ROLE

Co-designer and illustrator in collaboration with Jenna Lee

FOR

Australia Post

DATE

Release date April 2020

TYPE

Postage Stamp Design

URL

https://australiapostcollectables.com.au/stamp-issues/navigating-history-endeavour-voyage-250-years

AWARDS

Bronze medal, Design (other),

BADC awards 2021

2020 marked the 250^th anniversary of Captain Cook’s first Endeavour voyage and Australia Post wanted to create a stamp issue with a series of 10 stamps commemorating the event.

Previous collections marking Cook’s voyages focused overly heavily on Cook and the idea he ‘discovered’ Australia, while under-representing Indigenous peoples, cultures and stories.

Gilimbaa engaged both myself ( a non-Indigenous designer) and Jenna Lee (a Larrakia / Wardaman and Karajarri designer) to tackle the design from two persepectives.

We explored how knowledge the First Nations Australians possessed as part of their culture for millennia interplayed with how the European explorers viewed Australia and all of its inhabitants for the very first time.

A continuous scene of vertical stamp pairs was created, with themes of ‘navigation’, ‘voyages’, ‘land’, ‘science/botany’ and ‘the journey continues’.

A central device – the ‘Continuing Culture Line’ was devised as a way to weave through the stamps, connecting both storylines.

The collection’s name was chosen to feel accessible to every Australian, no matter how long they’ve lived here.