PALMYRA six-year-old Zahara Kitchener was the youngest of four students to have their poetry brought to life at this year’s Lightscape in Kings Park.
After an Easter school holiday workshop, Kitchener was selected to record her acrostic poem Belong and have it featured in the glowing Conservation Cubes at the popular winter lights show.
Beautiful Kulbardi flying through
the trees
Elegant Balga is patient to grow
Long tail on a big red Yonga
Orange sunset lighting up our
Beedawong
Ngardanginy begins early morning
Giant Karri tree, high in the sky
• A poem by Palmyra six-year-old Zahara Kitchener was selected for this year’s Lightscape.
Kitchener says Belong was inspired by a family of Kulbardis that would visit her home with their babies every year.
“We always know the baby Kulbardis will grow up and come back with their own babies one day,” she says.
“I also wrote about the yongas, the big karri trees and the balga trees because I love seeing them when we go camping.
“It was fun and exciting seeing my poem at Lightscape. I felt really proud.”
The words on the 20 internally lit cubes are taken from four poems written by Kitchener, Chloe Gray-Morgan (10), Hanna Mah (10), and Xanthe Cassat (14), who wrote Lightscape.
Little sparks of light
Igniting the sky
Glistening through the night
Holding joy to our hearts
Trees glowing with wonder
See the bright colours
Caring for each other
Awakening our love
Protecting all life
Ecosystem thrives
The Conservation Cubes added a community element to this year’s Lightscape, allowing young Western Australians to share their perspectives with thousands of visitors.
The four poems were selected by Kings Park education coordinator Emma Britten-Jones.
“This is about giving children a voice and a platform to share how they see and feel about the world,” Britten-Jones says.
“To witness their words come to life through light is incredibly powerful, and we hope visitors leave feeling more connected, not only to the experience, but to the importance of caring for our environment.”
Conservation Cubes are part of Kings Park Education’s 50th anniversary celebrations, marking five decades of connecting young people with nature through storytelling.
This year’s Lightscape trail has a strong international line-up with three debuts by artists from Europe and the UK, and the welcome return of the Winter Cathedral and Perth’s fire garden.
Highlights include Infinite, a 24m-long futuristic tunnel of squares that appears to disappear into infinity. Infinite premiered in London in 2025 and makes its Australian debut at Kings Park.
Specialising in fibre optic lighting, Stevie Thompson’s Mycelium Network has colour-changing clusters of mushrooms, the mycelium network, and most importantly, the animation of the mycelium, which represents the root structure being alive and communicating.
Created by French studio Tilt, Herbum is an imaginary grass tuft with stems that can grow up to 8m high. This stunning installation has red or blue luciolas (bioluminescent fireflies) on the ends of its stems, making it shine in the wind.
Also on display are installations by internationally renowned artists such as French collective Pitaya and the Netherlands’ Studio Toer.
Lightscape runs until July 26 at Kings Park and Botanic Garden. For more info see lightscape.com.