Stride braves the hottest place in the world to deliver Art4Life program!
Mar 06, 2019
Its mid-Jan and South Australia is experiencing some of the hottest days on record as we set out on an 800km long journey from Adelaide to the small coastal town on Ceduna. In fact, we are heading to the hottest place on EARTH on the day we leave, but its worth it to see the sun setting when we get there!
Stride is delivering a program called Art4Life to be conducted in the school holidays and as well as myself, I have the professional artist, teacher and award winner, Megan Ohara. As well as being strongly connected through friends and family to the Kaurna community in Adelaide, her son is of Batjala nation in Qld. She is currently working to bring Indigenous culture and representation through the Arts into regional schools of the Ngarrindjeri and Peramangk nation.
The next day we head even further west to the small Aboriginal community of Koonibba, where we are warmly welcomed by the Youth Coordinator, Kevina. She and her partner run the youth centre which is the only air-conditioned public space for the young people to ‘hang’ at. The young people are eager to start painting and are waiting around before the doors open. The painting proves to be a hit with the parents too and before we know it we have young and old, all engrossed in creating art.
Stopping for a fruit break presents a great opportunity to talk to the young people about their goals and how they can go about achieving them. Although the goals varied it was inspiring to hear how ambitious all these young people are.
The next activity involves the young people decorating vinyl leaves with patterns of their choosing before painting positive and inspiring messages onto their leaves. These leaves will remain in the youth centre making a beautiful permanent installation.
Days 4 and 5 of our trip are conducted in Ceduna which we hear on the news, is literally the hottest place on earth while we are there – luck us! In conjunction with the Youth Hub we decide to locate this workshop at the Arts Centre where local artists also sit and work on their pieces. We are greeted by a smaller, but committed (to go out 48 degree heat) group who once again embrace the task with gusto. We work with the local artists to put some words in language on the board and young people are encouraged to write these on their leaves, to promote learning and pride in their culture.
Port Augusta is our next stop, where we find some keen young people to join our program. The next day we have a similar group of kids who are keen to come back. These are not the children we normally see, they are just as happy to be dancing as painting (lucky we had a big space). After 8 long days of heat, children and driving we arrive safely back in Adelaide ready to begin our next program!