First Peoples of Australia Cognito Crayons

Its interesting where the world takes you. I saw there was a local meetup with a guest speaker who is a storyteller. His superpower is telling stories and teaching others how we can learn to do this too. We have an amazing back story with the start of the business being disabled Returned Soldiers making crayons in bullet moulds but 80 years on I thought we needed some help. Vince Fordwas worth going out on a cold night to see, not only for his wisdom and cake recipe but also the introduction to his wife Andi Ford.

Turns out Andi and her partner Carolynne Masson are extremely passionate about foundation skills for children and are co-creators of the Ready 4 Learning framework. They visited the factory and we talked and laughed non stop for two hours. They immediately saw why the Cognito Crayons are valuable in an early childhood situation and that I am committed to getting them into as many little hands as possible.

Fast forward to last week when I made and packed up bundles of a new colour range. At their suggestion they thought the Australian ECE market could be interested in a First Peoples of Australia colour range. This would recognise the importance of colours that come from the land of Australia and the huge culture of art in these communities going back generations.  I knew I could make the five most common colours and even better the Red, Yellow, Brown and Black could all be made using very similar ochres that would have been traditionally used. I did recognise the choice of the other two colours in a bundle was very subjective so while I looked at blue, in the end I chose a leaf green and a light purple as both these colours were traditionally made using leaves and berries.  Its not perfect but it’s a start. This week Andi and Carolynne have kindly taken some bundles to Australia and hopefully we will gain interest and insight into the potential for the crayons. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please reach out.