Child's eye view of floods
AN exhibition of Goodna State School students at Queensland Museum has allowed people to see the devastation of last year's floods through a child's eyes.
Seventeen drawings created by the students weeks after the flood that swept through their community last year will be showcased for the next month at the Collectors Café in the museum. Queensland Museum's Suzanne Misso, who curated the exhibition, said the museum was "committed to co-curating with communities like Goodna".
"Their stories are the most important thing that we can display and exhibit as part of the Queensland Museum, so that the people in those communities feel like they have some ownership of the space and that they can share their stories with people coming through," she said.
"The kids from Goodna come from diverse cultures and backgrounds and they are the kind of stories that we want to have here in the museum, particularly after some of the adversity their families have gone through. The bravery that comes through in those drawings is remarkable."
Ms Misso said it was important that the stories came from the children themselves, rather than some authority. "This is the children telling us rather than the other way around," she said.
Many children will be visiting the museum during this time with school holidays on. "The kids coming through have been really interested to see the work," Ms Misso said.
John Schoonbeek, whose 10-year-old daughter Mareska has a drawing on display, said it was "fantastic what the museum did for the kids". Mareska's picture was inspired when the helicopters flew over Goodna to search for people during the floods.
While the family was not flooded out, Mr Schoonbeek said the waters "came very close" to their home.
"These pictures allow people to see what happened through a child's eyes," he said.
"We saw the devastation and it was all over the news so it was quite distressing to my kids.
"It was important the kids were able to express themselves and put it on paper and all of them did it extremely well.
"The children were all very excited and proud to have their works on display.
Mr Schoonbeek, who is also a teacher's aide at Goodna State School, said the school and community were brought together after the floods.
"In the aftermath people from all walks of life came together and the community became stronger through it," he said.
