SWAN HILL Regional Art Gallery has kicked off its school holiday program, with hopes to educate and share Indigenous arts and craft with Swan Hill’s youth.
The first session was attended by 12 primary school aged children, who created their own coolamon bowl using bark and Sculpt It modelling clay.
Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery Administration Officer Maryanne Darroch said the gallery incorporated their current exhibition into the program.
“We try to focus our school holiday program on the current exhibition at the gallery,” she said.
“Which happens to be the Milloo Dreaming exhibition of First Nations artists.”
“This exhibition is all about the wetlands and the floods, so we’ve got a few river-focused arts with the river maps, and the river scene collage to really fit in with those themes.
“We’ve got an Indigenous educator in for each of the groups, so they will learn all about the symbols, the tools, and the art that is in the gallery.”
Leading the first session was local artist Suzanne Connelly-Klidomitis, who taught the children about how a coolamon was created, and how they were usually decorated.
She explained that the children could use red, black, yellow and white paint, as coolamons were traditionally decorated using red, white and yellow ochre and charcoal.
Coolamons are a multi-purpose vessel that were traditionally created using hardwood and decorated with etchings.
They were used to carry water and food, for digging and for cradling babies and while their use has declined, their importance is still strong within Indigenous culture.
Ms Connelly-Klidomitis also provided the group with examples of some of the symbolic art used by Indigenous people.
Ms Darroch said that while the school holiday program was always popular, the current exhibition had added to the interest.
“It’s always a busy time,” she said.”Our school holiday programs are always really popular.
“I think it’s especially popular with the Indigenous art here over the holidays. We always like to support local artists, especially with the local Indigenous artists exhibition.
“We ran one last year, and it was very popular with both locals and the tourists.”
The sessions are only $5 to attend, but bookings are essential.
The holiday program will continue into the second week of the holidays, with Tuesday’s session focusing on creating a river map and Thursday’s will see the children create a wall hanging.
Call the gallery on 5036 2430 for more information.
