Students get artistic

Students at Charthouse Primary School embarked on an art project last week designed to help decorate the school.

Last week, the Year 6 and 7 students at the Waikiki school, together with their visual arts teacher, Charlotte Soraine, started an indigenous artwork project to decorate totem poles.

Year 7 student Isabella Di Giuseppe said she enjoyed being involved in the project.

“It has been wonderful to be able to leave something behind when we leave the school and a piece of ourselves too,” she said.

The project is taking place over two weeks and Ms Soraine has enlisted the help of an Aboriginal artist to assist the children.

Coodanup Community College Aboriginal tutor Anthea Fitzhardinge and two Year 10 students, Gemma Bonney and Daiynara Anderson, have also helped in the art project.

Miss Anderson said she enjoyed teaching children about indigenous culture and art.

Ms Soraine said she had applied for funding to do something with Aboriginal art and the project had become very special for everyone involved.

“These totem poles represent the local Noongar seasons, which are very different from our own,” she said. “The local artist draws on the poles and the kids have been painting the pictures of the fish and the flowers.

“The children have left their hand prints behind and that has been most important as they are physically imparting themselves into their art for generations to come.”