Drouin is located 100km east of Melbourne in West Gippsland. Drouin Primary School has approximately 200
students of which 15% are Koorie. We have a strong relationship with our Koorie families, signing a
partnership agreement with them in 2009 that sees our school curriculum embrace the Koorie culture.

In response to this our Grade 5/6 looked at the work of aboriginal artist Sally Morgan and how her work
reflects her relationship with her country.

Students listed the main aspects of her work, namely her use of bright colour, bold design and stylized
shapes.

In an effort to better understand her work students worked in pairs to reproduce a Sally Morgan design of
their choice using collage.

Our main project was to use Sally’s print titled "My Place" as inspiration to create a
wall hanging based on the students relationship with Drouin.  There was a great deal of discussion
between the students as to what living in Drouin meant to them and how Drouin might be perceived by
visitors.

Finally the students decided on seven aspects of Drouin on which to base their design.
1. View of
Mt. Baw
Baw                                            
2.Civic Park – Drouin
3. Drouin’s floral emblem- The
Ficifolia                    
4. Dairy Industry
5. Natural
bushland                                                  
6. Koorie population
7. Our schools heritage listed Administration Building.

Students drew and combined many ideas until final designs were established. The Wall Hanging was divided
into six panels surrounded by a snake.

Each panel was made separately using felt and Supertac on a hessian background, and then all the panels
were sewn onto polycotton with the snake as a border.

The students are extremely proud of their work and the Wall Hanging will become a vibrant and important
display in our new senior building. However the process of the children really thinking about what
Drouin means to them as a place to live was the most significant benefit
of this project. It
highlighted for the non-Koorie students the relationship you can have with where you live.

Drouin Primary School