PEDESTRIAN.TV has partnered with CommBank because they’re in the business of highlighting the unsung, spectacular people making Australia great. The Australian of the Year Awards work to celebrate truly exceptional citizens, as well as give them a platform to further their causes. CommBank have been supporting these awards for over 35 years, and this support prompted them to kick-start the Australian of the Day initiative. They sent eight young photographers, one from each state and territory, to unearth everyday people making our nation the fantastic place that it is. We spoke to Peter Drew, the street artist behind the ‘Real Australians Say Welcome’ posters and nominee for South Australia‘s Young Australian of the Year, about the success of his campaign. He’s one of the many people making a real difference in Australia – as are those showcased through the Australian of the Day initiative. To read more feel-good stories of everyday Australians doing extraordinary things, head to the Australian of the Day website HERE.
Having a look back at
2015, Peter Drew’s Real Australians Say Welcome campaign sure did make us, as a country, take a good look at ourselves.
We’ve covered his work a few times in the past (because it’s a brilliant idea and warrants a fair-share of amplification), but this time we wanted to give him a big, fat, congrats on being nominated for South Australia’s Young Australian of the Year.
Peter had been using street art as a means to question our national identity and views towards immigration prior to launching the Real Australians Say Welcome campaign. To extend upon this work, he used the crowd-funding site Pozible to garner financial support in order to make the Real Australians Say Welcome project come to fruition – an assignment that saw 1,000 posters erected all around Australia over the course of three months.
The messaging of the posters was both reactionary to the language of “Boat People” at the time, as well as inspired by Australia’s national anthem.
“The second verse of the national anthem has some great lines, particularly ‘we’ve boundless plains to share’. An even better part though, is the line, ‘with courage let us all combine’. That notion that it’s natural to feel fear or be confronted by people who are different, but that it takes courage to overcome and accept that,” says Peter.
In terms of the campaign’s messaging, that of “Real Australians Say Welcome,” Peter wanted its expression to be as clear as possible.
“It was as direct and as simple as I could make it,” he says.
“I figured the key to it was not asking people, asking Australians, to think about asylum seekers but asking Australians to think about what it means to be Australian – how our decisions and the way we treat others is affecting our identity.”
“The project is really about being proud of one of the best parts of this country. The idea of expressing Australian pride has been tainted. I think a lot of Australians want to take that back and celebrate and defend multiculturalism.”
Using street art as a way to communicate the idea of acceptance has been an effective one for Peter, and not only in terms of increasing engagement with the project. Peter spoke with asylum seekers while he hung the posters, as well people opposed to immigration – finding that most nay-sayers walked away with more compassion after talking to him.
“If there’s a space that’s owned by all people, then surely that’s the best space to communicate with people.”
It came as no surprise to us that Peter was nominated for his home state’s Young Australian of the Year award in 2015. He was pleased to not be named the winner, expressing that others were more deserving and stating that he was thankful to have the opportunity to further the message of his campaign.
“Accolades are sort of embarrassing – with a project like mine I’d prepared myself for the criticism but when people start to reward you it feels very uncomfortable.”
Do yo’self a favour and keep up to date with all of Peter’s great work through his website
HERE,
Facebook HERE and
Instagram HERE.
Peter’s done some beyond decent stuff, and so have the others profiled by CommBank’s Australian of the Day series. If you would like to read more feel-good tales then check out our coverage of top-shelf people in NSW (HERE), NT (HERE), QLD (HERE), WA (HERE), SA (HERE), TAS (HERE) and VIC (HERE) – they’re pretty darn good, if we do say ourselves. If that doesn’t quench your thirst for all the feels, head over to the AOTD website HERE.
