Naenae Mural project

The Naenae bowling club has been redeveloped and a large fence has been built between the bowling club and the Naenae Olympic pool. The council were concerned about graffiti going up on the new fence and wanted to create a piece of art that reflected the local community as well as deterring tagging. The Off the Wall mural crew worked with me at the Naenae Festival to ask the public "What are a few words that describe Naenae for you?". We then put all of these ideas and words together and came up with the words we wanted to use f0r the mural. We also decided to use the Pataka called Nuku Tewhatewha as the central point in the wall, and have two Kotuku standing guard on each side. Then the words that we took from the community were reflected in Maori and English on each side of the central point.

The other design feature was the transition from the hills on the left (and birds that would be found in the hills) blending down to the river and eventually the sea on the right (with sea birds at this end). Then around the side of the mural that faces Vogel street, the mural shows large hands that are playing bowls and other ball sports. The hands show a range of ethnicities and ages to show the inclusiveness of the new bowling club.

The whole project took about 5 weeks to complete, and we were fortunate enough to have an empty shop in the Naenae centre to work in over that time. Special thanks goes to Sue Lytollis from the Hutt City Council who supported us to well over the whole project.