INTERVIEW: Brooke Collard

Brooke Woolcock (Collard) is a Whadjuk Ballardong woman of the Bibbulmin nation and a storyteller at heart. She tells stories through film as a writer/producer with a focus on telling stories of those underrepresented such as First Nations and LGBTQIA+.  In the latest #YoungArtistsofWA interview, we chat to Brooke about her current projects, being a Member of Kadjin, what healing means to her and the change she hopes to see in the WA arts community.

Please introduce yourself. 

Kaya, my name is Brooke Woolcock (Collard). I am a Whadjuk Ballardong woman of the Bibbulmin nation. I have lived half my life in the Kimberley region and the other half on Noongar Boodjar, which means sometimes I would mix up where local words are from (like goombie, which means snot in Yawuru).  

As a teenager I would immerse myself in pop culture, film, music and anime. The stories of those worlds would be so interesting and would make you feel emotions so intensely as they were larger than life. This has seeped into my own passion for film making. So at heart I am a storyteller. The way I tell my stories are through film as a writer/producer. I want to help tell stories of those underrepresented, such as First Nations and LGBTQIA+. A major focus of mine is to help support others through film, especially in ways that can help with healing. 

Was there any specific pop culture, film, music and anime that made a big impact on you? If so, in what way? 

American Beauty made a huge impact on me as it is the story of a man who turns his life around, to find beauty in the small things. Although he does not have what is typically known as success, once he starts living for himself he finds true happiness. It was also one of the first films I had to watch at uni, and helped pull me in to the ways stories can be told on screen. 

 Are you currently working on anything or is there a project that you'd like to start on? 

I graduated in 2017 with Screen Production and Sound from Murdoch University. Since then I have volunteered on a number of productions, which then luckily led to paid work! I'm currently about to start work on season two of The Great which you can see on Stan. I'm working on The Great as a writer's assistant, so essentially I'm making sense of the story while six people are yelling over each other. I'm also currently producing and writing my own documentary about my uncle Chris Collard. He is the only Australian First Nations person to win a Muay Thai World Championship. He even had an Australian great, Lionel Rose, award him his belt in 1999. I'm helping produce and write another documentary called Nyurrnyu, about the sightings of platypus in the Kimberley. There are cave paintings, and the local mob have a word for platypus which is "Nyurrnyu". 

We hear the term healing quite often in several contexts, for example Kadjin is a space that allows healing for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Could you explain what healing is and what it means to you? How do you think people can help others to heal? 

Healing is a recurring theme for a really amazing reason. Specifically to Kadjin, healing comes in with creating a safe space for young First Nations mob to share culture, ideas and art. I've been talking about this a lot recently, but we live in a society that makes it so scary to make mistakes. So much so that it holds a lot of us back from even trying. Kadjin is a safe space for that, to connect to other First Nations youth and have that community to try. There are new art mediums that we can all join in together, learn a new skill with people who are so generous with their time and knowledge. Like with Danjoo Koorliny, where you could learn how to make puppets to help tell Dreamtime stories. 

As a member of Kadjin, what kind of space does it offer you? What do you do at the meetings? 

For me personally, Kadjin helps connect me to the community. I love knowing what people are passionate about, as there is always room for collaboration to make something beautiful together. Or just to learn something new. Also, during the isolation period for COVID-19, it was a really healing space as for most of us, we had not socialised with anyone in weeks but were able to over zoom. We were all able to encourage and support each other. We got to share what art we had been making for ourselves and what revelations that had brought about in getting to learn about yourself. For example, one member was making an art journal each week that was not about huge successes, but about slowing down and what they noticed. I found myself doing a lot more script writing and that helped me understand myself, as well as my Nyungar culture as I had to do a lot of research.  

At the last meeting we all created an artwork together with the guidance of Jade Dolman, who teaches Punu painting and Nyungar painting. This creates an amazing connection for members as it may be the first time they have learnt what a certain symbol in a painting means, and to make sense of the story on the canvas. 

Do you have any personal goals with your involvement in Kadjin?  

Personally, I would really love to encourage others to work with film. It seems really scary, especially when you don't have any guidance but I want to show others that it is actually very accessible to get in to the industry. Maybe even making our own Kadjin film project in the future. I am still on a journey of learning about Nyungar culture, so I'm looking forward to being around Elders and connecting.  

What about the future of Kadjin, what would you like to see?  

A First Nations film festival would be moorditj (great)! It would be amazing to see the community grow in general, as we can achieve bigger and better things when we have lots of creative minds to bounce ideas off. An art exhibit each year would be a dream too, with a theme for the year that we can all collaborate on, across different art mediums. 

And in a broader sense, how would you like to see WA arts (especially film) and its community evolve? 

Arts in WA definitely needs to involve younger people more. Our voices are so different as we all have different upbringings, this can help diversify stories being told. Arts are so important to every day life, yet most don't see it as a job pathway and the "starving artist" is a stereotype. I would love to see this change, as the arts are diverse in themselves and constantly evolving with new technology, such as VR that can make you smell. Going forward for artists to be bold with new technology, but also connecting more to the land they are standing on. It can not only help you understand the area around you, but how you fit in the boodjar and how to care for boodjar. As my Pop says "the Old way is the New way". 

To keep updated with Brooke follow her on Instagram, and keep an eye out for her exciting film projects! Find out more about our fundraiser for Kadjin - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth Arts Network , and donate today to double your impact.

INTERVIEW BY: YOSHIKA KON.