VIDEO - Huge splash of colour with a serious message

Internationally renowned artist and mural creator, Erika Pearce, has delivered a huge splash of colour to Kerikeri this summer.

Using a shop wall as a super-sized canvas along Masonic Lane next to Procter Library, Erika has painted a magnificent dreamlike scene of Māori earth mother Papatūānuku, submerged beneath a rising ocean.

After consulting with local rangatahi and finding out the concerns they have for their future, Erika’s design depicts a vibrant but ominous underwater scene, where tropical fish have begun to appear in the warming waters around the Far North.  Papatūānuku wears a flower crown representing the places around the Pacific that many residents of Kerikeri originally called home.

The kaupapa was spearheaded by Annika Dickey of Our Kerikeri Community Charitable Trust, with funding in part from the council’s independent Creative Communities committee.

Erika takes us on a tour and explains the mural in the video below: