PHOTO: L-R: Russell Reynolds, Keith Glover, Matt Kennedy, Gabe Wiggins, Stewart Vidler, Farran Darcy, James Scott, David Mayne, Sooty Welsh and Jackie Harris with the high school’s new peace pole.
By OLIVER BROWN
LOCAL public schools in Coonamble hope to promote a message of peace between all cultures through the installation of peace poles on their campus frontages.
The poles – which display the message ‘May Peace Prevail on Earth’ in English and other languages – have been donated by the local Rotary Club.
Coonamble Rotary President Jackie Harris said the two poles have come all the way from Canberra and are the first to be installed in both the local cluster and the western part of Rotary District 9650.
“This all came about after Amanda Reid visited the primary school for the bike program with the SBS. Michael (Rabey) from the Canberra Burley Griffin Rotary Club contacted me after seeing our connection with the school and asked if we could put some peace poles in to commemorate 100 years of Rotary,” Ms Harris said.
“The Canberra Burley Griffin Rotary Club and World Peace Bell Association started off only wanting to get 100 poles into schools and now they’re trying to put one in every school.”
“We involved the ‘Bro Speak’ boys at Coonamble Public School as part of a project to help put the pole in there which is number 197.”
“Then I got in touch with the Kings Street College boys to put the 206th pole into the high school.”
According to Ms Harris, there over 200,000,000 of these peace poles around the world and are uniquely designed by those who install them.
“On the primary school one, Willy Ferguson has done the Aboriginal painting while our Aboriginal language teacher Jo Lee and Aunty Brenda have translated the phrases ‘walking softly on Gamilaraay land’ and ‘dreaming on Weilwan land’ into the local languages to go on the poles,” she said.
“Our club has also put our own inscription on it to represent our club and what Rotary does all over the world which says ‘may there be peace and harmony in our community, our country and our world.”
Ms Harris extended her appreciation to school principals Annette Thomson and Stewart Vidler for being a part of the Rotary community.
Mr Vidler said he was on board from the start as soon as they approached him.
“I love the fact they’ve gone for a collaborative go at the pole with our Kings Street boys providing the art under Sooty (Welsh’s) guidance, the use of different languages and of course the message is the right one,” he said.
“The message of peace is one we tend to forget easily because we’ve enjoyed it for such a long time but certainly it’s one worth repeating.”
Mr Vidler said the placement of their pole out the front of the school was also intentional.
“We’re very proud of our front garden at the school so to have another point of interest and something that speaks about what we’re about is very important,” he said.
“I hope when people come to our school now, they take a moment to read and appreciate the art because it’s rare and unique for Coonamble.”