Twelve Canoes (12 Canoes) is the sequel to the award winning feature film Ten Canoes by Rolf de Heer. Twelve Canoes paints a compelling portrait of the art, culture, history and place of the Yolngu people of Ramingining (north-central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory). We needed to design and build the digital platform for Twelve Canoes.
The high-end site is a work of art in itself; honouring the people of the Arafura swamp, and built around twelve filmed "visual poems" describing and illustrating many aspects of Yolngu history, life and culture.
Other features of the site include galleries which showcase Ramingining art and artists, music and songmen, language and common terms, and photographs that capture the essence of life in the region. The website was also designed to provide the visitor the ability to share the content and keep the culture alive through storytelling now using 21st century technology.
12 Canoes has had visitors from 128 countries covering all 5 continents since going live on September 8. A huge success to date, the website project initiated by the Ramingining community to share their culture with the world and record it for future generations, has had over 25 900 unique visits, with the majority of hits from countries including Australia, the US, Canada, Germany and visits from countries as far afield as Uzbekistan, Uganda, Greenland, the Dominican Republic, Mongolia, Iran and Kuwait.
There was no paid media as part of the launch and once again, we developed and implemented a detailed viral propagation plan using social media opportunities including video sharing sites, blogs and bookmarking.
