Fire is Cultural

Hello my name is Ariel and I am an RMIT animation graduate from 2025. I am a 2D generalist with a passion for animation, visual development and storyboarding.

What inspired you and your work?

This film was actually An assignment for class to show what cultural burning is in aboriginal communities. Me and my group mates had not known anything about cultural burning so the research and studying on what the activity is and its significance helped inspire the visuals and pacing of the film. Instead of making a film that was just highlighted script with specific visuals, a bit like a Ted talk animation video, we decided to have a visual narrative to have more connection between the film and audience. We were also inspired by aboriginal art works, paintings of the outback and video footage of cultural burning.

Rather than our personal experience influence the film, it was more the lack thereof that navigated us in a way. None of my group were of aboriginal descent or knew much about the topic of cultural burning, so it was important to us ensure we portrayed everything in the film correctly and non-offensively. We would check in with our First Nations Cultural Consultant Oliver Costello, to make sure the visuals and the script were good to go before and during production.