STUDENTS CONNECT FOR GAMES

VALERIE FANG Year 11 Somerset College

SOMERSET College is part of the Gold Coast Schools Connect which aims to ensure students are informed and involved in GC2018.

Katrina Singh, an artist from the Jellurgal Cultural Centre, came to our school for an indigenous art workshop.

We learned about what indigenous totems represented. We were then presented with a 1.4m boomerang and surfboard to decorate. These items are to be given to Dunman High School in Singapore, which is our connected school as part of the Gold Coast Schools Connect Program for the Commonwealth Games.

We split into two groups to decorate the items. I was in the surfboard group.

Our surfboard design focused on the sea, while the boomerang group focused more on the mainland.

The story behind our surfboard was mainly about a mother dolphin showing her child how to hunt for fish during sunrise.

Surrounding the pair, we incorporated four turtles. On the beach, we designed campfires and waterholes with berries surrounding it.

The boomerang was focused around the campfire with various animals including an emu, lizard and even a turtle. The workshop originally went for two hours but because we were so engaged with painting and designing, it went for a few hours after school.

It was all worth it as in the end the art pieces looked amazing, being filled with colour and patterns.