Working with the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji Elders Aboriginal Corporation and Cairns Regional Council, supporting planning, development and delivery of interactive public installations, traditional site mapping, and museum content for the Cairns Esplanade and contributed to the Laura Aboriginal Dance and Cultural Festival.

The situation
Early in my career, I was engaged to support the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji Elders Aboriginal Corporation and Cairns Regional Council in Far North Queensland. The community needed help documenting language, culture, and traditional sites, both to preserve that knowledge and to ensure it was represented accurately in the redevelopment of the Cairns Esplanade. This was before digital community documentation was common, and the tools available were basic by today's standards.

My role
I was a communications designer, co-managing development, curation and content on numerous projects. I was there to help, to learn, and to contribute whatever skills I had to a project that mattered far beyond any brief I had worked on in an agency.

What I did
I helped develop and deliver interactive public touchscreen installations, among the first of their kind in Australia at the time, alongside wayfinding materials, traditional site mapping, and museum content for the Cairns Esplanade. I taught videography, design and digital skills to community members to support their own ongoing documentation work. I contributed to the coordination, branding, and marketing of the Laura Aboriginal Dance and Cultural Festival.

I worked alongside community elders, local council officers, and local business partners, learning to listen first, then contribute. The process taught me more about communication, purpose, and what it means to make something that genuinely serves its audience.

What it delivered
A publicly accessible, community-owned documentation program preserved in permanent installations on the Cairns Esplanade. Media, communications, design skills and digital archiving techniques were transferred to community members for ongoing self-documentation. Contribution to the inaugural Laura Aboriginal Dance and Cultural Festival, one of Australia's most significant First Nations cultural gatherings, which continues today. And a foundation for the human-centred, purpose-driven approach to product and communications work that has shaped everything since.