Drawing Us Together - Winner Announcement

Gateway Plaza is on wadawurrung country, we pay our respect to the traditional owners, their elders past & present, and value their care and custodianship of these lands.

To celebrate NAIDOC Week 2023, we partnered with author Bianca Stawiarski, and our local schools to create a community story book. Bianca Stawiarski is a Badimaya Badimia and Ukrainian woman from South Australia, Bianca is a coach, speaker, lecturer, best-selling and international author.

The story ‘Gami Winda and Dyindi Dyndi’, is based on the 2023 NAIDOC Message ‘For Our Elders’, focusing on listening and connecting to country and discovering the stories of your elders.

Throughout the July School Holidays, we invited you, our much-loved Secret Harbour community, to have your say and vote on your favourite of 70 illustrations created by local student artists to be featured in the community storybook. We received overwhelming support with 299 votes over the three-week period and thank all the talented student artists who contributed illustrations.

WINNING ILLUSTRATIONS
Front Cover Willow Womersley
Page 5 Nevaeh Fielding
Page 6 Pippa Monaghan
Page 9 Poppy Marsh
Page 10 Lachlan Brislane
Page 13 Indi Hovancek
Page 14 Archie Moore
Page 17 Maeve Joyce
Page 18 Lani Womersley
Page 21 Connor Parry
Page 22 Finn Puckey
Page 25 Zoe West
Page 26 Willow Womersley

Commencing in 2020, The Drawing Us Together project is now in its fourth year. We are honoured to have worked with generations of students and four incredible authors on this project. Discover the audio books of previous editions:

2023 Edition - Gami Winda and Dyindi Dyndi by Bianca Stawiarski
2022 Edition – Being a Big Brother by Alton Walley
2021 Edition – Dancing for Country by Maree Yoelu (McCarthy)
2020 Edition – Pindan Dream Princess by Sylvia Lockyer

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