Jasmine Seymour on ‘Open Your Heart to Country’
Jasmine Seymour’s fourth picture book Open Your Heart to Country (Magabala, June) is a bilingual story of healing and belonging. Told in Dharug and English, the book also showcases Seymour’s signature illustrations to celebrate Indigenous land and culture. Reviewer Jacqui Davies says the book is a ‘stunning, dreamlike work of art’. She speaks to the author.
In Open Your Heart to Country story and image combine to create a powerful sensation of welcome and belonging. What prompted you to write this book? How did the story come to you?
The story is about language revitalisation. I had just finished doing a Masters of Indigenous Languages Education at Sydney University. I started to teach community Dharug language lessons and I was filled with a sense of belonging and home. I was also profoundly affected by how meaningful it was to those learners to be taught their own language. This story is about the joy of learning your own language.
When did you first realise you wanted to create picture books and how did you get started?
I have always loved children’s picture books, but I never imagined that I would ever be able to make one. I never thought I would have any stories to tell. How wrong I was! One day I just decided to have a go. It was really driven out of having no Dharug language resources. This has been my prime motivation.
What does your creative process look like? Do you start with a book’s text then move on to the illustrations, or do you move between the two?
It’s really been a bit of both. For Baby Business and Cooee Mittigar, I wrote to the pictures. For Open Your Heart to Country I wrote the text first. It was a song in my heart that poured out onto the page. The pictures took a long time to develop but the process was worth it. I think writing to images is easier for me.
In recent years there has been an increasing focus on picture books by First Nations creators within the children’s book industry. What positive outcomes do you hope this may have on today’s young readers?
While I celebrate the increased focus on First Nations creators in the book industry, we still definitely need more. We need books from all the different language groups in Australia. We need to see the diversity and beauty of those languages and peoples. My story is not the next language group’s story. We have similarities, and those similarities connect us to the wider story of Indigenous Australia, but it is important that we listen and learn about the stories of the many different perspectives of our deep history and newer histories.
Your illustrations in Open Your Heart to Country combine painting, printmaking and digital collage. How did you settle on this style? Have you always worked with these media?
I love all three mediums individually, so it makes sense to me to blend and combine them all together to created something really rich. I love experiments and messy accidents so collaging paint and print on a digital platform is perfect for me.
Who, or what, has been the biggest influence on your craft?
Bob Graham, Alison Lester, my dad, and my beautiful friend Leanne Mulgo Watson are my biggest inspiration. My dad was always creating and making art, experimenting with lots of different mediums. I love the way Bob Graham and Alison Lester draw families. I want to see my families like that. The way those two illustrate people to me is through children’s eyes. The families in their books are full of daggy beauty and love. Leanne Watson creates beautiful images of Dharug Country that constantly inspire me.
Read Jacqui Davies’ review of Open Your Heart to Country here.
Category: Features
