Add Category
Posted
A new Aboriginal artwork has been unveiled in Adelaide, its images drawn by schoolchildren and then created in South Australian granite.
The cultural marker is in the paving of Victoria Square (Tarntanyangga) in the centre of the CBD.
Before the covering was officially lifted, Aunty Suzanne Russell led a welcome to country ceremony, inviting those present to "come together, let's not be separated, we are one".
Students of Gilles Street and Challa Gardens primary schools helped design the street art and a teacher, Taylor Power-Smith, described it as a significant symbol for the Kaurna people of the Adelaide plains.
"It was pretty special when it was unveiled — my mum gave me a big hug and I just felt like crying, it was really beautiful," she said.
Ms Power-Smith said the artwork was empowering for the Indigenous students involved in its creation and helped them embrace their identity.
"When you have something like this, it's your work, you've touched it and it's literally cemented in the ground forever [so you] never really have to question where you belong, or who you are, ever again."
The street art includes Kaurna words with corresponding images and solar-powered lights will ensure it remains prominent at night.
A community elder and official of Adelaide City Council's reconciliation committee, Ivan Copley, said Victoria Square was a fitting location because it was a central meeting place for local mobs.
"Now there's a marker here acknowledging these are the nation's first people," he said.
"Healing comes from the heart, so being placed here in the heart of Adelaide is very significant."
Topics: indigenous-culture, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, community-and-society, street-art, arts-and-entertainment, adelaide-5000, sa, australia