BERRI Preschool unveiled a special new feature on its premise recently, thanks to the creative work of a local Aboriginal artist.
Renmark High School Aboriginal secondary education transition officer Daniel Giles painted an Aboriginal-inspired mural at Berri Preschool recently, to represent the kindergarten and its students.
The project, which began in term one this year and was completed last holidays, was funded by the preschool from a grant they received for literacy and numeracy funding to support Aboriginal students on site.
Preschool director Katrina Papageorgios said she sparked the idea of having a mural painted at the school after she had seen the work Mr Giles did at Renmark High School.
“The mural at the high school looked amazing and as soon as I saw it, I brought Daniel on board,” she said.
“The preschool funded all the art supplies through the grant we received but unfortunately the project took longer than anticipated, due to COVID.”
Mrs Papageorgios described the mural as “amazing”.
“Daniel came to the preschool before he started and spoke to the kids about what they would like to see painted on the mural,” she said.
“The kids wanted turtles and fish and Daniel did an amazing job incorporating that in his work.
“Our next project would be to create a meeting circle in front of the mural, a bit like a fire-pit where kids can gather together and tell stories.
“Hopefully we can get Daniel back again next year to help us out.”
Mr Giles said it was an honour to paint the mural.
“I love the escape of painting and I loved working with the kids to create something,” he said.
“We chose the colours we did because in the Riverland, it’s those colours that stand out most.
“The three fish on the left-hand-side of the mural represent the three-year-old kids at the preschool and the four on the right represent the four-year-old kids. The turtle and its seven patches represent the seven educators at the preschool and all the sea creatures are swimming upstream towards success.”