The Koori Mural

Reconciliaton through Education

The Koori Mural was designed by Marlene Drysdale and Lynne Holten and was created by a large group of artists made up of Aboriginal students from the Morwell KODE school, Monash Gippsland Campus staff and students at the CAIS Centre and elders and community members from the region.

The Theme of the mural is “Reconciliation through Education”. Protecting the image is a spirit elder overlooking the country. While we are looking for different ways of learning we are still protected by our spririt ancestors. The ways of learning are represented in the five rings of educational change. The first ring in the left corner is the traditional oral form of teaching. The second ring is the understanding of and respect for new knowledge demonstrated by the childs use of his/her totem as part of Aboriginal society. The third ring represents the clash of culture whereby the gun replaced the spear, and with it the western way of learning. The fourth ring involved a cap and five stars representing Monash University and the KODE school logo that symbolizes the re-learning of culture that takes place through modern institutions. And the fifth ring represents the first man (Borun the pelican) and the woman (Tuk the musk duck) that is part Aboriginal creation.

Other points to note about the artwork include:

• The five shields represent the five clans of the Gunai-Kurnai region:
  Krauatungalung, Brabralung, Braiakalung, Brataulung, Tatungalung.
• The monitor lizard (Bataluk) which is one of the totems of the area.
  Gunai- Kurnai people only used black and white traditional paints in this area.
• The rainbow serpent represents the creation of the Australian landscape. Inside the Australian landscape are the handprints of children representing the diversity of Aboriginal Australia.
• The white and yellow border around Australia represents that the country is locked to the sea and the blue, green and black dots represent different elements of the sea including the reef, sea animals migrating and the rough waters around Tasmania.
• The animal and plants are representative of the regions and many of ther symbols such as the Wandjina” in Western Australia and the ‘Quinkins’ in Queensland have significant spiritual representation.
• Handprints underneath the image are traditional signature.