To celebrate Harmony Day this year, a group of students worked with indigenous artist Treahna Hamm to complete a colourful mural at Beechworth Primary School.

The mural represents both our local area as well as our links with indigenous culture and our sister school in Indonesia. The students used inspiration from the local environment around Beechworth to represent Australia, including native animals, the hills and trees. For the Indonesian part they drew on batik-style designs of tropical flowers and jungle vines as well as tropical fruit.

Tying it all together is a bright blue swirl, which can be used to represent the springs and creeks of Beechworth flowing into the rivers and the seas. In indigenous culture water holds an important place in stories and often represents a journey. Some hands were also added to show care and compassion.

Students were encouraged to think of their own ideas to add and make stories about how the images all worked together. This was a very positive and creative experience for the students involved and hopefully will be enjoyed by the whole community.

We will have some of the students involved to present their explanation of the mural to the whole school at the next assembly.