LEFT : SCOTCH BOYS MADE THEIR MARK ON THE MURAL . SMALL IMAGE , FAR LEFT : SCOTCH BOYS GOING FOR A MAMARK ( THE WORD FOR ‘ CATCH ’ IN GUNDIT- JAMARA LANGUAGE ) WHILE PLAYING MARNGROOK AT HALF- TIME DURING THE 2019 CORDNER-EGGLESTON CUP MATCH . THIS PHOTO : THE MURAL WAS PAINTED ON TEMPORARY HOARDINGS SURROUNDING THE KEON-COHEN DINING HALL BUILDING SITE
Over the following weeks , Scotch ’ s Indigenous students , as well as the school ’ s IPP students , added their own messages and images , working collaboratively to create layers of meaning with an overall aesthetic of restless and rebellious energy .
The mural was an instant hit with students , who enjoyed this burst of enthusiastic and spontaneous expression in the middle of their school grounds . Many staff and parents also enjoyed the mural which spread the message of ‘ marngrook ’ as a contemporary use of language in concrete poetry form . Not one piece of unauthorised graffiti was added to the mural .
The school fully embraced the idea of marngrook . In May that year , we enjoyed the spectacle of watching a genuine game of marngrook played at half-time in the Cordner-Eggleston Cup game . The students of the IPP had learned the game from historian Jim Poulter , who also commentated the action to the large crowd on the day . He passed on interesting insights about the game of marngrook and its links to AFL football .
In the crowd that day was Gil McLachlan , the then CEO of the AFL . Two weeks after viewing the game of marngrook played by the boys of the IPP , he made a speech about Adam Goodes , where it was mentioned that the AFL game has clear links to the Indigenous game of marngrook .
This signalled a change in position of the governing body . It is interesting to note that many museums such as the National Museum of Australia still suggest that any links between the two games are purely coincidental .
The mural was salvaged from the building site and stored until an appropriate location was found for it to be put on permanent display . The renovated corridor of the Language Building was chosen in 2022 , and after curatorial and installation considerations were completed , it was installed with the expert help of John Kuzma in March 2023 .
As an ephemeral piece of artwork on a building site hoarding , there are many signs of decay and damage . However this mural is presented almost entirely intact , an impressive relic of a historically significant moment in Scotch history .
YUDHA SCHOLES – HEAD OF ART , CURATOR SCOTCH ART COLLECTION www . scotch . vic . edu . au Great Scot 57