World Refugee Day Youth Art Exhibition Flies Into Wellington Central Library

A colourful display of kites will fly over the ground floor of Wellington’s Central Library for a week in June. Refugee background students from St Catherine’s College, Kilbirnie and Hutt Valley High School have collaborated with Year 9 students at Queen Margaret College to create the vibrant display of artwork. Ten youth from Ethiopia, Iraq, Syria and Sri Lanka recently participated in an art workshop at Queen Margaret College resulting in the creation of these unique kites that will be displayed on the Mezzanine Bridge at Central Library. The exhibition, entitled ‘Get to Know Me – What it Means to be a Refugee’, will be on display from 15-22 June, 2016 with an opening reception on Thursday 16 June, 6:30pm. All are welcome to attend.

The annual project, now in its sixth year, was facilitated by Refugee Trauma Recovery in conjunction with Queen Margaret College, and coincides with World Refugee Day on 20 June 2016, a day dedicated to raising awareness of the situation of refugees throughout the world. The students are guided each year by a theme which is set by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. The 2016 theme is ‘Get to Know Me / We Stand Together #With Refugees. We hope to engage and educate those who have limited or no understanding about refugees and to make the refugee experience a little more tangible and accessible for the public.

Refugee Trauma Recovery (RTR) is a regional, specialist mental health service for refugees who have experienced trauma and torture. Additionally RTR offers a number of community programmes designed to help former refugees settle into their lives in New Zealand.

ENDS

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