Briefly tell us about your book.
Jordan: The book is about Wylah, a young Peek Whurrong girl who teaches art and loves megafauna animals. When her tribe is stolen from an invading Dragon army she must find the courage to rescue them. But there’s a problem, she can’t even throw a spear straight or return a boomerang. It is through her epic action-adventure journey that she is transformed.
What inspired the idea behind this book?
Richard: One day I saw a photo of a young Indigenous girl dancing in her traditional clothes, it instantly reminded me of traditional Samoan dances. That sparked the connection with dancers and warrior culture. I had a vision of a young Indigenous warrior who would fight to save her loved ones.
Jordan: Richard approached me with the idea of an Indigenous heroine story. I have a large interest in making creative stories and fantasy, so this opportunity to make this story with Richard, was when the stars aligned and my path in bringing my culture to the mainstream media became clear.
How did you go about developing your characters?
Jordan: We developed the characters around what we saw in ourselves and our loved ones in regards to characteristics. We also looked into the common legends and dreamtime stories and we integrated them into the story.
Richard: A lot of the strong female personalities came from my own experiences with having a strong, caring and protective mother. My wife and daughter are also the same. They all love animals and would do anything to protect them. There are no villains, just people with desires, and ambitions that come into conflict with each other, we’ll let the readers be the judge. We also wanted to put a lot of humour into the characters because we love to laugh.
What are you hoping readers will take away from your book?
Jordan: We are hoping people take away a new set of eyes on the Aboriginal culture, and see us as more than people with sticks and stones. We also would like people to look into their local tribes and learn more about their loco culture and language.
Richard: I want people to first enjoy the story and follow her adventure. Second, I’m hoping that readers will take away a greater appreciation for the ancient history of Aboriginal/Australian culture and how similar we are.
Can you tell us a bit about your writing process?
Richard: Jordan acknowledges he has high-functioning autism, with some writing difficulties. However, in my experience as a story artist working in film and as a creative director, writing is not the only way to tell a story. Many film directors/authors don’t write at all, they hire writers to transcribe their ideas into scripts. That was my approach with Jordan, we created a method and called it ‘Bim pa Marrang’ Head and Hand. Through the pandemic over zoom, Jordan and I would talk about every aspect of the story and I would write them out. What was more important than words was tone and approach. Jordan set the cultural tone and I set events in motion that would capture it.
What’s next? Do you have any new spectacular stories you’re working on/hope to work on?
Jordan: We are definitely hoping to turn this story into an animated film and video game.
Richard: We are also considering spin-off books with some of the fun characters we have created. Wylah is also a book series, we have planned an epic journey that could span over a dozen books.
Who is your favourite character in the book/series? Who are you most similar to?
Jordan: My favourite characters would be Pippy and Po. Pippy because he is modelled after my tribes (Peek Whurrong) totem the Yellow-tailed Black cockatoo. I connect strongly with Po because we have given him autistic characteristics that reflect my own high-functioning autism.
Richard: I love Bunyip! He’s so goofy and funny. He’s got a big heart and is often silly but also has this very powerful protector side to him. I think I’m a lot like Bunyip but goofier.
Did you always plan to be an author? What led you to where you are today?
Jordan: I never really planned to become an author. I planned to become a 3D Animator, then when I met Richard and he told me about this project, one thing led to another and now I’m here.
Richard: I’ve wanted to be an author since I was sixteen. I’ve even popped in some of the ideas I had back then into Wylah. I’ve worked on feature films, commercials and video games but I’ve always developed my own story ideas throughout my life. Working with Jordan has pulled together some of my goals to become an author and make Aboriginal culture mainstream. Wylah is a dream come true.
Buy a copy of Wylah: The Koorie Warrior here.
Jordan Gould is a Peek Whurrong man from Warrnambool, Victoria. He performs Welcome to Country ceremonies at corporate and private gatherings. He is passionate about teaching and talking to groups about culture, language and reconciliation.
Richard Pritchard – a New Zealand-born Samoan man – has had a dream of writing books since he was a teenager. His passion for visual storytelling has led him to work in graphic design, film, animation, commercials and video games.
I purchased this lovely book and sent it to a friend in the UK. If there are to be more in the series, it would be great to be on a mailing list so that my friends grandsons can keep up with Wylah,
Keep up with the good work.