Mural Masterpieces - Clevedon School

Location:
Clevedon School.

Team:
George Clarke, Matthew Hyde, Scott Bristow, Harrison Unsworth, Arnika Keenan, Morgan Sloog, Sean Marshall, Angel Ngapera, Kiana Shepherd, Shannon Ellis, Jacob Lane, Louis McNair, Jackson Sarsfield, Sophie Browning, Gabrielle Wilson, Amy McCleod, Alice Pallister, Brooke Hulbert, Maddie Kinsler, Georgina Forsyth, Shaan Singh, Liam Gill, Scott Johnston, Grace Haywood, Carys Martin, Rosa Rieger, Sophia Prangley-Yetton, Connor Crowley, Baxter Watson and Georgia Dobbin, with co-ordinating teacher Anne Forgie and research support from S Cooper, C Walsh, Clevedon Historical Society.

Accessible to public:
Yes.

Mural theme:
History of the district – celebrating 150th anniversary of Clevedon School.

Background to mural creation:
The mural was created to celebrate the school’s 150th anniversary and was presented at the official opening ceremony of the commemorative celebrations by the students who designed and painted it.

They wanted to brighten up the end walls of the two classroom blocks that face out to the playground and make it their own. The series of 10 panels show different eras in Clevedon's history and the Wairoa River flowing through them, linking them from the headwaters in the south to the river mouth in the north.

The first panel shows the parallel stories of the creation from the Maori legend of Papatuanuku and Ranginui, the Bible and the Big Bang theory studied in the first two terms. The second panel shows the geological formation of the area with the legendary battle between the Turehu of the Hunuas and the Waitakeres creating the volcanic field of Auckland. The third panel shows the natural beauty of the Wairoa, the Hunua Falls and the arrival of the Polynesian waka to the area. The fourth panel shows the way of life of the tangata whenua, Ngati Tai, in the Wairoa valley from about 1200 onwards. The fifth panel shows the arrival of Captain Cook in 1769 and the first European explorers, whalers and gold diggers.

On the next classroom wall it continues with the 1800s, the first missionaries, the logging, the Treaty of Waitangi, the first settlers and the Land Wars that resulted in many local Maori being driven out of the area. This was also the period when a school was first established. The next panel depicts the pioneering farming families and the establishment of the village from the 1890s to 1930s. The eighth panel shows the two World Wars with many local men enlisting to fight, others forming the home guard and the women increasingly working the land. Then after the Wars comes the technological advances in farming, better roads, forestry and the Wairoa dams being built… and the hula hoop. The advent of the school bus and the amalgamation of the district’s five small schools into the present one. In the last panel is the river mouth in the present day with many people commuting into the city, new lifestyles and recreational activities… and just a hint of the future.