Emma Watkins

I’ve always been determined to incorporate dance with film, and some teachers have found this passion hard to understand. But in the Master of Media Arts and Production, I found like-minded people and teachers, and met Gregory Ferris, who took my passion seriously. With his encouragement, and through the extra training and learning I did in the Masters, I developed the skills I needed to achieve my goals. I was very comfortable in the course, and felt really at home. I loved making videos and working on projects with other people. 

You have to have really thick skin, because we get rejected a lot. You do have to take a step back and understand that when people are judging or assessing you, it’s a very subjective approach. It’s really hard, you’d like it to be more objective, but art is about perspective. It’s about opinions. So, you just have to find the right kind of project for you. And when you find the people who align with that, everything becomes much easier. 

Sometimes it’s not just about the skill, it’s about how well you get on with other people. That’s been really important – particularly with my job, when you’re living and working with people every single day and you see them more than your own family. It’s just about being courteous to other people and always being able to lend a hand. Enthusiasm goes a long way. 

I was diagnosed with endometriosis in 2018 and had to have surgery, which was really the first time I had ever had a day off from The Wiggles. And I think because the character is so much a part of me, I really struggled to let someone else take over for a bit. 

As a Hearing person, I have a cultural, contextual barrier when learning about the Deaf Community. I don’t want to impose myself as a ‘know it all’ because I don’t, and I don’t experience life in the way that they do. So, for me, there’s always been a worry about stepping over the boundary or doing something that’s inappropriate. I don’t want to offend anybody. And I think it started to hinder me, because I was starting to get very worried and conservative about my approach to study. 

But very recently, I started collaborating with this these amazing Deaf artists – Elvin Lam from Melbourne, and Sue Jo Wright from Sydney. They have very different backgrounds, but both have inspired me to use sign language in such a creative way. And their artistry and openness helped me relax for the first time in about 10 years. It’s been a big turning point. 

We have a show at the end of the year that usually comprises of The Wiggles and dancers. And having someone interpret the show is standard for us. But for this one particular show, I was passionate about having all of the show interpreted by children who are Deaf, or children of d/Deaf adults. It was all pre-recorded and we had them on big screens next to the stage. That was really amazing, because we got to work with four children between the ages of eight and 12. And they signed every Wiggle song, and we had it on big screens. It meant that the signing was included in the show, rather than being separate. I loved that project, and I hope that I can do it again. 

A much more mindful approach to working with communities, rather than talking about them or tokenising them. I think we need to be aware of how everybody’s experience is different, but also celebrate those differences ¬– because there’s so much we can learn from each other.