INDIGENOUS SAFE GAMBLING ADS

With the Funding support from the NSW Government, The Cultural Resilience Hub at UTS’s Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous of Education and Research worked with Warruwi and the NSW Government with young interns over the 2020 year to develop script ideas, music and animations targeting Males, Female, Youth and Family in a safe gambling advert campaign.  

The end result was three shadow puppet animations and a 2D animation for messaging to support the work that Warruwi does. The next part of the campaign is working with an intern to develop a social media strategy and output into community that supports the work that Ashley Gordon at Warruwi does. 

“We got the funding as the pandemic hit our shores early in 2020 and had to reconfigure workshops and working with safety at the forefront of the job. We were lucky that some of the work, the youth could continue to work from home on cutting out the puppets, working on songs, planning the parts of workshops that allowed them to safely come and work in a space to finish the shoots.” Said Assoc Professor Pauline Clague. 

For the interns it was a new experience getting feedback and working in new areas of animation.

“By using safe-gambling practices, we eliminate the shame factor and allow this to be a fun experience rather than one that can lead to addiction.” Said Maddison Coles one of our interns and shadow puppet animators “From working out the set-up of the frame, to experimenting with the space to allow for best mobility of the puppets, this project was all a learning curve that has allowed me to hone my skills in decision making, and learn the importance of choreography and rehearsals.”

“This was my first commissioned work, I am use to creating my own beats and messages for the stories I want to tell, but it was interesting to work with a thematic that was around what other people needed to say and to work alongside the animation and see how my words came to life” Composer and Performer Donal Niigarr.

The hope is that this can help strengthen messaging of Warruwi’s workshops into communities to decrease harm caused by gambling to individuals, families and communities. As a digital social media platform the digital campaign will enhance the messaging of safe gambling in our communities.