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Organiser of Workshop: Eloise Cole
Teachers:
Sinead Byrne
Donna Connolly
Liz Griggs
Adele Hogan
Mary Lucas
Collaboration and support:
Kylie Kennedy-Cupples: artist
Angela Wylie: photo journalist
Children:
Michaela S, Gabriel A, Joanna S, Caitlin M, Evie MK, Shannen Mc, James C, Serena D, Jessica M, Alicia H, Sage C, Jack B, Jeremy C, Jordyn W, Brandon O, Robert C, Frank G, Elyse L, Cyrus M, Aaron Mac, Cyrus M, Mitchell M, Nelson SH, Gabrielle K, James P, Joel M, Elyse T, Erin M, Caitlin B, Chantelle T, Tatiana K, Jacob A, Sean C, Michael T, Darcy V, Giulia F, Dylan S, Kate M, Joseph Z.
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‘World Peace is Peace for Children’
We believe that children have the right to play and spaces to play
The Launch
On Monday 19th December, 2005, the Year 5/6 children from St Joseph’s School, Chelsea unveiled 8 paintings that make a large mural as part of the Kid’s Guernica International Peace Project. This official launch was attended by Ms Jenny Lindell, Member for Carrum, Cr Topsy Petchey, Mayor of the City of Kingston, Mrs. Jane Flannery from the Catholic Education Office and the entire St. Joseph’s school community.
Our Inspiration and the Development of the Project
Back in term one this year we learnt about an artist called Pablo Picasso who painted a rather large picture called ‘Guernica’. Picasso painted this picture because he wanted to protest against the brutality of bombing in the town of ‘Gernika’ during the Spanish civil war and show the devastating effects of war and the suffering on the people. The purpose for looking at this art work was to study and understand the art style of Cubism. This research led us to discover the Kid’s Guernica International Peace Project.
In term four, as part of our unit on Social Justice and Mission we embarked on planning and producing a mural as a way of participating in this international project and taking action to make a peaceful difference in our world.
Once we decided to take on the project we needed to understand our own beliefs about world peace. We brain stormed, discussed, debated and read about what world peace actually means. We read and discussed the United Nations Conventions for the Rights of the Child and compared these to our own beliefs and there were many similarities.
We read about and watched a documentary called ‘Ryan’s Well’. Ryan Hreljac is a 6 year old boy from Canada who wanted to help the children of Uganda access clean drinking water. Ryan started out by raising $70 to pay for a well to be built in a Ugandan school. Slowly, over time, Ryan’s quest to do this spread to many other people and countries and now he has a foundation called Ryan’s Well that continues to raise millions of dollars to build wells for the people of developing countries.
During term 4, we also ran a Mission Fete to raise money for the people of East Timor in conjunction with the Unicef Cup for Kids Campaign. St Joseph’s Parish has a strong connection to the people of East Timor with this year seeing a container load of urgently needed supplies being sent by our parish. The UNICEF Cup for Kids Campaign is a celebration of every child’s RIGHT TO PLAY. ‘Play helps children overcome the trauma of war, disease and poverty and the money we raised will go towards helping children in these situations.’ (http://www.unicef.org.au/SchoolRoom-Subs.asp?SchoolRoomID=11)
All of this research and action helped inspire us to design our own images that represented our personal beliefs about world peace. As a year 5/6 group we agreed that the message our mural will deliver is:
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‘World Peace is Peace for Children’
We believe that children have the right to play and spaces to play
So our task was to actually make this mural. 3.5metres by 7.8metres is a very large size for a painting and we had limited space. Using our problem solving skills we came up with the idea of dividing the area of the mural into 8 panels so each class could design two panels each and we would present the mural as a set of eight panels. This allowed us to manage the project more easily and enable as many year 5/6 students to work on the mural as possible.
Everyone one in year 5/6 was invited to draw and represent their own message of peace. Each class then voted for the pictures they liked the most and a group of finalists was formed. The finalists from each of the four classes worked cooperatively to put together 2 designs that incorporated all of their ideas.
Meanwhile, our school community was learning about this mural project and how huge the task was. A family donated some money to us to help with the purchase of timber to make the frames and paint for the canvasses. Another person who heard about the project from a friend donated some more money so we could purchase the fabric to stretch over the frames. Although we still had so much to do, the project was slowly becoming a reality.
With the help of adults, we measured, cut and assembled the 8 frames and stretched the fabric over them. Next we painted two coats of white paint on each canvas with help from a parent and teachers.
We then drew the outline of our designs on to each canvas and began the exciting task of painting the mural. By now, there were only two and half weeks left of school for the year. Each class worked cooperatively to paint everyday and the murals were completed on Friday 16th December, 2005.
Paul Kelly, the Australian singer and song writer, wrote a song called ‘From little things, big things grow.’ Ryan Hreljac started with $70 and is now helping the children of Uganda; 10 years ago, the Japan art network began the Kid’s Guernica International Peace Project which is continuing to spread throughout the world. We believe that from this launch, our message of peace will continue to grow bigger and bigger.
Challenges and Successes
The challenges we had to work through to complete this project were:
- Having enough time to complete the murals before school finished for the year.
- Having enough money for the materials
- Having the skills to plan, build, design and paint
The successes for this project are:
- We learnt lots of new skills through research and having a go
- We chose to get along with each other
- Showing a commitment to our beliefs about World Peace and putting this commitment into action
- Continuing to raise awareness of World Peace and peace for children
To get this far, we needed to have a You Can Do It attitude because there were times when it felt like we would not reach our goal.
- We used our Confidence key to take a risk and try a new project and learn new skills
- We used our Persistence key to stick with the project even though at times we thought we would not reach our goal
- We used our Organisation key to plan our tasks, organize equipment and work in stages
- We used our Getting Along key to work cooperatively with each other. We negotiated in teams, listened to each other’s opinions, made decisions together and agreed on a set of rules we would follow
How can you help?
A peaceful world starts with all of us here and now getting along in a peaceful way; showing tolerance, acceptance and respect for differences.
This is only half of the project completed; the other half of the project involves each and every one of you. Help us to make a difference by telling everyone you know about the Peace messages in our mural and then take some action by acting peacefully towards others!
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St Joseph’s Primary School
362 Station Street
Chelsea
Australia 3196
Ph: 97728251
www.sjchlsea.melb.catholic.edu.au
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