THE traditional owners of the land that Pakenham Secondary College stands on have been honoured in a unique way.
Pakenham Secondary College has incorporated the culture of the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri people (both of the Kulin Nations) into its curriculum and renamed buildings around the school with words that are significant to the Boon Wurrung people.
In addition, traditional aboriginal artworks by students now adorn the hallways.
The Maramara project is a collaboration between the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (VACL), artist Tara Kingson, photographer Clinton Plowman and Pakenham Secondary College.
The project allowed students from different year levels to research, plan and create artworks that include canvasses and possum skins.
Students burnt designs onto possum skins, which now hang in the library, in a frame designed and made by Year 11 design tech students.
Possum skins are culturally important in the Boon Wurrung people’s tradition because they were worn as clothing from birth and throughout their lives and also record life stories.
The skins were eventually buried with their physical record of a person’s life and taken into their Dreamtime.
The Balam Balam (butterfly) senior building represented the journey of students from children to adulthood.
Students created images using stencils and freehand techniques and the building features a number of canvasses which took many months to complete.
The Djirri Djirri (Willy Wagtail) Year 7 Centre represents students as they enter high school.
The large canvass that hangs outside the Djirri Djirri Centre took weeks to complete and required the use of an old-fashioned overhead projector to enlarge images.
This project was funded by the SFYS (School Focused Youth Service).
