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Category Archives: community issues

Real world support …

The Australian government’s social media ban for under 16 year olds began this week.

Crossroads …

Cover illustration for the South Australian Council of Social Service SACOSS annual report. The community sector is at a crossroads…

Previous covers:

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Small Town Reinvention …

The 2nd National Small Town Reinvention Conference was held at Kapunda, South Australia, 22-25 September. The cartoons illustrated just some of the many moments and messages over four great days.

The conference was another Peter Kenyon of The Bank of Ideas event. Supported by many – in particular Tony Piccolo MP who brought the conference to Kapunda.

The 28 cartoons were auctioned on the last day, the money raised was donated to the painting of the Kapunda silo art project.

NSW Ombudsman exhibition …

The Parliament House exhibition NSW Ombudsman – Fifty years pursuing fairness for NSW 1975–2025 will be accessible Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm for the month of July. Details about NSW Parliament and the exhibition: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/visit/events/Pages/Ombudsman50.aspx

In the 1980s one of my first regular cartooning assignments was illustrating a number of each year’s case studies in the South Australian Office of the Ombudsman annual reports. This led to also doing illustrations for the New South Wales Ombudsman – a number of which have been used in the exhibition and also in the History Report: https://www.ombo.nsw.gov.au/50-years-pursuing-fairness-for-nsw-1975-2025

These were early days and it was real work experience for me.

The future is ABCD …

Dimitrios Papalexis, founder and director at Soulgen – building social capital, driving social innovation, enhancing community wellbeing – wanted a design that illustrated Asset Based Communiy Development (ABCD) – for T-shirts and other uses.

The final design (above) came together after three ideas (below) were drawn up and put out inviting feedback.

Small towns – reinventing their futures …

The inaugural Positive Pathways to local Rural Prosperity conference was held in Pickering Brook, Western Australia, September 17-20th 2024. Initiated by The Bank of Ideas which has been committed to ‘supporting the growth of enterprising, sustainable and vibrant small-town communities and economies’ since 1989. Here are a few of the cartoons drawn during the conference highlighting just some of the great ideas from the presentations and sessions. For more about small town reinvention and conference assets and presentations click here.

‘Don’t worry, it’s totally safe…’

Bombarding the red fire ants

Cartoons from ideas by David Low, Australian Pesticide Reduction Network; highlighting the ‘reckless use of PFAS pesticide Fiprinol in Queensland and NSW ..’ in the fight against the red fire ant outbreak, the widespread use of the herbicide Paraquat, linked to Parkinson’s disease, and more.

Gender Equality in the Pacific (2) …

Day two: graphic scribing – through Zoom – at the Pacific Islands Forum Women Leaders Meeting, 26th July in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, A dialogue on how women leaders can work together to achieve the 2050 vision by mainstreaming the Revitalised Pacific Leaders Gender Equality Declaration and the Pacific Platform for Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Human Rights.

Student wellbeing…

A graphic recording of the Queensland University of Technology – Centre for Inclusive Education’s Wellbeing Hunt – a day of school students assessing their school for student wellbeing, then considering what could be done at their school to improve students’ wellbeing.

WHO #Film4Health – Dalal’s Story …

Dalal’s Story is one of 16 finalists in the World Health Organisation‘s 2024 Health for All Film Festival – Category 2: Emergencies, Migrants and Refugees Health. The film was produced by Laundry Lane, illustrations: Simon Kneebone, animation: Santiago Dutil, edited by: Claire Cooper-Southam, sound: Alex Armour. The film was commissioned by STARTTS Refugee Support Services. A longer version combined two refugee family stories, one Yazidi and one Rohingya; see the post for Mohammed and Dalal here.

From the Film Festival: ‘The public is encouraged to choose one of the films they would like to champion and comment about its story/topic, before the end of May 2024. Comments can be posted on their social media using #Film4Health or through the posts inserted in those YouTube playlists‘.

UPDATE:

Such exciting news from Laundry Lane!  ‘Dalal’s Story’ has just been announced as the winner for the ‘Emergencies, Migrants and Refugees Health’ category in WHO’s 5th Health for All Film Festival.