Southern street artist and South Sea Spray festival founder Danny "Deow" Owen has worked with a group of 10 pupils from Fiordland College on a mural to celebrate Māori Language Week.
The pupils — aged from 11 to 17 — set a goal to execute a mural project after noticing a lack of diverse artistic expression in their town.
Deow was then invited by Te Anau Waitangi Charitable Trust to help the budding young artists.
They spent weeks discussing the design and techniques until the work formally started on Friday.
"Predominantly [the mural] is based around the takahē because it is a bird found in that region ... and it’s kind of an iconic bird for the area," he said.
"They were really keen to paint that.
"We also portrayed the native fauna there, which is the red tussock which is quite prominent when driving through Te Anau, ... some kowhai and then we also incorporated the house colours for the school, which is red, yellow, blue and green."
The group worked on two murals — one which the pupils helped Deow to paint and the other which was completely made by them.
"Their wall is better than mine, I think."
It was a great experience to work with the group as they were quite talented and hoped he could pass on his passion for street art to future generations, he said.
"By the end of it, the kids were pretty exhausted but also pretty happy with themselves."
He said they should be proud of what they had done because they created "an amazing mural".
"It’s so humbling just to be embraced ... appreciated for the skill set I have, and be able to share with them because [these guys are] a lot younger than me.
"I think now they’re gonna have a passion for painting murals — maybe they’ll keep the torch burning and keep the ball rolling."
