Whakatāne youth heartbroken after mural hit by graffiti

Whakatāne District Youth Council members were heartbroken to discover that their murals had been targeted by a tagger but are determined not to let the culprit defeat them.

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

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

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

Youth councillor and mural club member Nate Parsons said it was annoying because they had wanted to enter the work in the Rangatahi Emerging Artists Competition being organised by Ngāti Awa Social and Health Services and Community Action on Youth and Drugs.

"We will still enter our two murals, Te Mahi Tahi a ngā Taiohi and the one we did in Kopeopeo, Puawaitanga, but there's no point in entering this and having people come to have a 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 had been disheartening to see it tagged. That had been after weeks of work planning and designing the painting.

They would be seeking advice on the best way to remove or cover the marker. Because their paint had been covered by Graffiti Shield paint he was not sure whether they would be able to paint over it without the paint washing off.

"Once we have that worked out, we will just keep covering it up every time they do it so they don't get the satisfaction of having their tag on there."

The mural club had not yet finished with the railway site. They still have plans to paint the concrete retaining walls leading into the tunnel.

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

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