During 2018 a class of animation students from RMIT University in Melbourne put their minds together to visually communicate why Australia must change its laws so that children younger than 14 are no longer locked up.
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1. Rowena Lloyd, Akmal Azman, Fanny Yifan Shi and Will Thomasz:
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2. Jasmine Elrick:
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3. Maureen Nguyen:
What was the brief?
RMIT animation students were tasked with creating attention-grabbing animations to help raise awareness about the situation of young children locked up in Australia.
Across Australia kids as young as 10 are forced through the justice system and locked up in prisons, away from their families and communities.
Overwhelming evidence from human rights experts, lawyers and doctors shows that, for kids younger than 14, prison harms rather than helps. Kids in prison are less likely to access what they need to grow up resilient, such as education, mentoring and community support.
Many Australians, including politicians, don’t know that 10-year-olds can spend time behind bars.
Thanks RMIT!
Belinda Lowe, Indigenous Rights Campaigner at Amnesty, thanks all the RMIT students who worked on this project.
“Contributing to human rights can take many forms from a protest on the street, a phone call to an MP, a conversation with a relative over lunch or hosting film screening. But, storytelling is the common thread that bring communities closer,” she says.
“It persuades others to stand alongside those campaigning for their human rights and ultimately shifts decision makers.”
“We’d like to thank all the students who took part in this project for their contribution to human rights.” Belinda Lowe, Indigenous Rights Campaigner
Animation tutor at RMIT, Sacha Bryning, said that, “helping Amnesty with their ‘Raise the age’ campaign gave students the experience of working with a client who had difficult information that needed visual solutions”.
“The students created some incredibly affecting and mature work over the course of the semester in response to the brief.”
Special thanks to all the incredible RMIT students who worked hard and produced some amazing work:
- Jessie Jianan Qu
- Joy Xuan Ji
- Tyler Yijun Luo
- Jenny, Jiayu Zheng
- Charlotte Xiao Rui Guo
- Coco Huiquan Zhao
- Jade Xinyu Wang
- Aurora Menghua Chen
- Freeman Yao Xiao
- Emily Huangxiangling Zhang
- Aileen Xinyan Wan
- Jimmy Yajie Cao
- Maureen Nguyen
- Jasmine Elrick
- Rowena Lloyd
- Akmal Azman
- Fanny Yifan Shi
- Will Thomasz