By Deanne Jeffers
ARTWORKS by local artist and Yorta Yorta woman Melissa Cowan were unveiled at a special event at Ardmona Primary School on Friday.
Ardmona PS hosted guests and students from ASHE and Mooroopna Park Primary School for a smoking ceremony. The event sought to bring people together and to celebrate the school’s new outdoor learning space.
The mural shows two men at a campfire and walking tracks that lead to the waterholes, where Melissa has painted her ancestors as turtles. During the eight weeks where she painted the artwork, she said two kookaburras would watch as she worked from a gumtree, all these plus many familiar wildlife from the area have been reproduced in this colourful work.
“Bunjil, which is the eagle, I’ve done in the opposite way. So, it looks like it has flown across all the turtles, across the Elders and onto this painting, protecting the land,” said Melissa, explaining the story behind the artwork, which uses traditional painting techniques significant to Indigenous culture, like cross-hatching.
Upgrades, including the murals, were made possible through State Government funding.
“We’ve had two active sports grants. The first one funded our basketball court, but the second one we implemented into our learning programs. A big key to that was our painting artwork done by Liss and Les [Cowan],” explained Koori education support and student wellbeing coordinator Nathan Turner.
The outdoor area provides a space where students can meet for physical education lessons, providing an outdoor learning environment with the benefits of a classroom.
Also on the day, students participated in traditional Indigenous games within the outdoor learning area.
