Meeting Rudy

We decided we wanted to paint a mural to make our
school beautiful, to show our cultures, and to make us feel
proud. We needed someone to help us, so we emailed Rudy
Lopez who is an artist at Whitireia Polytech. He has painted
murals at the Waitangirua Mall and the railway station. He said
he would help us! He came to school to meet us and we talked
about our ideas.
When he met us he was impressed with our
joy and optimism. It made him think of dance so he made a
design that shows all of our cultures and has us in dance
poses.
You can see our dances on our school website
https://sites.google.com/a/corinna.school.nz/room-2/archive/our-news

Rudy suggested that we trace around ourselves. We had to lie down on a big piece of paper and put ourselves into a dance position. Then we drew around each other.

Our cultures

Anita and Unity wanted to include Samoan flowers and patterns.
 Chilena thought a Samoan design would bring out our school’s Samoan culture.


Jillian is Samoan too. She said: 'My culture is very special to me because it is part of my people and my country.'


Philomena said: 'We are Samoan and we want to design a Samoa pattern to make our school look seki (cool) and fantastic.'


Tofi said: 'I am Samoan and l would like flowers on our mural and l like this design because it looks pretty and my design is like a Samoan pattern.'


Aria said: 'My culture is Māori and my picture is a pattern and I like this design. I would like some Maori designs to be part of our mural. Our Māori culture will be so proud.'


Isabel said: 'I was born in New Zealand. My Māori culture is important to me. I would like some Māori designs on our mural.'


Prestigious is Māori too. She said: 'My culture is special to me because it is part of my living and life.'


Shanaia is Māori. She said: 'I like this pattern because it shows my culture and I also like this picture because I like the colour too.'

Manya is from Tokelau. She would like the colours and designs of the titi to be part of our mural.


Miracle said: 'I would want this pattern because it is part of my culture. My culture is Tokelau.
 My culture is very, very important to me. I like this design because it has beautiful trees and nature. The water looks cool too. I would like our mural to have some animals, trees and water in it.


Te Hare said: 'I am from the Cook Islands. My culture is important to me. I would like our mural to have tivaevae patterns and beautiful flowers because they are special to me.'