Peace Within is a new mixed media artwork now on display in the Shrine’s Education Centre. Created by the Shrine’s Young Ambassadors with guidance from artist-in-residence Kat Rae, the piece captures a tender moment between a mother and her children—offering a quiet reflection on the impact of war on families.
The Young Ambassadors are in Years 9 and 10 at various Victorian secondary schools and are 14-15 years old. They volunteer with the Shrine for a year and learn about commemoration and defence service, museums and community organisations, and they grow as people. In 2024, thanks to a grant from Freemasons Victoria, the Shrine began including a collaborative art project in the Young Ambassador program.
Kat Rae's own art practice explores place, memory and experience. She served in the Australian Army for 20 years, deploying to Afghanistan and Kuwait, before beginning her art career in 2019. She is also a war widow to veteran suicide and a mother. Her work Deathmin received the prestigious national Napier Waller Art Prize in 2024.
In Kat's words, Peace within explores ‘post-traumatic growth and representing those in war commemoration who don't always get seen’. She planned the project as a reimagining and broadening of the Shrine's commemorative language, prompted by her artistic aims and her lived experience. The lilac, white and green prints arranged on the walls reinterpret the feminine floral emblems of violets and jacarandas in the Ex-Servicewomen's Memorial Garden at the Shrine. The family is the same group we see in Louis Laumen's Widow and Children sculpture in the Legacy Garden of Appreciation, but they have been brought inside, protected from the elements.
Movingly, the quilt enfolding them is an important example of a personal war relic. Kat was gifted it many years ago, upon arrival in Afghanistan, by Aussie Hero Quilts, a community group of volunteer quilters who make personalised quilts and laundry bags for deployed ADF personnel. The psychologist Richard Tedeschi has defined the notion of post-traumatic growth as ‘positive psychological changes experienced as a result of the struggle with trauma or highly challenging situations.’ Peace within shows a family that is not frozen forever in pain, loss, and isolation but has painstakingly built another life of togetherness, care and love.
The artwork was made at the Shrine over six busy days ('art boot camp' was how everyone started to describe it) and Kat built in opportunities for the Young Ambassador group to meet and work with people from her overlapping communities of veterans, their supporters, and artists.
Representatives from Legacy met the group at the Shrine and explained their organisation while the students sketched the Laumen sculpture. The group was privileged to spend a day at the Australian National Veteran Arts Museum (ANVAM), where they learned about the healing work happening in the veteran arts movement while also converting their sketches to linocut prints.
Kat's military leadership skills came to the fore on the papier-mâché days when the students worked as a disciplined team to build the three figures with the welcome assistance of artist friends. This included a member of the Aussie Hero Quilts group, who talked about her quilt-making while she helped to paste strips of paper onto modelled legs, arms and torsos.
The choice of papier-mâché and printing as the key techniques is meaningful. The figures were built up with soft layers of treated paper and gently bound in string; this making process is like the process of rebuilding selves, families and lives. Similarly, printmaking involves a cutting-away of parts of an image that are no longer needed. In contrast to the cool metallic surfaces of the statue outside, the figures are bathed in a resonant burnt orange. The colour was chosen to convey a warm and contemporary mood.
The project concluded with installing the artwork and sharing celebratory pizzas. The Young Ambassadors were visibly, and rightly, proud of what they had achieved. Mae Mao, a member of the group, made this reflection:
This project is about honouring those who serve and those left behind. My favourite part has been learning and listening to the personal stories of the artists we worked with.
Elizabeth Tun added:
The project is a beautiful way to reflect on living commemoration. We, the Young Ambassadors, are endlessly grateful to have worked with an incredible artist and learnt the value of art, history and life-long learning.
Peace within is on display at the Shrine until July 2026.
Author:
Kat Rae (Lt Col Retd) is a Melbourne artist. Mae Mao and Elizabeth Tun were part of the 2025 Shrine Young Ambassadors.
Young Ambassadors are year 9 and 10 students who participate in programs and commemorative services at the Shrine. Applications open in October and the program runs for a 12-month period from December each year. The Shrine Young Ambassadors program is proudly supported by Freemasons Foundation Victoria.
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