The Boat Project
2007
Collingwood, Melbourne, Australia
Paper and mixed media
The ‘Boat Project’ was run with a group of migrant and refugee ESL students. The boats were made for the celebration of International Day at Collingwood and in the City of Melbourne. Incorporated into their boats were images and mementoes from their past (their homelands), present (Australia) and they contained wishes and hopes for the future. They were decorated with words from a diversity of languages, drawings, feathers, shells, flowers and maps. They were filled with rice and the students lit candles and floated them in their boats on a pool of water. Many of the participants had arrived in Australia fairly recently and had very little English and low literacy in their own languages.