I’ve always been afraid of two things – bodies of water (in which I cannot see the bottom) and heights. At 7, I was stung by a jellyfish while swimming. That same year, I fell off a rock face and into a crevice of fresh lava rock, gouging and slicing my flesh as I tumbled to the bottom – it felt like I fell for miles. I came to dread swimming and climbing things.

Over 20 years later, I found myself miles in the air flying across the world’s largest body of water. All to work for a small organization called CuriousWorks. I’d not heard of them until just a few weeks earlier and in a few days, I was going to be helping them make media with kids in the middle of the Pilbara – a place few Australians (let alone Americans like me) ever get the chance to see.

With just a single Tweet as the trigger, I was going to be over 10,000 miles away from home, in the middle of a vast desert, in a country I’d never been to…

I dove in.

Some mornings, I had magnificent dreams and awoke to watch the sun rise over the desert landscape.

Other mornings gave me a taste of the complex realities of kids in rural and remote communities.

And this was only the first 5 days of my trip…

My second week in Australia found me in the small mining town of Newman, Western Australia. Newman consists of about 5,000 people with an extra 2,000 as ‘fly in fly out‘). It sits about 1200 km north of Perth in the heart of the Pilbara Desert. Because of it’s remote location, food and water need to be shipped in to Newman’s only grocery store weekly. Pilbara literally, means ‘dry‘.

There’s a cultural thirst here too – particularly for the young people of Newman. Pop cultural artifacts like StarWars, Twilight and Subway sandwiches are lapped up. The kids constantly talk about wanting to see ‘bands in Perth’. In deed, many young people – Newman’s potential future leaders – end up leaving.

Because of this, BHP Billiton recognized the need for a more sustainable and permanent infrastructure – something for the long term. That’s where CuriousWorks came in.

As part of the BHP Iron Ore Legacy Project and in partnership with Country Arts WA, CuriousWorks helped Newman’s kids develop a wide range of skills they could put back in to their community. Some of these skills were gained interviewing locals outside of school. Other skills were nurtured by developing a class website. Our final part of the project was putting on Newman’s first film festival.

In starting the project, Senior Advisor of Sustainability and Community Relations for BHP Billiton, Scott Bird said:

“We really want to contribute something significant to the town that demonstrates BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s commitment to creating liveable communities that people want to participate in for the long term. We expect this project will create a lasting impact on both the community members and the landscape of the Newman Township.”

Over the next 12 weeks, we worked with teachers, students and parents to build the media capacity of Newman’s young residents. We moved between 5 different locations to conduct our after school media-making workshops while teaching new media classes in the primary and senior high schools. It was hectic, but a lot of fun and the kids we worked with were very productive.

The project accomplished some great things with and for the young people of Newman:

• our kids got on national television and a national newspaper
• our kids launched a student website with an accompanying lobbying website and youth blog
• we also learned 33 other things…

And yes, we felt happy to call them ‘our kids’. They are awesome.

While we accomplished a lot while there, we were not without our challenges. For one, we were outsiders, not just geographically, but culturally too; a Sri Lankan, a Lebanesian, a snow white Australian with a slight British accent and an Asian-American made for some curious workers in a predominantly white town. There were even a few incidents where I wondered if I’d been discriminated against because of my ‘outsider’ ness. In a conversation I had with a local school teacher, she offhandedly referred to the film production, internet literacy development, and photography we were doing with the kids as not ‘real’ teaching.

Coming into Newman, we also expected to have a stable teaching space to meet with the youth. We had anything but. Not only did the local youth center close down a week before we arrived, but the places we’d hoped to conduct our media workshops were unreliable, in spite of the dedicated efforts of our staff and our Newman partners. The recently closed youth center hadn’t even been open a year. Where were after school programs for youth going to be held? Where were the creative spaces kids could go to continue their learning, playing and making when the schools closed? Who would lead this?

