At the end of June I spent three days working with some children in their last year of primary school to leave some environmental art in the schools grounds, marking their time at their school, on an Australian theme. I suggested we make some aboriginal style ancestor poles, and fill them with holes for insects to winter in, and paint them with clay based paints made from earth from the holes in the ground the poles were going to go into. I harvested a sweet chestnut pole about 40ft high from a coppice and chopped it into three lengths about 9-12ft long. We stripped most of the bark off. Each child had an area to work on and leave mark in their own way, using rasps, drills, chisels and paints.
We had a ceremony at the end where pupils posted rolls of paper into a series of holes high on the tallest pole. the strips of paper had something the person was grateful for from their time at school, and something they hoped for in the future.
It was a huge success. Here is the slideshow of images.