Our animation for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service (ATSILS) has been recognised at the 2026 W3 Awards, taking Silver in both the Law & Legal Services and Public Service & Activism categories.

Police wanding powers are not the kind of subject that usually wins awards. That is a big part of why this recognition matters to us.

Under Jack’s Law, Queensland police can use metal detection wands in certain public places. Most people had never heard of the law. Even fewer knew what they were required to do if police approached them with a wand, or what protections they had if it happened to them.

ATSILS wanted a resource that would close that gap for Mob, so people could understand their rights and obligations before they found themselves in that situation.

The brief set a high bar, and each requirement pulled in a slightly different direction. The video needed to be clear enough to understand quickly, because people rarely have time to study the detail of a law before it affects them.

It needed to be calm enough to be useful in a stressful moment. Being stopped by police is unsettling, and information delivered with urgency or alarm can make that harder rather than easier.

It also needed to be accurate enough to hold up legally. A legal service cannot put its name to a resource that simplifies the law to the point of being wrong, so plain language had to work alongside legal precision rather than at its expense.

Awards in categories like Law & Legal Services and Public Service & Activism suggest that practical, rights-based communication is being taken seriously as creative work. We think it should be.

Our thanks go to Joshua Herd at ATSILS for trusting us with something this important, and to our producer Reychel Lawrence for carrying the project through.

Next Steps

If your organisation needs to explain a law, a right or a process to a community that needs it, we’d be glad to talk it through. Get in touch with the Punchy team to start the conversation.