The National Museum of Australia will tomorrow take possession of an artwork created as a Higher School Certificate major work by a Lithgow High School student.

‘Can you imagine, Mum’ story’, Peta Edwards’ portrayal of her mother’s story as a member of Australia’s Stolen Generations will be on permanent display at the museum.

Museum Program Director Dr Michael Pickering will travel to collect the artwork from Peta and her family at Lithgow High School.

It has been on display at the school since 2001 when it returned from the ARTEXPRESS Art Gallery of NSW and regional gallery exhibitions.

A brief, but significant, handover ceremony will pay tribute to Peta’s creativity, the role the school played in encouraging her to express her mother’s story and the importance of sharing the stories of Aboriginal people to foster understanding and reconciliation.

Seeing the artwork leave for Canberra will be an emotional time for Peta’s mother, Dianne Clayton.

“I burst into tears when Peta told me what she was going to do (for her HSC artwork),” Ms Clayton said.

“I still get emotional every time I think of it to think that my story meant something.

“To think it has gone this far was just something none of us imagined.

“I am so proud of Peta.”

Seeing Peta complete the HSC in the Year 2000 was a wonderful time for Ms Clayton.

“I hoped to go right through school to become a PE teacher, but I was just told to leave school because I was not smart enough,” Ms Clayton said.

“So with my experience of growing up and people not believing in you, I wanted my kids to know I believed in them and give them encouragement.”

Peta realises how different it was for her compared to her mother.

“I guess everything is different,” Peta said.

“We weren’t stolen or anything like that, and we’ve just had a better way of life.”

Although her mother did not talk much about her childhood, Peta knew that she and her brothers had been part of the Stolen Generations.

“It just stuck with me and I wanted to know more of her story,” Peta said.

“When it came to the HSC, I got her to write her story down and I thought about the best way to present it and that’s how I came up with the painting that is there now.”

Now with two children of her own, Peta believes that it is important that the story of her mother and other children of the Stolen Generations is kept alive, along with the traditions of Aboriginal people.

She looks forward to the day she will proudly show them the painting of that story hanging in the National Museum of Australia.

Ms Clayton wants to be there standing with them.

“I’ll be as proud as punch, especially for my daughter,” Ms Clayton said.

“I’ll be so proud because I am just one of so many cases, and to actually have my story up there will make me as proud as punch.

“It is important that people know what we have gone through so they know that we are not just whinging for nothing … because a lot of people still see it like that.”