Kids Co-creating

Article | Updated 6 years ago

"Light and dark grey, and orange pieces of paper make up the shape of a possum."
Possum by Emily Pederick, collage on paper. 2018.
Emily Pederick

Possum by Emily Pederick, collage on paper. 2018.
Image copyright Emily Pederick

Banksia woodlands are a shrinking part of the Perth metropolitan environment. They are home to some amazing animals and plants. We are working with kids to help raise awareness and connection to this special environment that needs protection.

Part of this is creating a beautiful mural of a banksia woodlands, with the help of the Young Naturalists Club (Young Nats).  This mural will be displayed at the entrance to the City Life area of the Life gallery.

A group of eleven Young Nats have been busy working with local artist Chloe Flockhart and Museum staff to create artworks that will feature in the mural.

The Young Nats were invited to the Museum’s Collections and Research Centre to meet our staff and learn about the plants and animals that live in the banksia woodland.  Our terrestrial zoology staff showed them examples of the birds, mammals, reptiles and insects that live there. They also discussed the work that our scientists do to document and protect these environments.

The Young Nats then went on a fieldtrip to Cottonwood Reserve in Dianella, to explore and examine a banksia woodlands.  Armed with field books and pencils they examined the plants and animals that live in the area. They saw a range of banksia flowers, grass trees and native orchids and saw evidence of quendas, honey possum and micro bats.

The Friends of Cottonwood Reserve in Dianella were wonderful hosts and helped explain the local environment while Museum staff and artist Chloe worked with the students to identify and sketch the plants and animals.

They drew pictures of the wildlife and thought about the textures and colours they would use to create their animal for the mural. The children identified the important elements that they thought should be included in the mural  and gave Chloe the direction she needed to complete the design.

On the final workshop days the Young Nats experimented with paper craft and collage.  They developed design methods that can be used by others to contribute to the mural.

Children and their families will continue the work of the Young Nats Club and contribute their own artwork for the mural at this year’s AWESOME Arts Festival in October and September.

"A group of children stand listening to a man holding a jar, they stand amongst metal shelves of jars."Mark Harvey guided the Young Nats through our wet store collection as part of the behind-the-scenes tour.
WA Museum "A woman stands holding a jar with a reptile in it while children stand listening to her, a trolley holding more jars is in front of her.Rebecca Bray explained the herpetology collection and what she does in her role as technical officer Terrestrial Zoology.
WA Museum "A group of children sit around a large table, smiling and showing pages of their notebooks to the camera."The Young Nats learnt about the animals of the banksia woodlands by drawing Collection items.
WA Museum "Through a branch in the foreground a group of adults and children can be standing in a carpark in front of marquees with the WAM Logo on them."The field trip taught the group a lot about the banksia woodland habitat.
WA Museum "A group of children and adults sit around a blue tarp on stools, two women sit on the floor facing them."The group discussed the habitat and brainstormed with artist Chloe Flockart what needed to be included in the mural.
WA Museum "A group of children sit in a circle on a wooden floor, a boy in a red t-shirt learns in toward the woman next to him."The Young Nats worked with Chloe to figure out how children at the Awesome Arts Festival could contribute to the mural.
WA Museum "A group of children sit on a wooden floor facing a woman who is holding up a piece of paper to show them."The children tested ways that collage could be used to create the elements of the mural.
WA Museum "A group of children sit and stand around a trestle table, drawing and cutting pieces of paper."They worked hard to test the methodology for the Awesome Festival.
WA Museum