New mural for Warrawong

The library wall at Warrawong High School has undergone a facelift with the recent completion of a mural exploring Indigenous culture and history.
Teachers’ aid and former student, Jasmine Sarin, designed the mural as part of NAIDOC week.
“I wanted to do something for NAIDOC week, so I ran a painting workshop,” Ms Sarin said.
“Then the school asked us if we wanted to paint the side of the library. I thought ‘wow, that’s pretty big’.”
NAIDOC originally stood for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, but the acronym has now become the name of the week itself.
The week aims to celebrate the culture, history and achievements of Indigenous Australians.
Warrawong High School’s mural was painted by some of the school’s business and visual arts students.
Ms Sarin, an Indigenous Australian, said she designed the mural to the theme of past, present and future.
“I used a timeline to illustrate the big events and issues for Indigenous Australians,” Ms Sarin said. “I also got the students to paint what they think of when they hear the term ‘Indigenous Australians’.
“I didn’t know what it was going to look like when I started out, and it’s turned out better than I thought. The students are really happy with it and the teachers love it.”
As well as improving the aesthetics of the library wall, Ms Sarin said the mural had proven to be educational with a number of the students taking a keen interest in the painting.
“A lot of the students and even some of the teachers have asked ‘what does this mean’,” she said. “We have the reconciliation flag up there and many people did not even know it existed.
“I think it will definitely become part of the school’s history curriculum so I’m pretty happy with that.”
Ms Sarin said there were between 20 and 30 Indigenous students at Warrawong High School.