Nuturing Relationships & Culture

Students from GSSC and Gowrie Street Primary School are bringing First Nations culture, history and storytelling to life through the form of two murals being painted at the schools.

The First Nations secondary and Years 5 & 6 students will soon begin painting on a shipping container at GSSC, displayed prominently near our Bayuna Neighbourhood. Once completed, the group will work together again to design a mural for Gowrie St, which will be located in their central courtyard along one of the buildings.

The students have worked with program lead Aunty Lisa Lynch-Johnson from Gowrie St and GSSC Art Domain Leader Alison Sealie to workshop design ideas, incorporating First Nations perspective, both local to Yorta Yorta and Bangerang peoples and symbolising Aboriginal art more generally. This includes symbols depicting gathering areas, waterholes and running water, representing the region’s rivers and meeting places. The travelling and journey with resting place symbol also featured heavily in students’ designs as they discussed its relevance to education and how their schooling is a long journey taking them somewhere.

When visiting GSSC at the end of last term, the Gowrie St children were also led by our students on a scavenger hunt around the school, showcasing our neighbourhood facilities including the library, multicultural hub and Koorie Educator office, science and food technology classrooms, level one and two spaces, bleachers and house reception areas.

As well as honouring and celebrating First Nations culture, the mural projects are designed to foster relationships between our senior primary school students and GSSC students to enable a more seamless and supportive transition into secondary schooling.   

We cannot wait to see the finished products featuring proudly in our schools.