Kempsey South Public School first in nationwide theatre program

Puppets in trees, animal costumes and a giant praying mantis were some of the student-made creations on display in the "Totems: Animal Adventures" performance at the school on Friday, September 8.

The performance was made with Polyglot Theatre artists Blayne Welsh and Tamara Rewse who have been visiting and creating with students since last year.

The school was chosen as the first to take part in the program, which plans to go nationwide.

"It's a new work we're hoping to roll out to school all over Australia in regional communities with a big First Nations student population," Polyglot producer Julie Wright said.

Students from kindergarten to Year six narrated, performed and made puppets to tell a story written by Mr Welsh about the praying mantis welcoming dogs, snakes, bandicoots and eventually magpies into their community.

"The story that I wrote...was all based on some of the creative play we did," Mr Walsh said.

"Everything you see was made by the kids."

After the story a recording of students talking about their community was played with each sharing the importance of Dunghutti culture, land and stories.

The performance was met with cheers and a few tears from the crowd including from school Principal Paul Byrne.

"It's great," he said.

"I think initially [the students] were a bit hesitant,"

"But I think the first visits set the foundation for what's happened this year...and they've been a bit more willing to get involved because they've realised they're capable of doing it."

Performance also coincided with the 2024 school plan which is about to be written.

"We'll have a bit of Creative and Performing Arts focus," Mr Byrne said.

"Knowing the kids are capable of doing that sort of stuff is going to drive the school so it's great."

The performance was especially special for Mr Welsh who is a Wailwan man and descendant of the Stolen Generation.

"I'm really interesting in positioning commuity first in my theatre practice," he said.

"I wanted to look at a way of how do we use this to elevate and help communities that don't necessarily have the same access to arts programs as urban areas.

"And maybe don't have the same access to culture and connection to our local community."

Two of Mr Welsh's uncles are Kinchella Boys Home survivors and through his work with the Kinchella Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation, he was able to connect with Kempsey South Public School.

"This school does amazing work with culture so the kids had so much they could tell us about the community...and they were really driving that themselves," he said.

"Not every school has access to culture and a connection to the First Nations Country they're part of.

"This [program] gives us a safe play space that we can let them explore."

While the giant praying mantis will be remaining at the school, some of the creations from the performance will be shown to other schools involved in the program.

"As we go from nation to nation... we're going to be building a repertoire of all the sharings and putting it together as something we can take around the nation to introduce everybody to everyone else," Mr Welsh.

"We'll be taking bits and pieces including the voices so it becomes a representative of Kempsey South Public school, Kempsey itself and Dunghutti country."

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