Holy Family Catholic School Wānaka celebrated the creation of a new mural with a blessing ceremony yesterday (June 13).

School principal Jo McKay said the mural is called ‘our place, our welcome space’ and it depicts the community and “who we are as a school”.

“We were successful in getting some funding from the Creative in Schools grant through the Ministry of Education,” Jo said.

“It allowed us to get Shane Walker, a local mural artist, to come and work with our students to tell the story in this mural.”

Reverend Father Martin Flannery, artist Shane Walker, and Holy Family School principal Jo McKay.

Jo said the whole school community was involved in the project, brainstorming ideas that Shane then distilled into a design that the children painted.

“It is fun letting them [the children] run free with the creative ideas and give them a chance to paint something big,” Shane said.

“It is good fun; they are so creative.”

Shane said the mural took a month to paint with planning in the classroom before he supervised the painting work.

Input into the design was sought from Ngai Tahu who gifted a poutama, a pattern representing Lake Wānaka.

“We’re really proud of the result,” Jo said.

PHOTOS: Wānaka App