Tricia Haine creates stunning mural for Fairhaven School

Mural artist Tricia Haine with students Neisha-Marie Hunuhunu and Jayden Harris.

There are layers and layers of meaning behind a new mural that was unveiled at Fairhaven School last week.

The mural was created by teacher aid Tricia Haine and depicts Our People - Our Place.

Hours of work went into creating the mural that is now a prominent feature at the Boucher Ave entrance to the school.

''It was a huge challenge, and it wasn't on my bucket list,'' says Tricia.

''I put a lot of hours in because I wanted it to be really vibrant and so there's four or five layers [of paint] in some places. All the edges are outlined with black vinyl which took a lot of cutting to get right,'' she says.

The mural features representations of the sacred maunga (mountains) Rangiuru for the Tapuika iwi and Otawa for the Waitaha iwi, the Kaituna and Rarapahoe rivers passing through the lands of the two iwi respectively, as well as four roads - Nos 1, 2, 3 and 4 - that pass through the school's catchment.

There are also representations of the district's agriculture and horticulture.

The multicultural community is depicted with red triangles with the sun, Southern Cross and Matariki prominent in the mural.

The idea for the mural came when the school's Māori immersion unit, Toitoi Manawa, was charged with the task of creating a mural for Te Puke Creative Forum's school murals initiative.

Tricia put together a design that ultimately wasn't used, but was seen by deputy principal Vicki Hiini.

''She asked, could it be made into three panels to go on the end of room 7?'' says Tricia. ''I said no it would be too distorted and would look weird, but if you leave it with me, I'll sort something out.

''We had a meeting and showed everyone and they said they wanted it. [Principal] Paul [Hunt] said, just do it.''

For a while Tricia wondered what she had let herself in for.

''Once I said yes, it really scared me. I thought, 'how am I going to do this?' I've never painted anything that's more than a metre square.''

The mural has been painted on a piece of aluminium 3.6m by 1.5m, with one of the tricky parts scaling up the design onto such a large surface.

At the painting stage, Tricia was helped by some of the school's students and staff.

''It just takes a lot of patience and being very particular - the kids were great because they don't usually have to be very particular - and they came back more than once.''

Tricia says she is extremely pleased with the end result.

''For me and my family it's something a bit special. Who would have thought I was going to do that?

''When you're retired and half way through your 70s you don't expect to get challenged like this and so it's lovely when a challenge walks across your path. I just tend to say 'yes' and work it out later.''

Tricia has worked at Fairhaven as a volunteer teacher aid for about five years.

Every part of the mural has a story behind it and Paul says it is much more than something that adds extra colour around the school.

''There is more history coming into primary schools now and there is a push to teach local history and this is a prime example of something that shows the history around Te Puke relating to Fairhaven School that we will be able to draw on and talk about.''