Island kids get to the art of the matter
01.12.2004
THE children of Palm Island reclaimed their school yesterday, returning to the classrooms that had been turned into a makeshift headquarters for riot police when the community descended into anarchy and the courthouse and police station were razed.
While the 80 police from mainland Queensland restored order to the troubled island, many of the young children were picking up the pieces yesterday, coming to terms with what they witnessed last Friday.
As islanders remained locked up in cells in Townsville awaiting trial over the riot sparked by an Aboriginal death in custody, counsellors tried to help the children deal with their fears and nightmares.
But the trouble has far from abated. Yesterday, Aboriginal leader Murrandoo Yanner, a relative of the dead man, Cameron Doomadgee, incited others to seek retaliation against police.
``When someone's killed, someone must be killed in return,'' he said, as he prepared to travel to the island for the funeral.
``If this policeman isn't punished, jailed or charged with murder, under the law, if you can't get one policeman, you get another.''
While police were alarmed by the comments, many of the adults on the island were more concerned about what the children had already experienced.
School counsellor Debbie Pennington briefed teachers yesterday on signs to look for to indicate that staff or students were suffering trauma from the incident.
Several were in homes that were raided at the weekend by tactical response group police decked out in helmets, balaclavas, shields and carrying automatic rifles and shotguns, and where their family members were arrested.
Ms Pennington, who will spend each day this week with the students, said it was important for them to ``talk about their experiences, to get it out''.
``Then we looked at how we are now safe and how to return Palm Island to a happy place,'' she said.
``I got the children to talk about how the bomb is not Palm Island -- it is a happy place.
``What underpins my work is kindling resilience, and kids naturally express themselves through play and art.''
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She then showed the artwork the children had done that day when invited to tell of their weekend -- ``and almost all drew what they saw or heard in the riots''.
The most poignant message on one showing a building with flames was: ``We saw the police station burn. I want people to have love.''
Others included: ``I saw the petrol bomb; I saw the police station burn and people swearing; all the people were there when the police station burnt.''
School principal Mike Hobbs, who is proud of getting the school back into full operation so quickly, said it was not possible to photograph the artwork because the children's names were on them.
He said there were now no teachers who refused to return to the school, which has a total of 50 indigenous and 27 non-indigenous staff for the 350 students taught to grade 10.
Ms Pennington said she normally flew to Palm Island from Townsville six days a month, but said that, following Friday's trauma, she was now there every day.
``I have to help students and staff understand what they saw -- to restore the sense of safety with the event now over and reduce on-going trauma associated with that sort of experience,'' she said.
``The majority of the pictures show the burning down of the station which happened in the children's lunch hour. They witnessed it.
``I asked them what things they had witnessed over the last couple of days on Palm Island and then asked them to draw pictures of what they had seen.
``We looked at the pictures, shared stories and how we were now safe.
``They seem quite happy. I think we are getting back to normal and, with teachers they know around, it makes them feel safe. If they are sad, they have their teachers and aunties to go to.
``They need to sense that things are back to normal. This is powerful naive artistry.''
Mr Hobbs, who has been principal for three years, said he considered it important that the school re-open quickly so that the students could be de-briefed and get back to ``some normality''
