Playground Artwork

Ripples of Knowledge

Dear Families,

As St Joseph's continues on our journey to reconciliation, we are pleased to share the unveiling of our commissioned artwork with our community.

Earlier this year, in conjunction with our Year Six leadership team, we made the decision to engage with a First Nations artist to put together an art piece that will signify our commitment to Reconciliation. Recommended by The Bunurong Land Council, we connected with Auntie Heather Kennedy, a First Nations Artist.

Heather assisted us to bring our vision alive, in a one of a kind canvas artwork that is now displayed in our school office. The artwork has been digitally manipulated by Edward and his team at Bay Media to create the installation on the front playground. 

Auntie Heather has kindly put together a description of the different aspects of the piece.

Ripples of Knowledge

The Gum Leaves represent healing & cleansing.

They have a strong spiritual connection to the land.

The Gum nuts represent regeneration.

The Gum nut is a hardened seed that cannot be destroyed.

When the pods open they spread the seeds to regenerate the land.

The dotted white represents our ancestral spirits looking over us and protecting us.

The circles represent all the different communities & meeting places. 

The figures in each circle represent people coming together and supporting each other. This can be family, extended family, community, and school community.

The U shape represents our Elders who are our story tellers, truth tellers, knowledge keepers and our mentors. 

They give us our spiritual guidance and hand on their knowledge to us, so when they leave us to join our ancestral elders, we then become the knowledge keepers, story tellers, truth tellers and mentors.

The smaller dotted circles represent the ripples of knowledge. 

When you throw a stone into the water it creates ripples that keep expanding. 

Somewhat like the knowledge we acquire at home, from family, community and school and we continue to hand this on to keep the ripples evolving.

A big thank you must go to the wonderful families of St Joseph's and the P&F as their fundraising efforts have contributed financially to the artpiece. 

Please join me in thanking Auntie Heather and the team at Bay Media for assisting us to bring our vision to life. 

Alannah Harrison

Deputy Principal