Children and young people attached to the Njernda Foster Care Program were invited earlier this year to design imagery to form the basis for a new logo for the programs.
“We thought going back to the kids who are in care or who have had that experience would be the best way to identify what our logo and imagery should look like,” Foster Care Recruitment and Assessment worker Sharyn Kelly said.
“We asked for the artwork from our community to reflect on our own philosophy: Keeping Kids on Country, and the designs we’ve had submitted are really beautiful artworks,” she said.
“But it’s probably the thought behind them that carry the most meaning. We’ve chosen two designs to use, and both of the young artists have really thought about the spirit and intent of our programs.”
Turtle design:
From the artist: “The artwork depicts the Yorta Yorta totem, the Turtle. On the back of the turtle you can see two rings. On the outer ring you can see the symbol for people going around the shell and on the inside you can see a loose representation of the three rivers with three people of different sizes (you can see them as children, adults, and teenagers.) They are holding hands, to anyone else they look as if they're separated by the waters but they are in fact connected to it, the land, the water and each other feeling healed by the land and one another by being on Country.”
On Country design:
From the artist: “My entry is to help remember Our People, Our Knowledge. I chose colours that would represent both the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait Islander Flag, as well as using an outline of our beautiful country and deliver a meaning to them. The colours for the Torres Strait Islander Flag represent unity and identity, but I chose to use the blue colour to represent knowledge, our wisdom as well as our inspiration. The green represents our nature, our growth and harmony. While the white represents the stars. As a child I was told to aim for the moon and even if you miss you will fall amongst the stars. This quote gave me encouragement to complete My Year 12 Certificate and enter this competition. The colours on the Aboriginal flag represent the people, our sun and the red earth. In this case, these colours have more meaning than they already do. Black represents our power and our strength, Yellow represents remembrance and our loyalty to our country. Lastly, red represents using our leadership and courage to set an example for the younger generations.”
“The designs will be used by the Njernda Foster Care team to strongly identify our programs, and strengthen the cultural safety of our service,” Ms Kelly said.
“We are always looking for new carers from all sorts of backgrounds in our Echcua-Moama communities who can support us in our key goal of providing safe, supportive care that keeps our Aboriginal children and young people on Country,” she said.
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