Clearly, there was and is a lot of work to do. I wouldn’t say the kids we worked with were disadvantaged in the sense that Americans (like my self) normally think – poverty, homelessness, language barriers. I’d say their greatest disadvantage is the lack of a stable, supportive center that fosters the creative skills they already have.

As of this writing, there is still no youth space for the kids of Newman to meet and make media. This is the task ahead for the teachers, residents and businesses of Newman – to grow and build on the things we developed with Newman’s youth. To stay true to our intentions as CuriousWorkers, we need to ensure the communities we work with can serve themselves.

Newman certainly deserves to.

Presenting the Videos the Youth Made at the Vodafone Offices in Chatswood

With CuriousWorks, I had an opportunity to work with the awesome OzGREEN folks and train some young leaders from around Australia on media making, interviewing and editing.  OzGREEN are an Australian environmental justice network that are just getting up and running with their social/digital media strategy.  Our main work with them was to train their young, regional leaders on media making tools to tell the local stories of environmental justice, challenge and opportunity in their communities.  OzGREEN simply serves as the ‘network connector’ of these stories/regions.  We did quite a bit in 3 days…

We used some basic tools like digital cameras (with video capabilities), Windows Movie Maker and iMovie.  We used 2 Macs and about 6 Windows XP computers with only one connected to the internet (which was slow and sporadic:(  Overall though, it was awesome.  We played a remixed version of the Social Media game, developed awesome projects, learned how to shoot video for live events and developed techniques for interviewing people.

We also made some awesome videos,  an OzGREEN/CuriousWorks Digital Media group on All Around You.net and a few blog posts with pix of our work. Here’s a quick recap of all the things we learned, broken into nice bitesized chunks.

Top 4 Things We Learned in the Past Two Days

• we had to reshoot our videos because the sound quality was bad
• we had good video because we had great lighting
• you can always use photos to overlay on spoken word
• you can even record yourself as you’re traveling about the conference, town and community

Techniques For Editing

• process of using the same questions and then edit all the answers together
• interviewee repeats question and then edits out the interviewer
• use of titles to show what the question is
• when editing, listen out for sections that relate to what you want to communicate

Tips for Using Photos in Interviews/Movies

• good to add in photos to give context to interviewee/place
• you can sometimes download photos of people – just be sure you let them know you are

Tips for Filming

• pay attention to the background of where you’re interviewing someone
• it’s good to have trees all around you:)
• variety of camera angles can keep attention when interviewing people/places

Tips for the Interviewing Process

• when interviewing/prepare what you want to say ahead of time
• if you have a particular focus, listen out for sections of the interview that relate to that point
  • for instance, if you’re interviewing about leadership, listen out for things that your subject says about leadership
  • if you’re interviewing about the environment, listen out for things that your subject says about the environment
• if you’re only using the mic on your camera to record sound, be sure to keep the camera relatively close to your subject
• dissolves can help to play with the sense of time in the video
• use the description of the video or the comments to give more info about the project – website to go to,
• photos can be used to represent the theme of the video
• you can use titles to clarify things in the video
• if you make a mistake, sometimes you can turn it around by some clever editing techniques;)
• it’s good to have natural light on people’s faces – medium close ups are good to use
• if you don’t have a tripod, look for things that can be used as a stable surface to place your cameras on

Tips for Using Sound/Music

• when adding music, try and make it instrumental – that way the singing doesn’t interfere with anyone speaking
• as soon as you’re at a venue where you want to record people, be sure you find a nice, quiet spot to record – watch out for air conditioners!
• if you’re interviewing people with differing heights, adjust the level of the camera to be on their level

Tips for Using AllAroundYou.net

• allaroundyou.net can be used to host your media – you can then embed your videos into other sites – you can even share links!
• it’s also how you can connect with Morgan and Shakthi (and anyone else you met and connected with at the workshop!)
• here’s a few tips on using it: http://toolkit.allaroundyou.com.au/tag/aay/

Tips for Using Facebook

• from the awesome Beth Kanter
  • So you want a Facebook Fan Page for Your Nonprofit? Here’s the Scoop!
  • Frank Barry, Guest Post: 4 Facebook Tips for Nonprofit Success – See What Others are Doing
  • A Guide to Facebook Activism
• from Mashable:
  • Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference?

