HUTT CITY COUNCIL NEWS RELEASE

6 FEBRUARY 2017

Naenae Mural speaks for the community

Whanau, Aroha, Love and Community are some of the messages on a new mural in Naenae, which is one of the longest murals to be constructed in Lower Hutt in 10 years.

The 180 metre mural is titled Pikitia Pakitara and adorns a new fence surrounding the Walter Mildenhall Park Reserve development in Naenae.

As well as providing the community of Naenae with a ‘signature’ artwork that speaks of the region, the mural is also intended to reduce graffiti in the area.

The work was created by the Off the Wall Mural Crew, led by artist Joe McMenamin with four Naenae college students, as part of Hutt City Council’s Murals in Schools and Public Places programme 2016-2017. The project has been generously sponsored by Resene, Mitre 10 Mega and local shop owner Jane Time.

Lower Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace will be launching the mural on Thursday 9 February, and says “This is a really impressive mural that reflects the vibrant community of Naenae. A huge thanks to Joe and the students for sharing their talent and also for their hard work – they’ve each put around 150 hours into this over the summer holidays. Thanks also to the sponsors for supporting this positive community project.”

Joe McMenamin and the four students have been based at Shop 11 in Naenae during the school holidays pencilling and painting in the design on 75 plywood panels.

Joe says, “We started out by meeting with people at the Naenae Festival last year and asked them what Naenae meant to them, and some of those words are depicted on the section of mural from Treadwell to Vogel streets. We also talked to members of the bowling club, which is part of the centre that the mural surrounds to make sure that was also represented in the work.”

The second aspect of the mural along Vogel street references balls, bowling and petanque boules.

In the middle of the mural is a Pataka modelled on the whare housed at the Dowse, which has historic links to the Naenae region. The Pataka is guarded by two kotuku (herons) and other birds local to the region are also depicted. The images in the work sweep from the hills of Naenae, down to the flat, out via the river and into the sea.

ENDS

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