Stick Mob

In 2018, the Indigenous Literacy Foundation supported a series of graphic novel workshops for four aspiring teenage creators in Alice Springs, with mentors Wolfgang Bylsma and Brenton McKenna. 

The results of these workshops were three graphic novel series: Mixed Feelings, Exo Dimensions, and Storm Warning, written and illustrated while the creators were still in high school, and published in 2021.

These books address topics such as climate change, intergenerational trauma and healing, found family, and two-way cultural learning against the backdrop of life in Central Australia. 

The creators were also inspired to continue their storytelling and share their knowledge with others, and so they formed Stick Mob.

Stick Mob is a collective of storytellers from Mparntwe-Alice Springs who tell stories that reconfigure reality. They create, publish, and exhibit stories that reimagine different times, places, and identities, challenging deficit narratives of growing up as young Arrernte person in central Australia.

Their stories are vital in creating a more tolerant and imaginative society.

Stick Mob stories are grounded in place and community, seeing their writing and illustrating as an extension of their social justice responsibilities.