Tips for Using Windows Movie Maker

• 63 Video Tutorials For Rocking Windows Movie Maker (via Atomic Learning)

Australia has been awesome.  Here’s a quick recap of things I did/accomplished in one month.

1. visited a tiny town called Marble Bar to take pictures with ‘feral’ 5 year olds (lots of these kids seem to be missing on any oversight running around barefoot and unattended most of the day – ‘feral’ was an affectionate term one of the locals used to describe them)
2. did a cultural leaders workshop the first week in Newman
3. did media classes inside the primary and high schools
4. helped kids build a WordPress site/Facebook Page
5. made short movies with kids using iPod Nanos
6. hiked in a beautiful, beautiful place called Karajini
7. met the local Martu Aboriginal people (they’ve lived here for nearly 40,000 years – the first white man they saw was in the 1960s)…
8. helped to coordinate a youth media festival – the kids even got on the national news!
9. learned 33 things that the young people of Newman can do

…and there’s more coming.  Awesome.

I once had a mentor tell me that when working to empower people, all you can really do is ‘hold the crown out in front of them’ – it’s up to them to step up into that crown and claim it.

We’ve been in Newman for nearly 12 weeks now working to help local kids make media, videos and websites, as well as fundraise, run a film night and even get mentions in both print and on national television!

On our last ‘workday’ with them we did a nice review of everything they’d learned. At this point, without any youth center or community technology space to call their own – it’s up to Newman’s youth to determine their future as the town’s central media makers. Our hope is that they’ll be able build on the skills and creativity they’ve developed these past 12 weeks.

That said, here’s a blog ‘toast’ to the 33 things the youth of Newman can do…so far.

1. Act
2. Be Resourceful
3. Blog
4. Build Ad Hoc Computer Labs
5. Build Websites
6. Collaborate
7. Conceptualize and Design Palmtop Computers
8. Create Live Electronic Music
9. Develop Ideas for Films
10. Direct
11. Edit Video
12. Generate Ideas for Youth Spaces
13. Get Furniture Donations for Youth Spaces
14. Hold and Record Youth Forums
15. Learn About DJing
16. Learn From Each Other
17. Lobby Online
18. Market Events
19. Model
20. Petition for the Youth of Newman
21. Produce
22. Set Up Facebook Pages
23. Set Up Video for Events
24. Share Media Together
25. Shoot Video
26. Storyboard Movies
27. Take Notes
28. Teach Each Other About DJing
29. Teach Each Other
30. Teach Teachers
31. Twitter
32. Upload Pictures To Share with the World
33. Work Alone

]]> http://www.weoperatebesttogether.org/2009/10/18/homework-assignment-for-educators-working-with-indigenous-communities/feed/ 0 http://www.weoperatebesttogether.org/2009/09/30/ripsticks-telecentres-and-graffiti-artists-in-remote-western-australia/ http://www.weoperatebesttogether.org/2009/09/30/ripsticks-telecentres-and-graffiti-artists-in-remote-western-australia/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:40:37 +0000 Morgan http://www.weoperatebesttogether.org/2009/09/30/ripsticks-telecentres-and-graffiti-artists-in-remote-western-australia/

The past DAY has been brilliant.

Shakthi and I departed Newman and drove for about 3.5 hours to Marble Bar – which is the hottest town on the planet (it never went below 100 degrees for 160 days in the summer of 1923-24).  It’s not too hot now.  On the way, we stopped in Nullagine to pick up Dan and Brody, two graffiti artist who get paid to do ‘public’ (a style of ‘graf’ that’s usually commissioned by a local government, public or private agency.)

I drove nearly 2 hours to the middle of Western Australia (Nullagine) to see these pieces.

