Tribute to Gaza’s lost children coming to Port Kembla
The Wall of Tears has been shown in Canberra, Perth, Sydney and most recently in a Berry church
It was controversially cancelled in the Shoalhaven, but the travelling memorial called The Wall of Tears will open in Port Kembla this weekend.
The Wall of Tears is a large-scale travelling public art installation and memorial created by American artist Phil Buehler.
Opening at the Servo’s NASA Gallery and Studio at 2pm on Sunday, November 15, the memorial names and pays tribute to the 18,457 Palestinian children documented as killed in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and July 19, 2025.
The exhibition was due to open at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery last week but was called off when Shoalhaven Council cited a risk to staff safety as the reason.
Organiser of the Port Kembla showing Natalie Moran, from the Wollongong Friends of Palestine, says the decision in the Shoalhaven has been widely condemned.
“In Australia, the work has been shown at Parliament House in Canberra, in Perth, Sydney, and in the past week at the Uniting Church in Berry.”
“For those of us who believe children are always ours, wherever they are in the world, to not think about these children is far more dangerous,” Natalie said. “Once you start legitimising discussion around which children have value, you endanger all children.”
The Wall of Tears lists the names and ages of more than 18,000 children, with photographs and short stories about some of them scattered through the columns. Phil Buehler installed it in New York in January 2026, on the anniversary of the death of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old girl killed in Gaza in January 2024.
Supporting the Port Kembla exhibition, 2025 Wollongong Citizen of the Year Malika Reese, who will speak at next weekend’s opening, says “a child killed by violence, anywhere in the world, is a wound to all of our societies and a failure we all share.
“All children deserve to be safe, thrive and live in peace, no matter what race, religion, gender, class or country they come from. All children are our children. They are our future, every one of them precious and worthy of protection.
“The Wall of Tears is a quiet space to remember the children killed in Gaza, by their name. No child should be a casualty of conflict,” Malika added.
The South Coast Labour Council is supporting the exhibition, which will open daily (12pm to 6pm) from Sunday until Thursday, November 19.
