Working with Communities

The production of community-based sexual health and alcohol modules provided the opportunity to engage and support local indigenous people to create relevant and appropriate health promotion materials from the ground up. The production of these 2 films in Yarrabah and Napranum using professional film crews, not only created employment in communities starved of real jobs, but enabled local teenagers and families to bridge the generation gap and gain experience in scripting, casting and acting under the watchful eye of an indigenous director and experienced producer, while being mentored by indigenous actors.  Investment in local goods and services such as catering and driving provided a further boost for local enterprise.

Project evaluation showed that the high level of community engagement and investment in the content creation and production processes used in Put It On led to widespread use of and interest in the resulting health content across all ages in the community, although it was noted that older people felt less confident about using the technology. The high turnout for the launch of this resource in the community in which it was produced is in sharp contrast to attendance at mainstream health promotion activities.

The finished product is being well used on kiosks. Adaptation to iDVD has enabled take-up in group settings such as school class rooms and training workshops for health service providers (for example, across the Torres Strait Islands), with planned implementation for the web, TV and radio. A Queensland Health-led initiative is formally implementing the  resource into high schools across the Torres and Cape York.

Digital Dreaming, a project featuring animated Dreamtime Stories created by Yarrabah elders, primary school children & their teachers, was created in and by the school and then given to the HITnet program to be made publicly available to family members in the community, via the local kiosk. Each of the two Dreamtime stories contains 3 elements: historical footage of the community, the animation itself and the ‘making of’ featuring the kids.
 
Kuyulu Ngampulungku Mayi: is a community-driven ‘bush tucker’ module from Lockhart River that comes alive with local music, bush tucker stories from elders, the young and the old hunting & cooking together, local artists & kids painting bush food murals, and tips on health and nutrition. The project built on some of the interests and strengths of the community – art and bush foods – and involved many groups across the community, while strengthening collaborative relationships both within and outside Lockhart River.