A ‘mob’ is like tribe here in Western Australia.

Brody outside a piece he and Dan finished outside the Conglomerate Hotel Motel Bar (they’ve got excellent burgers).

They had some great work up on the local…bathroom stall.  But it’s a large building (relative to the rest of the town/village).  They also did some great work at the local bar and of course, with the local kids.

After some antics with local kids, we took off for Marble Bar.  It took about 4 minutes to drive the entire length of the town.

We went out to see if we could find some kids.  None.  Zero.  So Shakthi and I went to go and check out the local telecentre – which is the Oz version of a community technology center (in the U.S.) and see what tools we had to work with:

• 4 computers running Windows XP
• Windows Movie Maker on all of them
• all configured competely differntly with Internet Explorer as their main browser

Soon enough, kids descended on the telecentre.  All on ‘Ripsticks’ – flexible, twisting, 2-wheeled boards that are ridden by twisting and wiggling your body.  We gave them a camera and my iPod (video) Nano to shoot some video and now have some great footage which we’ll be able to use throughout the week.

We also had a great time hanging out with Dan and Brody, filming them and documenting them at work teaching the kids graffiti.

So far, this trip is rockin.  More pictures from the adventure so far can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiousworksphotos/sets/72157622484375148/

Posted via email from Memeshift’s posterous

Today was a blast.  I got to sit in on a session with Elias at the local community centre where Elias has been teaching during the holiday film week.  I got to have a great overview of a brainstorming session between about 15 kids ranging from 9 – 15 years old.

Today, we covered brainstorming, production schedule (preproduction, production and post production), selecting an topic/idea to film (we settled on a Newman TV variety show) and assigning roles.

The kids had a lot of fun with me asking to say things like:

• dollar
• sausage
• recreation

Dropped R’s = Australian accent.  I think.  But I end up sounding British according to Shakthi:)

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This morning, I woke up extra early (5:30) to go and watch the sunrise over the Pilbara alone.

Today, I'll get introduced to the local neighborhood center (to watch some workshops in session with Elias) and then I;ll go to meet up with Lee – our community contact here who's currently coordinating a local community festival of work created by kids this past few weeks.

Tomorrow, Shakthi and I take a 3.5 hr trip to Marble Bar (or 'MAHble BAH' as they say here:), population, 194.  We'll be there doing either storymapping, djing or recording workshops (with what ever technology we have/can find) for the next week, than back here to Newman for a week long Cultural Leaders Workshop (community organizing/storytelling with available technology) and then into the classrooms storymapping/digital media workshops until early November…

Now, off to the the Neighbourhood Centre!

Posted via email from Memeshift’s posterous

>
>
> The adventure for this Curious Worker begins. Will be in flight for > the next 8 hours as I fly out to Newman, Australia.
>
> Yeehaw!

Posted via email from Memeshift’s posterous

Today I set a game plan with Shakthi on how we're going to tackle the next 6 weeks in the Pilbara.  I'll need to:

• develop/find/improve on some curriculum for 'object-based storytelling'
• develop/find/improve on curriculum to introduce the 'craft' of working with audio and photography
• develop online social network strategy for cultural leaders in the Pilbara

For the first week, we're going to go to Marble Bar (population? 194) to do an ad-hoc community media class – completely open-ended, depending on who shows up an what they'd like to learn.  Could be storytelling, filming video, even djing if that's what they want;)  Should be fun.  Main purpose is to introduce ourselves to the folks in Marble Bar to as well as connect them to the community media network we're in the process of building.

Second week, we begin 5 weeks of work in Newman, culminating in a community festival.  One of our partners on the ground has already secured Thai dancers (WTF, in a rural mining colony in the middle of nowhere???), MCs and a space for the festival.

In the meantime, please enjoy this lovely video of the CW office loft in Sydney.  In it, I give a nice tour of the CW art/office loft.  It's truly one of the nicest spaces I've ever worked (and will hopefully play in soon!).

Posted via email from Memeshift’s posterous