Artist and director of the D’harawal Dreaming story, Yandel’ora, Bernadette Trench-Thiedeman during the production process.
As a multi-disciplinary artist who works with writing, theatre, film, animation, painting, sculpture, spatial design and installation, Bernadette Trench-Thiedeman explains why she makes art and the process of creating the 6-minute D'harawal Dreaming story, Yandel'ora which features in The Message of The Lyrebird.
Why do you make art?
”It's different for every medium I use, painting, film, theatre, sculpture. I love to work with stories, my own and other peoples. I tend to focus on stories that have a social justice message, or difficult stories that the other people can identify with. Humour and magic are my favourite ingredients. My practice also has a personal side, I create work that I don't share with anyone which is a really cathartic process for me, not unlike therapy.”
What was the creative process for Yandel'ora?
”Working with this amazing Dreaming story was a great privilege. I'd spent a lot of time with lyrebirds where I was staying in the Kangaroo Valley so I had a good sense of their splendid character, song, movement and habits.
After Mark invited me to work on the animation, the process began by meeting Aunty Fran at the place where the story originates on Dharawal Country, Mount Annan. It was really important to get a sense of the place, Aunty Fran's connection to it and also her history, which is so rich. I was super lucky to have that opportunity as I'd escaped a second lockdown in Melbourne two months beforehand. Then I began breaking down the transcribed Yandel'ora story into scenes, storyboarding and painting the backgrounds and characters.
At the time I began painting, I’d actually been on the run from coronavirus lockdowns in NSW and Victoria, and was staying with friends in the Adelaide Hills before I drove to Western Australia, which is where I completed the final scenes of the animation.
I used Photoshop and After Effects to assemble the cut out paintings and create moving scenes, which were really about giving a sense of atmosphere through subtle movement of detailed paintings, rather than creating highly complex action.
Finding a fast enough wifi connection to send the completed scenes to Mark proved challenging as I was out in a remote community in the Kimberley by the time it was all finished, but luckily it all came together at the very last minute! So after multiple border crossings and a car breakdown on the Nullabor, it was a great relief to finally send the completed story back home across the continent with the help of satellites.
For me one of the most exciting parts of the process is hearing the soundtrack accompany the final animation, bringing the atmosphere to life with Aunty Fran's voiceover, gorgeous music and sound effects.”
Yandel’ora will also be released as a stand-alone film for Indigenous/educational purposes later during the year.