Mandurah students create puppet for Stretch Arts Festival 2015

The skeleton of the bird is made of rattan and was mounted on two long poles attached to a harness so it can fly through the air in a performance event.

The year nine stage craft class worked hard during the past few months to complete the bird’s frame.

Year 11 and 12 vocational education and training students will also help with technical aspects of the performance.

The bird will join six other big puppets and about 30 smaller ones for the Mandjar Dreaming Sunset Opening Event for Stretch Fest on May 1.

All of the puppets were inspired by animals in the region and traditional Indigenous stories.

Creative director and professional puppetry artist Karen Hethey said the students had done a brilliant job on the puppet.

“The next step will be covering the puppet and doing rehearsals to bring them to life,” Karen said.

“I’ve worked closely with members of the Noongar community such as George Walley and Barbara Pickett to create this performance.”

Coodanup College students Stephanie Jackson and Jasmine Gaugg said working on the project had been a fun experience.

“We started with straight pieces of rattan and you had to rub it to warm it up so it would bend,” Stephanie said.

Both the students took turns walking with the harness on and said it wasn’t heavy and they were looking forward to the performance.

There is a workshop for young people who want to help create more puppets from 4-8pm tonight at Billy Dower Youth Centre.

Each Sunday from 10am-4pm there are also workshops at Community First International for anyone who wants to help build the puppets.

The workshop will be at Community First, 6 Cumberland Street, Mandurah and is designed so participants can drop in during the day whenever they are available.

It is best suited for people over the age of 12 and adult supervision is recommended for younger puppeteers.

Participants should wear enclosed