The wall of fish mural to acknowledge the Yulakit Wilum People.

This ceramic mural acknowledged the traditional owners of the Land, the Yulukit Wilum People of the Boonwarrung Language Group. The mural is of a big wave that contains words and native fish made out of clay by the 3 year old and four year old children of the early childhood centre in 2012. The ceramic mural was assembled by community artist Debbie Qadri. The words and spelling for the text were sought from the Boonwarrung Elder Aunty Carolyn, who generously helped us. The text reads: We'd like to pay our respects to the Yulukit Wilum of the Boonwarrung language group, the Ancestors of the land on which we stand. We also pay our respects to our Ancestors and to our Elders past and present. Womin djeka mirum bikk bikk narm derp borphen uther wilum. Welcome to our beautiful home, land of the great bay. Thankyou to Aunty Caroline for giving us the correct words.

more native fish made by the children

Here are some of the native fish made out of clay by the children on a wall in their playground.

another fishy wall

Not all of the children's fish would fit into the great wave so some were glued to another wall, creating another artwork.

The finished Mural - some close-ups

Here are some close-ups of the finished wall. The native fish made by the children were arranged in the wave along with the text that acknowledges the traditional owners of the land, the Yulukit Wilum of the Boonwarrung Language group.

watch a film of the children making with clay

Hi everyone, here is some film footage which shows how the children were making the fish and the alphabet letters for the mural. http://youtu.be/Up0_NVhE5fA click on the link to go directly to youtube and watch.

wednesday's fish

Wednesday's fish filled nine wooden boards. We also made a lot of letters and many jellyfish.

The children chose fish from a selection of photographs that we had sourced from the internet. The fish are those that are found in Port Phillip Bay and are eaten. The children had fun making, rock flathead, whiting, anchovies, snapper, whiting,pilchards, calimari, gummy shark, black bream and garfish.

more tuesday fish and letters

Its a colourful calamari! The children also made letters for our writing in the mural which will pay respect to the traditional owners of the land on which the centre is built. We will need lots of beautiful letters for the words.

The letters are made in a plaster mould. The children press the clay into the mould and Debbie removes the letter with a fork. The children became very good at tidying the edges of the letters and painting them.