two-way learning any more. Just
show them that. And that really summed it up for me.
We've
had lots of positives from the Principals as well. When
we first showed them the first cuts of a few of the
songs and a few of the documentaries some of them were
crying. Because they didn't imagine it would come up
as quite such a sharing of culture. That's what it was
all about, a sharing of culture. |
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| How
will the DVD be used in the schools? |
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| Sandra: |
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We're
hoping that through music we can teach literacy and
numeracy, that it can be a starting point for literacy
and numeracy. We'll be working with teachers to see
how they can use it like that. |
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| Alan: |
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The
power of it (and this is the feedback I'm getting now
from people who've seen it) is that there are 13 communities
within the Kimberley and you can access any one at any
time. The power of that is that instead of people in one
community having their own little world and kids being
in a kind of bubble, they can see out of that bubble.
All of a sudden kids who are in the desert can go straight
to another community which might be by the sea. A totally
different place, different outlook, and they might say,
well, I have to act, to do things. Not to be as good as
anyone else but for yourself. It's an uplifting kind of
feel. |
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| Sandra: |
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But
even in our schools down south we will be able to use
this for Aboriginal studies programs and cross cultural
programs. It could be used right across the country really. |
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