Whakatāne youth heartbroken after graffitied mural

Whakatāne District Youth Council members have discovered their murals have been targeted by a tagger, but are determined not to let the culprit get the better of them.

Just days after the Whakatāne High School Mural Club, working in conjunction with the youth council and the Keep Whakatāne Beautiful Committee, completed their latest mural and painting of the River Edge Park Miniature Railway tunnel, they discovered it had been covered up of graffiti.

Fortunately, the mural at Whakatāne Rose Gardens, titled Te Mahi Tahi a ngā Taiohi – A Youth Collaboration- Balloon Dog for the Community, was treated with Graffiti Shield so it could be cleaned. But just last weekend, they discovered the same tagger had struck again, going over the same tags with permanent marker.

Due to the roughness of the concrete tunnel surface, the marker proved difficult to clean.

Youth councilor and mural club member Nate Parsons said it was upsetting because they wanted to enter the Rangatahi Emerging Artists competition organized by Ngāti Awa Social and Health Services and Community Action on Youth and Drugs.

“We’ll still go into our two murals, Te Mahi Tahi a ngā Taiohi and the one we did in Kopeopeo, Puawaitanga, but there’s no point in going into that and getting people to come and to look at it and see it covered in graffiti”.

He said it took about 12 students three full days of work to complete the mural, so it was disheartening to see it tagged. This was after weeks of work planning and designing the tableau.

They would seek advice on the best way to remove or cover the marker. Since their paint had been covered with Graffiti Shield paint, he wasn’t sure if they would be able to paint over it without the paint washing off.

“Once we’ve worked it out, we’re going to continue to cover it every time they do it so they don’t have the satisfaction of having the label there.”

The mural club wasn’t done with the railroad yard yet. They still have plans to paint the concrete retaining walls leading into the tunnel.

Nate also created QR codes for the murals, taking people to a Google site that had information about the murals.

LDR is local journalism, co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.