'Pipi Thay Too' ('The Grandmother Tree')

Pipi Thay Too (The Grandmother Tree) is a short animated film celebrating resilience, the power of identity, mystical encounters with ancestors, and the Karen and Karenni refugee experience. 

Made out of hundreds of paintings by a group of young refugee women, the short film was created when the young artists joined up with local artist, director and mentor Laura Alice and started to explore and collaborate to create cutting-edge storytelling art, media and animation. The talented artists are from Karen and Karenni backgrounds, having come to Australia after their families fled the brutal genocidal regime in their homeland.

Director Biography - Laura Alice

Director Laura Alice has teamed up with the Drawn Together Studio- a group of refugee Karen and Karenni young women aged 12-22 living in Geelong, Australia.

Laura Alice is an artist, creative mentor and film-maker who specialises in community collaboration and empowerment. Her multi-disciplinary practice delves into esoteric story-telling, archetypes and human rights.

For many years she has collaborated with the Bluebird Foundation Inc. to create cutting-edge outcomes for diverse and disadvantaged groups, aimed at enriching the cultural fabric of her community.

Drawn Together Studio are a group of refugee Karen and Karenni young women aged 12-22. Having come to Australia, they have become dedicated artists with a passion for telling their unique cultural tale through art and media.

A partnership between COGG, The Fort and Bluebird Foundation Inc. with huge thanks

Director Statement

'Pipi Thay Too' (The grandmother Tree') is an animated film celebrating resilience, the power of identity, mystical encounters with ancestors, and the Karen and Karenni refugee experience.

Made out of hundreds of paintings by the young refugee women, the short film was created when the Drawn Together Studio, ages 12-22, joined up with local artist, director and mentor Laura Alice - and started to explore and collaborate to create cutting-edge storytelling art, media and animation. The talented young artists are from a Karenni and Karen background, having come to Australia after their family fled the brutal genocidal regime in their homeland.

Every week the group met up with Laura Alice and dedicated themselves to learning about and creating powerful art forms. Under the guidance of Laura Alice, the young women learnt to paint and draw, and to use simple animation techniques to bring their stories to life.

And so ‘Pipi Thay too’ (pronounced Pipi Tay Too) was born. With the support and partnership of The Bluebird Foundation and The Fort and COGG council; the group poured their time into writing, painting and creating their story. Based on their own journey from refugee camps to Australia, the story is in many ways autobiographical- the protagonist reflecting the young women who wrote it - a resilient refugee Karen teenaged girl, and her powerful inner and outer journey.

Director Laura Alice worked collaboratively with the teenaged artists the whole time, taking their paintings and drawings and animating it into the story they had created, guiding them through the process and working intimately with them every week to create their shared vision.

The result is this beautiful animated film; a very unique, important retelling of the human rights of refugees, with uplifting and esoteric storylines.