Selections from final report

The project developed a strong relationship to both the Ntaria School and community. Through the partner Strehlow Research Centre (SRC) we were to achieve our main goal of mobilizing the SRC’s archival resources (e.g., genealogies, photographs) for use by the community for cultural knowledge expansion, intergenerational communication, educational outcomes for both cultural and School assessment purposes and introduction to communication technologies and modes of digital storytelling.
 
With the involvement of elders and traditional owners from Ntaria we were able to complete a collaboratively produced community film (33 minutes) with scenarios that included accessing archives at the SRC, at the historical precinct at Hermannsburg and on the traditional lands of Mavis and Kim Malbunke at Ipolera.

This film will be available for both community and School use to demonstrate the viability of maintaining an ongoing relationship to a key institution where the cultural history of the community is embedded and can be accessed. In preparation for the final capstone project, two workshops on digital storytelling were held at Ntaria.

These workshops produced two sets of digital stories: Individual biographies made by the students about themselves and their surroundings and three short digital documentaries about the comparative experiences of Aboriginal (Aranda) people in terms of past and future in relation to education, community life and times when the Hermannsburg Mission was the focus of the community.

The main significance impact of the project’s outcomes was to demonstrate an approach to the creation of knowledge that can arise from the archival record but then be incorporated into the cultural contexts and frames of cultural understanding under the guidance of elders. Further the impact on advancing skills for middle School participants allowed for assessment for English and increased skills in media production practice.