In late July and early August 2023, Meredith Costain and Andrew Plant travelled to Cape York Peninsula in far north Queensland to run writing and illustraton workshops at Hope Vale, Weipa and Mapoon.
These workshops were proudly supported and funded by METRO MINING, and we appreciate their generous assistance.
Meredith and Andrew flew from Melbourne to Cairns, followed by another flight in a tiny plane to Cooktown. The following day they drove further north to the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy in Hope Vale, to present workshops to students from Prep to Year Six.
After taking another couple of flights they spent four days working with the students from Western Cape College, at both the Weipa campus and in Mapoon, an hour further up the coast.
Meredith, who worked with students from Prep to Year 3 at all three schools, was delighted by their enthusiasm for language and stories. The kids had fun writing a group poem about dogs, then creating their own poems featuring favourite animals. They also enjoyed acting out one of her picture books about Australian animals, which led into an art activity featuring local animals.
Andrew worked with the Year 4-6s, creating group stories that would begin with a very ordinary situation, and rapidly spiral out of control! A key element was that the stories all happened in Cape York, with characters and situations unique to their very special part of the world. The students then began planning how to illustrate their story.
Both challenged by the particular needs of students in remote areas, and impressed by their abilities, Andrew and Meredith are grateful to Metro Mining for providing the opportunity to work with them.
