Ellen José Student Reconciliation Awards 2023

Ellen José Student Reconciliation Awards

The Ellen José Student Reconciliation Awards honour the life of Torres Strait Elder Ellen José (1951 - 2017). Ellen was a pioneer in Australia's urban Indigenous art movement and a radical activist and social justice campaigner. Her contribution to the arts and Bayside was outstanding and inspirational in raising awareness of reconciliation.

Established in 2018, the Ellen José Student Reconciliation Awards are aimed at Bayside primary and secondary school students, bringing awareness of reconciliation to our young people, who are the future of Australia, through art and writing. Entrants are asked to interpret "As a young person, what does reconciliation mean to you?" in their artwork or writing piece.

Now in their fifth year, the awards reflect Ellen Jose’s inspirational commitment to building awareness of reconciliation in Bayside and beyond.

The Ellen José Memorial Foundation supports the Awards. 

Award Entries 

Primary school students were invited to create an artwork interpreting "As a young person, what does reconciliation mean to you?".
 

Ellen José Student Reconciliation Awards 2023 Entries: Prep to Year 3

Ellen José Student Reconciliation Awards 2023 Entries: Years 4 to 6

Award Finalists

We are pleased to announce the finalists chosen and given by the Ellen Jose Memorial Foundation.  

The twenty-one finalist artworks and written pieces will be displayed at the Bayside Corporate Centre, 76 Royal Avenue Sandringham from 19 May to 28 July.
 
Winners will be announced on Saturday 27 May to mark Reconciliation Week 2023. 

Reconciliation Week is held on 27 May - 3 June each year, commemorating two significant reconciliation milestones — the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.

Award Winners

Prep – Grade 3 Winners

Iona J, Hampton Primary School – 1^st Place

Image credit: Iona J, Hampton Primary School

Cormac E, St Finbars Primary School – 2^nd Place

Oscar F, Brighton Beach Primary School – 3^rd Place
 

Grade 4 – 6 Winners

Lola F, Black Rock Primary School – 1^st Place

Image credit: Lola F, Black Rock Primary School. 

Lily C, Hampton Primary School – 2^nd Place

Ada L, Hampton Primary School – 3^rd Place
 

Secondary School Winner - written piece

Pierce L, Beaumaris Secondary College 

Imagine what it’s like finding a land that you claimed
A land you made home, settled down and named

A land that contained its beauty and vitality
Where people and animals were at peace, so natural and free

Transformed to a conveyer-belt concrete factory
No time to think intuitively

Imagine what it’s like finding a land you claimed
A land you made home, settled down and named

Transformed to a conveyer-belt concrete factory
No time to think intuitively

Why do the first people of this land have to feel unease?
I feel ashamed we ignored the laws of water, land and trees

They treated this land with love, the land they obtained
If you believe pain is having an ankle sprained

How about feeling betrayed?
The people who raised our land remain changed
It seems so cruel, yet unexplained
They never had the freedom to complain
Having no rights is how it feels to be locked up, even chained

There was never a hooray for the people who lived here first
And their culture was hidden or forgotten at worst

I watch the traffic whizzing past
above the sky is overcast

I gaze out of my window and think of my fate
I wonder why it’s so hard to reconciliate.
 

Ellen José Student Reconciliation Awards 2023 Finalists: Prep to Grade 3