Oteha Valley School - Auckland by Art by Lucia in Auckland

Artist brief for artwork: For a long time Oteha remained dense native bush which Kaipatiki (later known as Lucas Creek) ran through and linked to a major tributary called Oteha Stream. This became an important waterway for boats to bring goods into the deeper North Shore area around Albany and up to Birkenhead. Pioneers began to firstly dig for gum and later farm the area and Oteha Valley became a gateway and alternative route to Dairy Flat, Greenhithe and Birkenhead. Our community has changed a lot since we opened in 2004. We initially had a very diverse community made up of immigrants from many different countries and also some ‘kiwi’ families. As we have grown over the years so too has our community. We still have diversity, however we are now predominantly Chinese. It is therefore more important than ever for our school to own and share our identity and history. We want anybody coming on to our grounds to know that we are a school in Aotearoa and we want our community to understand what is important to us. We have a new building under construction that is going to be a modern learning space – 3 stories high and 18 classroom spaces. We are incorporating a beautiful wooden tree structure inside the entrance which depicts Tane Mahuta (the giant Kauri tree) as a symbol of the size of the building on our site and connecting to our theme of native forest. We will have native trees and birds depicted in various ways throughout the new building – decal on the windows, art works etc. Each block in the school will be called the name of a native bird. Kereru, piwakawaka, tui, ruru, kiwi, takahe, kakapo, kahu