Highfields State School students craft work of hope for November Takatsuki Art Festival entry

Ron McBurnie Ghosts 2024 painting

Highfields State School students have completed an artwork symbolising hope, which will be sent to Toowoomba’s Japanese Sister City of Takatsuki for its annual arts fair in November.

Toowoomba Regional Council Economic Development portfolio spokesperson Cr Edwina Farquhar said the students’ 2.5 metre by 3.5 metre canvas was titled, Our Connection to Country.

Cr Farquhar said members of the school’s NAIDOC Club, comprising Indigenous students and their friends, were inspired by nature and their connection to the land.

“The canvas incorporates Indigenous symbols, representing meeting places, water, animals, human tracks and waterholes,” Cr Farquhar said.

The work also draws on sunrises, oceans, sitting around campfires and the hopeful feeling of being in nature. The Highfields State School mascot and local area totem, the eagle, also inspires students to fly high in all that they do.

Cr Farquhar said Highfields State School had entered the 2019 Takatsuki Art Festival, which was followed by the formation of a Sister School relationship with Takatsuki’s Gunge Elementary School during an October 2023 online ceremony.

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