Te Waka Unua School, Sculpture Project

In 2012, I was invited to work with Te Waka Unua School (formally known as Woolston Primary School) to create a sculpture to help deal with the earthquakes that had devastated the city. It was very challenging for everyone back then, but I really felt for young children who had to learn to live and deal with such a devastating event. I loved the idea of using sculpture to help them process what had happened and to create something beautiful so that they could feel proud and stand tall. This is something that I had already done myself with the creation of a sculpture titled (Reflection). So I understood how working on a project like this can be somewhat therapeutic.

The design the school chose represents helping hands, Rise Up Christchurch, and the koru heart represents the bond that the school has developed with each other and the aroha and support that have been given by others and endeavour to give each other.

Every child in the school worked on this project. The senior children worked hard doing all the sawing and chiselling, and after that, there was a lot of filing and rasping to shape the stone into this beautiful design. Towards the end, the very young children came in and did the sanding. The work was hard, but everyone enjoyed the role they shared in it, and they were all very proud of what they had created for the school.