Emma Watkins
Master of Media Arts Production, 2012
Young Alumni Award
Emma Watkins is a performer, filmmaker and charity ambassador, best known as the first female member of The Wiggles. Alongside touring the world as the beloved Yellow Wiggle and winning two ARIA Awards, Emma is strongly committed to supporting young children in the Deaf Community and is an ambassador for StorySign – an app that translates written text into sign language. She also regularly incorporates sign language into her performances, ensuring more children can enjoy The Wiggles, and is collaborating with Deaf artists to direct and produce multidisciplinary film works that move and inspire.
Emma is also a UNICEF Ambassador and the NSW Ambassador for Endometriosis Australia. She has a Master of Media Arts Production (2012) from UTS.
What did you enjoy most about your time at UTS?
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.
What advice would you give to students and alumni interested in a career in the arts?
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.
What do you think are the most valuable skills for new graduates entering the workforce?
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.
What has been the biggest challenge of your career?
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.
What was one turning point that changed your career, your life, or both?
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.
What has been the proudest moment of your career?
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.
What change would you like to help create in the next 10 years?
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.