The Long Neck Turtle // Eleni Charalambidis (2021)

87732 VC Design Studio: Narrative, Form and Time

Staff - Fionn McCabe, Matthew Taylor, Gabriel Clark, Theadora Kable, Elizabeth Nagy, Isaac Wilcox, Peter Wildman

Acknowledgment of Country:

I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land in which I learn, create, explore, live and where this work was made, on the land of the Gadigal, Booroobergonal and Wangel people of the Eora and Dharug nations. I acknowledge Uncle Greg Simms as an Elder and Knowledge Holder as a Gadigal, Darug, Gundungurra and Yuin man. I acknowledge that these are his stories. I would also like to acknowledge Uncle Wes Marne who is a Bigambul man. I acknowledge that these are their stories.

Working with Uncle Greg’s stories about La Perouse for this project has taught me a lot about the importance of story and Country in Indigenous culture. His story “Long Neck Turtle” specifically resonated with me because of its poignant and emotional message about identity and relationships. In this work I adapt Uncle Greg’s story in order to represent my interpretation of the story which I recognise is different to Uncle Greg’s perspective on the story.

Project Blurb:

My project is an adaptation of Uncle Greg’s story ‘Long Neck Turtle’ and represents my interpretation of the story through the visuals. My comic is a parallel narrative as the text is Uncle Greg’s but the pictures tell a different story about a character slowly changing herself to fit in. I decided to use risograph printing as I wanted the colours to be really vibrant so that the gradual loss of colour was noticeable. A lot of the inspiration behind my work came from looking at different styles and methods used for character development. I used the colour palette of blue and yellow as the colours work well with the medium. The visuals work well with the text as they slowly reveal my interpretation of the story whilst representing Uncle Greg’s story in a respectful way.