Major Sponsor

'Sisters Daughters Australians' The AAR Billboard Project

Our 'Sisters Daughters Australians' billboards were launched with two supersites in Melbourne and one in Sydney in August 2004, followed by a supersites in Sydney in September, October and November. A 36,000 print-run of postcards by Avant Card went nationwide in September and October. The Australian Education Union South Australia and the Student Research Council Sydney University printed more than 10,000 posters. A Cinema Slide was shown in the Nova Carlton through November and December in 2004. We will aim to get the billboards up in Adelaide and Perth if possible in 2005. Posters and postcards are available. Email us

The billboards invite a positive response to Muslim people and, by association, all Australians and refugees of Arab and Middle Eastern origin. Despite the diversity of Arab and Islamic cultures, all are suffering from the effects of anti-Muslim feeling in Australia. For this reason a positive and strong image of Muslim individuals has been our starting point.

The billboards target Australians who are uncomfortable about Muslims in their community. The image and message is designed to evoke the common ground we all share. A sense of identification and familiarity with people from a Muslim background will generate a better response to them in everyday life. People often fear and reject what they don't know - this billboard campaign aims to increase awareness and challenge those feelings.

This project has been made possible by all our sponsors and by the many organizations and private individuals who gave their money, time and enthusiasm.


Frequently Asked Questions

Why Billboards?
Billboards reach everyone who passes. They are a way to speak about issues outside the group who agree with us.

Who are the people behind the project?
We are a very diverse team of people who came together to make this project. We are from a very wide range of cultural backgrounds. We include people of Middle Eastern and Arab background, including Muslims. We learnt a lot from each other as we developed the project. Scroll to the end of the main billboards page for the full list of team members, supporters and sponsors

Who are the women in the photo?
They are wonderful women who donated their time and their images for this project. They are not models or actors. They are both over eighteen.

Why images of women?
A market research study that inspired us to act suggested that images of women would be most effective in beginning the process of breaking down negative views of refugees in any public education campaign.

Why Black and White images?
Black and white helps the viewer recognise that this isn't advertising, but is, despite the happiness of the faces, a serious subject; and that these images are making more thought-provoking comment than full colour could make.

Where can I see the billboards?
The billboard image is available in postcard and poster size. Email us for free copies.

Where can I get the postcards?
Email us for free copies.

How can I help AAR?
Email us and ask to be on our project oriented mailing list. You will receive news of projects and calls for action. When you see a project or event that you would like to be a volunteer on, you respond and possibly join one of the teams. It is as simple as that. AAR achieves almost all projects on the strength of donations, so donations are very gratefully received. To donate, go here

What can I do to get involved?
A lot. Be outspoken. Send letters to your MP about your concerns. Send letters to papers. Join a news network such as Project Safecom and stay informed. For hands on join an organization such as ChilOut (Children Out of Detention); RAR (Rural Australian For Refugees); Circle of Friends if it is in your area. (see our links section for more on some of these)



Project History
The billboard project's genesis was in a market research pilot study undertaken by Oxfam in 2001. This study found that fear and ignorance played a major role in negative views Australians had of refugees from the Middle East; and that the key group that might change their mind would be women, indicating that images of women, and women with children, would be the strongest images in any kind of education campaign.

We decided to come up with a creative project that would respond to this research. We chose billboards as one of the only ways to reach people from all social and political groups in Australia. We decided to use an advertising medium creatively - not to make an ad for anything - but in order to make a plea for respect and recognition and to make our own positive contribution to current cultural debates; a contribution we make as individuals, as a diverse team, and as artists and thoughtful Australians.

Development January 2002-July 2004
As ideas evolved, we tested ideas on the AAR subscriber list. Responses were repeatedly sought through 2002 to the present from the AAR list of over 1300 direct addresses and many sub-lists. Responses were on a voluntary basis. It is also from this list that we called for donations.

Over the first year we experimented with a range of concepts and, in response to feedback and our evolving understanding of how important and unique a positive image would be, we discarded all concepts that actively provoked guilt, anger or pity in a viewer. We worked exclusively on concepts that invited feelings of equality and human identification. This idea met with considerable enthusiasm from the list and an increase in donations. Our core team cohered around this concept, and a sense of its intrinsic worth has sustained us as a team through what has been a very difficult development from concept to completed design.

We devised a simple brief for photographer, models and designers: we followed the Oxfam research recommendation which indicated images of women; with 'positive', 'strong', 'equal' as key terms.

In February 2004, after several false starts, we finally had images we were all happy with. We sought response widely: from the professions, particularly the legal profession; from the activists; from members of the Arab and Muslim communities; and from individual professionals in the ad and design industries. The responses were overwhelmingly positive. Thoughtful critical feedback was discussed and where possible taken on board.

