Dunedin multidisciplinary artist Aroha Novak was completing her mural on a Cargill Enterprises building in Glasgow St yesterday.
The mural featured a large tuna, or eel, and other marine creatures.
Ms Novak said she designed it in homage to Kaituna, the traditional name of the South Dunedin area.
Kaituna was historically an estuary habitat of fish, birds and other wildlife where tuna were harvested as an important food source by local Māori.
‘‘I'm just embedding that te reo Māori name back into the landscape through this mural,’’ she said.
Ms Novak drew her colour pallette from cool purples and blues of the ocean - with a dash of hot pink.
The mural is one of eight featured in ‘‘Ebb and Flow’’ - a street art festival organised by the South Dunedin Street Art Trail, which features large-scale, live mural painting and street art workshops.
‘‘It’s just a good thing for the community and for artists to have work,’’ Ms Novak said.
She said mural artists somewhat ‘‘embedded’’ themselves in the local community as they completed their project and got to know passersby.
‘‘Usually when you're on street level painting, people like to chat to you if they have something to say about your mahi,’’ she said.
‘‘Lots of older kind of people have stopped and said how they really love it and they're just happy to see some colour in South Dunedin.’’
