Meekatharra’s spectacular new mural was launched today, as part of the NAIDOC celebrations.
Funded by the Shire of Meekatharra and RAC, with support from Youth Focus Meekatharra and Meekatharra District High School, the mural was developed by the Year 7 and 8 students of Ms Jacky’s class, with valuable help from the local community. The mural came to life through precious stories of Community Elders.
Miss Jacky’s Year 7 & 8 students tell the story of the mural:
Over the years, we often hear stories of Meekatharra’s history and significant moments of times that shaped how Meeka is today. We listened to Elders – Pops, Nans, Mums, Dads, Uncles and Aunties – to try and capture how they remember certain transitions of Meekatharra.
Our piece starts off 65,000 years ago, when a baby is born with country pure and undisturbed. A Mum and Dad sit around a fire as their baby sleeps with the Seven Sisters star constellation above them. Our beautiful granite rocks stand tall and proud in the background.
Slowly we move on to our stations period. We often hear about how families grew up working on the stations. I don’t think you would find a family in town who doesn’t have some history on a station. We look at the importance of pastoral stations and how it brought new life to a little town. We included animals that you might often see in and around Meekatharra.
Next, is our steam train history and how the train would come up to Meekatharra before trucks took over. We have the Afghan camels to remember their movements along the Canning Stock Route and to them resting at a camel soak outside of town after their long journeys. We have the state battery tower that was relocated to Main Street in 1994.
The colourful tin houses known as Rainbow City acknowledge how Aboriginal families were relocated to a reserve on the outskirts of town where many of our Grandparents grew up on.
Lastly, we have our Elder spirit watching over Our Meeka as it is today. We included our iconic water tank, post office and Lloyd’s building.
Our town has a unique history and if you search for stories of its history, you will find the voice of our Elders. We wanted to acknowledge moments and things that mean a lot to many families who have and continue to live in Meekatharra.
We didn’t find this information in books – we found it through patience, asking and listening.
