Coral Kids
Marine Conservation Documentation
Coral Kids is a long-term documentary and visual arts project developed in collaboration with Grow Aitutaki, Aitutaki Coral Restoration and the community of Aitutaki, Cook Islands.
The project emerged from local efforts to address the overwhelming ecological challenges facing the lagoon and reconnect younger generations with places, knowledge, and traditions that have shaped life on the island for generations.
With humble beginnings, coral gardener Mike Lee began restoring coral with salvaged ropes, limited resources, and no institutional support. As the scale of the work became clear, the project grew through collaboration with Grow Aitutaki, an environmental education initiative working with children on the island. Through this partnership, children began participating in lagoon-based learning, coral restoration activities, invasive species removal, marine surveys, and discussions about the lagoon's future.
Some of the children were also rebuilding their own confidence in the water. Through swimming, play, curiosity, and care, they are developing new relationships with the lagoon and with the knowledge carried by elders and community members.
As Coral Kids evolved, it expanded beyond environmental restoration into broader questions of memory, belonging, intergenerational knowledge, and cultural continuity. The central question became: who gets to produce the visual archive of a place?
Through collaborative image-making, children contribute photographs, stories, observations, and perspectives drawn from their own lives. These materials form part of a growing community archive documenting everyday experiences, relationships with the lagoon, and connections between children and elders.
Coral Kids approaches photography, documentary, and archiving as collaborative practices. The project explores how images are created, how they circulate, how decisions are made, and how communities can participate in shaping their own representation over time.
Developed across several years, Coral Kids brings together documentary filmmaking, photography, archiving, and collaborative storytelling. The project will contribute to a feature documentary, exhibitions, publications, educational resources, and a long-term visual archive created alongside the community that continues to shape it.
Support the Project
Coral Kids is an ongoing documentary photography and film initiative.
Supporting this project helps sustain continued fieldwork in Aitutaki, film development, and the creation of exhibitions and public outcomes. Contributions directly fund the documentation of community-led coral restoration and help ensure Aitutaki’s children's voices reach wider audiences.
If you have visited Aitutaki and wondered how to give back, or if this story resonates with you, this is one way to support the work. Donations, via Documentary Australia, are tax-deductible.
Contact: hola@rosaaureliaproductions.com.au
Raquel Trejo, Adelaide-based photographer and environmental storyteller
