WAIKERIE and Renmark students got up-close-and-personal with reptiles of all kinds last week at a series of workshops held in conjunction with the 2020 SALA Festival.
Inspired by SALA exhibition Reptile Wonder, by Liz and Clint Frankel and Charles Tambiah, school groups had the opportunity to get up close and personal with reptiles, learn about their lives and habitats, and create artwork on what they learned.
Six workshops were held across two days at the Waikerie Primary School and Chaffey Theatre, with 30 attendees at each two-hour workshop.
Adrien Sherriff of Animals Anonymous and Daniel Salida of the Adelaide Zoo brought in snakes, lizards, crocodiles and turtles for the attendees to gently handle while leading a presentation on the animals’ lives and habitats.
Mr Sherriff, who started Animals Anonymous 15 years ago, said he “always enjoys” making trips to the Riverland.
“It’s great engaging with kids from the country because they already have experiences with wildlife that they want to share,” he said.
“They’re already familiar with the animals but they still love the chance to see them up close and get involved with the demonstrations.
“Animals Anonymous has a mobile team, and we love getting all over SA to various events and schools.”
Australian National University herpetologist Charles Tambiah held a presentation on photographing animals in their native habitat, and said the workshops were a “great opportunity” to break down the barrier between art and science.
“Science and art enable each other, but a lot of people will only lean towards one or the other,” Mr Tambiah said.
“With these workshops, it was a great way to bring students who are more science-focused into the art side of viewing animals, and vice versa.
“Reptiles are on the lower end of the popularity totem, so conditioning this respect and getting the students to understand them in turn makes them less scared, and they in turn try to educate their parents and others around them.”
Riverland West Landcare funded the workshops through the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board.
RWL project co-ordinator said the workshops were a “huge collaboration” between groups and individuals in the Riverland and Adelaide.
“It’s fantastic to see big collaborative events like this receive the positive feedback we’ve heard from all the attendees,” she said.
“The students got really involved, and even those who said they didn’t want to make anything in the art workshops ended up getting really enthused about it.
“There were a lot of people involved in putting this together, and I thank all of them, including Cindy Kakoschke, Charles Tambiah, Liz and Clint Frankel, everyone at the primary schools and Chaffey Theatre, and of course Adrian and Dan and their amazing reptiles.”
For more information about Animals Anonymous, including entertainment and workshops, visit www.animalsanonymous.com.au/.