Marie McEntee: The Container Art Project – Part 1

As environmental sustainability is an intergenerational issue, it is critical that children have voice and agency in environmental issues that are of importance to them. Kauri Park School in Auckland New Zealand, felt disconnected from a local forest park after it was closed due to the presence of a forest disease affecting kauri – the giants of the forest. In this article, action researcher Marie McEntee talks about how a team of university researchers partnered with the Kauri Park School engaging them in graffiti art on two large dilapidated shipping containers to foster students’ voice and agency to act for the trees. By using the creative arts to enable the children to be environmental communicators, it was hoped the children and their community would be able to reconnect with the forest. In Part 1 Marie describes the foundations on which the relationship with the School, and children was established and maintained, and the processes that were developed to foster a genuine child-centred approach to the engagement that stimulated the children’s imagination and creativity.