Secret Shores welcomed the next generation of artists and thinkers into the Fremantle Biennale.
Over nine weeks, Year 5 and 6 students from Spearwood Primary School and Intensive English Centre (IEC) students from North Lake Senior Campus collaborated with artists Peta Roebuck and Shupiwe Chongwe to explore the Fremantle Biennale’s 2025 theme of Sanctuary. Through storytelling, sculpture, drawing and digital media, and guided by artist mentorship and cultural knowledge, they experimented, reflected, and created new works inspired by ideas of place, identity and belonging.
Secret Shores supported students from schools with limited access to arts learning, offering a rare opportunity to connect with professional artists and creative process. Their responses culminated in two public outcomes during the Biennale.
Spearwood Primary School x Peta Roebuck created an incredible animation which was projected onto the Fremantle Ports Building throughout the Biennale, while North Lake Senior Campus x Shupiwe Chongwe exhibited their clay Sanctuary City at Cheap Tongue Gallery.
About the
artists
Peta Roebuck
Peta Roebuck is a multidisciplinary freelance illustrator working across graphic recording, animation, mural painting, illustration, and graphic design. With a passion for visual storytelling, she has documented conferences and discussions for organizations such as Yorgum Healing Services, the Aboriginal Health Council WA, Rural Health West, Age Friendly Australia, the Centre for the Digital Child, and Women in Leadership, among others. Her murals can be found throughout Perth, including in Hay St mall, the Mirrabooka Community Hub, The Standard bar, and Garner Lane in Tuart Hill.
Beyond her visual practice, Peta collaborates with communities to foster creativity and connection through art. She has worked with school groups and remote communities in the Pilbara and North-West Tasmania through the arts-for-change organization Big hArt, mentoring primary school aged children in graphic arts and animation. She has also collaborated with Ngarluma and Yinjibarndi young women to create animations featured in the touring stage production Punkaliyarra, showcased at the Perth Festival, the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Wiyi Yani U Thangani Summit in Canberra, and most recently, the Sydney Opera House. Her work has also been projected onto the Western Australian Museum as part of Wangaba Barnigu | Wangabarni (Staying Alive).
Shupiwe Chongwe
Shupiwe Chongwe is a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Walyalup (Fremantle), Western Australia, mainly focusing on clay and ceramics. She began experimenting with ceramics under the direction of her father, ceramicist Njalikwa Chongwe of Zinongo Gallery (Walyalup / Fremantle), later studying at North Metropolitan TAFE (Boorloo/Perth) whilst continuing to practice from her home studio. Within her multidisciplinary practice, Chongwe creates sculptural works from clay that reflect her connection to family, mixed cultural heritage, and the natural environment. Exploring tensions between the longstanding rivalry of art and craft, she also teaches ceramics workshops and makes functional ceramic vessels. Shupiwe is a tutor and coordinator of the ceramics studio at Tresillian Art Centre (Nedlands) and teaches workshops at a range of other art centres and studios around Boorloo/Perth.
