Mural Masterpieces - Maungatapu School

Location:
Maungatapu School, Tauranga.

Team:
Moshea Mankelow, Logan Reid, Shontelle French, Kori Jeffrey, Chelsea Jarvis, Hope McConnell, Jade Jackman, Moihi Joseph, facilitated by teachers: Keryn Fikkers, Anna Dixon.

Accessible to public:
Yes.

Mural theme:
Our place.

Background to mural creation:
The external school environment was looking bland.  The school had recently been painted in neutral colours and was in need of additional colourful visual art.  With the success of this first mural, they hope to add more visual art projects to enhance the school in the future.

The mural has been designed in three panels - the people, the land and the sea.  It depicts our local environment - Maungatapu and aspects of important local features around Tauranga.  The school logo is the Tui and they have many beautiful trees on the school grounds that attract Tui.  During the day students often hear their calls as they sit high in the trees.  In the background is the local mountain Mauau (Mt Maunganui), which the community identifies strongly with.  The local legend is of the three whales, which is why a whale is incorporated into the sea panel.  School students recently studied 'Te Haerenga', the journey of the migration of Maori to New Zealand in their waka and this has been incorporated into the mural with a waka prow in the top left corner.  The centre panel focuses on 'Te Tangata', the people of Aotearoa.