Finding our warra (voice)

For every child, every right

World Children's Day is celebrated on November 20th each year, promoting togetherness and awareness among children worldwide, where children raise their voices on the issues that matter to their generation (United Nations, 2023).

For every child, a voice

Capturing warra (voice) takes many forms. Within our Children's Program, educators and children shifted their lens and decided to challenge how they see and listen to warra (voice) using multi-modal experiences – pastels, paint, clay, acrylic paints, map making, music and movement.

"I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for" - Wisteria child.

Art enables children to express, in a non-verbal way, understandings, emotions and interpretations of their world. They took time to think about what their voice would look like – what colour, what shape – and linked this to lived experiences.

In the Wisteria room, educators and children have been delving into the idea of warra (voice) as a continuation of their reconciliation journey and learning about The Uluru Statement from the Heart. The children talked about the importance of being heard and how it feels when others ignore, interrupt, or doubt their words. The children expressed emotions such as frustration, anger, sadness, and hurt, which they believed would be relatable to the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

This links to the work we have been doing on truth-telling and how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples voices have not had the space or opportunity to be heard with the respect they deserve; and how some voices can overshadow the truth of others.

The educators and children took time to reflect on their voice, its different aspects, and how their voice has power even when they don’t think it does. During one provocation the children were asked to think about their angry voice and how it would look if they had to draw it. They used words such as “spikey”, “sharp”, “rough”, and “loud”.

They thought about how voices have the power to harm or help and how respectful expression of voice gives more opportunity for their own and others’ voices to be heard.

“When our voices are heard it makes us feel happy, joyful, good” – Melaleuca child

This ongoing learning experience has been scaffolded gradually to fully explore the concept of respect for voice and its importance. For the Wisteria children, it culminated in a collaborative learning experience to represent every child's voice. The beautiful collaborative painting by the children represents what Country means to them and why taking care of Country is important.