About

Personal project

Graphic Design / Illustration

This book contains stories from aboriginal teenagers who broke out of their comfort zone, leaving their remote community Gapuwiyak when they were 15 to pursue further study in Brisbane and Sydney. I was inspired by their stories, and after interviewing them, wrote this book to be (potentially) used as a teaching resource in remote aboriginal schools, encouraging kids to consider where they want to go in the world.

Aboriginal people have a very strong connection to nature. This is why I chose to include the bird and bee, using them as metaphors for freedom and knowledge.

I hand drew the text for each story so the book looked like a journal. Through doing this, I help the reader empathise and connect to a more personal format.

The next section of the book features advice from respected aboriginal elders. Ethos is used here as a method of persuasion encouraging aboriginal teenagers to find their passion and pursue it.

Once kids have read stories from others like them there will be section in the book where they can mark where they want to travel on a world map. The “My Story” section is where they can write their own adventures.

This book - if used as a remote aboriginal community teaching resource - would be explained in class. The students would then be able to take the book home with them to write in and add to.