Our final images were selected for the natural human relationship they show, and for having eye contact with the viewer. Expert feedback from our first unsuccessful photo shoot indicated that eye contact was essential to encouraging the viewer to see the person depicted as an equal, and not as an object. The models' sisterliness is immediately and naturally identifiable for the viewer. (We also had a wonderful image of an older woman with a laughing toddler on her shoulder, an image in which the human relationship was also immediately apparent, but had to withdraw this when the model changed her mind.)
Impact
We do not on feel that the billboard will change people's minds. It will encourage positive debate, however, and we believe that this is a healthy thing in any society.


Billboards People

Concept by the AAR Team; Photography by Cassandra Mathie; Creative Copy by Steve Sorec; Graphic Design by blackant@iinet.net.au; Artistic Coordination by Franziska Wagenfeld; Industry Liaison by Anne Reeve; Research by Eva Sallis; Models are anonymous; Costume Consultant Hawraa Hamimi; Legal Advisor Roger Sallis, Financial management by Jenni Devereaux; Administration by the AAR team; Website by Neil Montieth; Posters coordinated by Azadeh Dastyari and Jenni Devereaux; fundraising Michelle Foy

Consultants and advisors include Dr Minerva Nasser-Eddine, Megan Clark, Arnold Zable, Abby Hamden and Louise Doyle

Major Sponsor is Avant Card.

Sponsors And Supporters Include
Sarwa Abdelraheem; Fayrouz Ajaka&Mark Albrecht; Ross W Allan; Dr Margaret Allen; AC & LM Andrews; Gillian Appleton; RM & MR Armstrong; Australian Education Union South Australia; Dominica Bartlett; Beesley Consulting; Daniel Beydoun; JL Meggitt & NB Boydell; Geraldine Brooks; Linda Burnett; Debora Campbell; Axel & AC Clark; YK Coleman; Simon Diet; Eleanor Dilley; Louise Doyle; Virginia Duigan; Kate Durham; Jane Edwards; J Eliott & A Boldock; BG & AM Edwards; Dan Farmer; K Fox; Malcolm Fraser; Carillo Gantner; Helen Gaynor; Generation Drive, al-Quran al-Kareem Radio of Australia; Lois Grant (Grantery PtyLtd); Abby Hamden; GL Hastwell; Sophie Inwald & Graham Thorburn; JP Jackson; Pippa and Bob Jarvis; Elizabeth Kelly; GA & JA Lambert; Constance Lever-Tracy; Gabrielle Lord, Kritika Pty Ltd; John&Virginia Lowe; Imran Lum; Phillipa Mansor; Peter and Dianne Mitchell; Sarah Margan; Val Marsden; Greg & Marjon Martin; Robyn Murphy & Harley Diamond; Rabie' Narsh; Minerva Nasser-Eddine; CJ and LJR Payne; EW Pusz & Mary Heard; Iman Rachid; Jihan Rachid; Manal Rachid; RC Read; Heather Safstrom; R Sallis; Sumra Sallis; Lynne and Peter Sainsbury; Steve Saul; Andrea Shoebridge; Sisters of the Good Shepherd; Geraldine Slattery; TG & PA Small; D Stokes& H Smith; RW & SM Smith; Meredith Stokes; Hazel Sullivan; Nina Switajewski; Raelene and Jeff Telfer; Keysar Trad; Susan Varga; Patricia Watts; Barbara Webb; Anne Wharton; Teresita White; Sean Williams; Jane Wilson; MM & VA Wishart; Sue Woodward; Arnold Zable

'Sisters Daughters Australians' 2004 Campaign Report.
$11,658 donated by many sponsors over nearly 3 years development phase
disbursed $7,420 on production, mounting, freight and postage
in hand $4,238 held for 2005 billboard sites. Skins now stored for possible sites in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
Siting, photography, design, copy, models, research, admin coordination all donated for billboards, posters, postcards and cinema slide.

Billboards
3 skins produced.
2004 Supersites as follows:
August
Footscray Rd, Docklands VIC
Johnston St, Fitzroy VIC
Qantas Drive, Mascot NSW 55,000 vehicles per day.
September
Qantas Drive, Mascot NSW. 55,000 vehicles per day.
October
Qantas Drive, Mascot NSW. New site.
November
O'Riordan St, Mascot. 60,000 vehicles per day

AvantCard Postcards
All expenses donated by AvantCard
36,000 printed
Distribution 2004
September
Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra
October
Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Darwin.
AAR distribution (ongoing) 3,800
A2 Posters
production donated by AEU (SA) and University of Sydney Student Research Council
Total confirmed distribution 9,002
AEU SA and AEU (VIC) distribution includes SA and VIC schools 5,500
MindMatters: Australian Principals Association Professional Development Council 600
Nationwide Volunteer Poster Postie Scheme 2,822
Overseas (France, New Zealand, US, The Netherlands, Canada, Singapore and UK) 80

Cinema Slide
Produced by Face Media, screened free.
Showing in Nova Carlton VIC Cinema 1 and 2 from 18th November to 31st December 2004. 35 screenings per week. Possibilities for 2005 showings to be discussed.