INDIGENOUS children from Darwin have this week been handed high-tech Sony cameras and instructed in documenting their lives thanks to a photography workshop hosted by UNICEF Australia, Amity Community Services Inc. and Sony Corporation.
EYE SEE is working with about 20 children and young people from Darwin communities, Knuckey’s Lagoon, Palmerston Indigenous Village - also known as Gundorka and Bagot - to help them create digital images of the world around them and social issues affecting them.
The aim of the EYE SEE project is to support human rights and help children develop the ability to express their feelings through a camera lens and broadcast their discovery to the world.
The project is being run by acclaimed UNICEF photographer Giacomo Pirozzi who has worked worldwide to document UNICEF’s work to protect the rights of children. Giacomo designed the photography workshops for children to use photography to share their ideas and views.
In collaboration with Amity Community Services Inc, based in Darwin, and Sony Corporation, Pirozzi will support workshop participants in creating images of their life to share with the wider world, namely an exhibition to be hosted for the nation’s political leaders in Canberra later this year.
UNICEF advocacy officer Tara Broughan said the project was the 11th in a series of EYE SEE digital photography workshops and only the second to be held in a developed nation – the first being hosted in Japan shortly after the tsunami in 2011.
Previous EYE SEE workshops have been run for children in Argentina, Tunisia, Mali, South Africa, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Liberia and Pakistan.
Amity Community Services Inc chief executive officer Bernie Dwyer said it was great for the children his service worked with in Darwin to share an opportunity similar to ones experienced by children in other countries.
Sony Corporation’s head of CSR Innovation Asako Tomura backed Mr Dwyer’s comments adding it was a privilege for the Sony Corporation to bring its expertise to the partnership for the benefit of children.
“Sony is proud to support EYE SEE with our corporate social responsibility (CSR) philosophy ‘for the next generation’,” Ms Tomura said.
“We hope our technology and the power of imaging support empowering children and youth in indigenous communities in Australia,” she said.
Ms Broughan said the EYE SEE project was part of UNICEF Australia’s commitment to finding ways to enhance reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australian.
“We’re extremely fortunate to have Giacomo in Australia and partnerships with Sony Corporation and Amity Community Services Inc. to open this opportunity to indigenous children in these communities,” Ms Broughan said.
“With Amity Community Services Inc and Sony Corporation, UNICEF is educating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children about their rights and supporting them to communicate their understanding of these rights through photography,” Ms Broughan said.
For more information, please contact:
Kate Moore, UNICEF Australia
02 8917 3244 / 0407 150 771
kmoore@unicef.org.au
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