Tell it like it is – digital storytelling

Joseph Haperou can neither read nor write, but in just three days he’s been able to create a story about his life on a computer.

Waikato University staff and community organisation Interactionz have been running a workshop on digital storytelling and Joseph was one of 10 participants who created their story on screen.

Digital storytelling is fast becoming a common platform for individuals and organisations to convey ideas and stories. Best described as a personally narrated and produced audio-visual ‘anecdote’, digital storytelling normally includes voiceover, music, visuals – still shots and video.

Joseph told his story in pictures.

He’d never used a computer before the workshop.

“I know how to use the mouse now, and I’m becoming really good at dragging and dropping. I’m not scared of computers anymore.”

Janelle Fisher is the manager of Lifestyle Transitionz, the research and development arm of Interactionz which facilitates opportunities for people with disabilities to be engaged in their communities.

Ms Fisher says having people tell their own stories is an act of empowerment in itself.

“If people are interviewed, how they respond is often dictated by the questions they’re asked, but with digital storytelling, people are not constrained in that way and their stories are powerful and significant.

“This project is part of a bigger qualitative research project we’re doing about person-driven practices,” says Ms Fisher.

“We’ve got together some of the people we serve, natural supports like family, Board members and staff for the workshop and each will tell their story.

“What they present will provide different perspectives on the journey our organisation is taking which will help shape our direction.

“We hope to follow up this workshop with others in six and then 12 months if our research grant application [in conjunction with Elaine Bliss and Sasha McLaren] is successful.”

Elaine Bliss and Sasha McLaren led the storytelling workshop.

Ms Bliss is based in the Department of Geography, Tourism and Environmental Planning (GTEP) at Waikato University and is studying the geographies of digital storytelling for her PhD through GTEP and the Screen and Media Studies Department.

Filmmaker Sasha McLaren from Screen and Media Studies studied digital storytelling for her MA. The pair has also received training in digital storytelling from the Centre for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, California.

“It’s exciting to be working on such an important project,” says Ms Bliss.

“Digital storytelling produces short but rich and powerful life narratives that help build our knowledge and understandings of identity and empowerment, individual and social transformation, and social justice.”

The workshop was the first university-community collaboration to be held at Mediarena, a newly created media space at the university specifically set up to support research and development in animation, games, machinima, scriptwriting, digital storytelling, video production, soundscape design and audio postproduction.