Ex-Woodridge State School student Katty Okeny was 11-years-old when she painted The Right to Clean Water.
A decade later her artwork is featured in an exhibition highlighting childhood stories at The Living Museum of Logan.
Ms Okeny, now 21, was completely unaware her painting had been preserved.
“I was really surprised – I feel seen and I didn’t think I could ever feel that way,” she said.
Until she saw it again, Ms Okeny didn’t remember the painting.
Ms Okeny lives in Boronia Heights and works as a support worker for high needs children with disability.
Her painting, which depicts a woman fetching water from a pond, is part of The Big Voices: Children’s Art Matters exhibition at the Living Museum in the Kingston Butter Factory Cultural Precinct.
The exhibition features some of the 2000 artworks in a Children’s Art Archive collected since 1986 by leading academic and early childhood educator Dr Barbara Piscitelli, which is now held by the State Library of Queensland.
Ms Okeny said her mother was the inspiration for the painting – drawing on stories she told about their Sudanese-Ugandan heritage.
“I remember my mum always told me stories of how they always had to walk miles for clean water and I remember pictures of them with buckets on their head and stuff like that, so I was like oh: I should do that,” Ms Okeny said.
She said it was a wonderful idea to preserve artwork by children.
“Art is a way of communicating – it’s a pathway for young artists to come together and be seen.”
The exhibition is on display from Tuesday to Saturday every week until May next year.
Admission is free.
