Westfield WestCity Mural

West Auckland now boasts a stunning artwork, the largest of its kind, with the Project Twin Streams’ Kei Tua Mai WestCity mural unveiled at an early morning blessing on 1 October 2011. The public ceremony was the culmination of over 18 months work involving over 1,000 West Auckland residents.

The resulting 27 metre long mural was delivered to its new home alongside the Oratia Stream at Westfield’s WestCity shopping centre in nine panels and took contractors ten days to install. The mural is on a massive scale and it weaves together a number of intricate details. It features 500 mosaic fish, 60 self portraits and six mosaic koru creating a shimmering stream surrounded by lush vegetation, wildlife and birds. The community is represented by a series of self portraits which all stand in unison to protect and restore West Auckland’s waterways. Six mosaic koru, ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 metres, bookend the mural and represent the guardianship role we have over mother earth.

Each of these individual elements had to be fitted together like an enormous jigsaw puzzle, then grouted in place. Even the 80,000 plus individual pebbles that surround the fish were hand glued!

 “The hard work has all been worth it when I see the pride and sense of achievement on the faces of those seeing their contribution for the first time,” says Mandy Patmore, Project Twin Streams Arts Coordinator. "Not only has it given those involved an opportunity to learn about the environment and the health of our local streams in a new way, it’s also given them a chance to express themselves in a way that words often can’t,” she says.

A Partnership Approach

The mural is the culmination of a longstanding partnership between Project Twin Streams and Westfield WestCity, who funded just under half of the installation costs of the mural. The pairing was originally brokered by Project Twin Streams (then) Community Coordinator Oratia, Green Jon, who engaged with mall management on restoring the streams in their local area.

The mural has proved a great point of pride for those schools, community groups and local residents who contributed. For those involved it has encouraged fresh thinking about their relationship with both the stream, the wider environmental issues and created a sense of ownership and pride in the area.

Thank You

The Project Twin Streams team would like to offer a big thank you to all of those involved to date including the following schools and community groups.

We'd also like to thank the over 350 community members who participated in fish painting workshops held in Westfield WestCity in September 2010.

Reflecting the fundamental role creative engagement has played in Project Twin Streams, the mural will undoubtedly bring new life to the area and become a source of pride for the Henderson community.