Children paint a sad picture of our apathy

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
22 August 2004

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Children paint a sad picture of our apathy

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Children paint a sad picture of our apathy

CRUEL MEMORIES: A detail from one of the images on display at the exhibition at Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney. It is open until September 28.

By PATTY FAWKNER SGS

THE title for this exhibition describes it as “daily life and events as depicted by children in detention”. I would like you to imagine that we were gathered not for this exhibition, but for another exhibition of daily life and events as depicted by the children of Monte Sant Angelo up the road or the kids at Shore College next door. What daily life and events might we expect to see – kids sending text messages to each other, sports events, hanging out with friends, birthday celebrations, exams. The normal stuff of life.

Here we have an exhibition which is disturbingly abnormal. It is an exhibition of lost childhood.

The paintings in this exhibition remind me of a detainee I have befriended from Woomera. I started writing to Laila (not her real name) over two years ago. Laila wrote in her first letter:

“My name is Laila and I am 12 years old. My mother too old and for many times she wanted to kill herself because she and my family very tied why we should stay more than 13 month in detention. You know my mother at the moment she is in the hospital. I am very worry about my mother. Most of the time I am crying. I like to get visa soon and with my family go outside and have good life together.”

And several months later.

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