Awards:
Community Event of the Year 2023 (Charles Sturt Council)
South Australia’s Community Event of the Year 2023

The My Tree Project is a 2021-22 initiative that invites children from two western suburbs primary schools to grow a tree at their school or home, as well as create an artwork about what a tree means to them. Sponsored by SA Water and supported by WACRA, the project aims to empower children to play an active role in dealing with the challenges of climate change, adding to tree canopy in the western suburbs and creating a cooler and healthier environment into the future.

From propagating a seed in November 2021 to planting the tree mid-2022, children gain a greater understanding of biodiversity, indigenous plants and sustainability, and learn how to connect with nature and be waterwise. A forum with specialist groups (Green Adelaide, SA Water, Trees for Life, etc) for teachers and students from participating schools (Kilkenny and West Beach) was held in late 2021.

Artwork

Early to mid-2022, students create the artworks (drawings, paintings, films, songs, dance etc) using paint, pencils, chalk, pastels, cut-outs, air dry clay, wire, textiles, bark, or other materials of their choice. Selected artworks will be exhibited at the Charles Sturt Civic Centre (Woodville Road) during the South Australian Living Artists (SALA) festival in August. The exhibition launch is to be held Friday 29 July, Schools Tree Day, by invitation only. Other venues will be the schools and the Civic Centre Library.

The team

Julie Whitehead: project coordinator
Andrea Rankin: promotional materials
Lara Lamnek, Marg Easson: artists running workshops
Steve Fuller, Deidre Knight: plant selection and planting workshops

Thank yous

Charles Sturt Council staff, Sally Denton and other staff (SA Water), Fawn Cooper (donor), the Lamnek family, Lisa Savchuk (artist), Fernando Gonçalves, Marty Cielens, Richard Smith, principals and deputy principals of the two primary schools involved, Croydon Officeworks, Henley Beach Foodland, Peter Malinauskas’ Office staff

Contact

Julie Whitehead (project coordinator): 0433 289 716

Resources

See My Tree Project: multimedia resources for a range of visual resources generated by the project in 2021-22.