In a full-circle moment, mural artist Millie Pidwell has returned to school to contribute to students’ learning and their environment.

Pidwell, who works under the name Murals by Millie, has created a mural in Te Puke High School’s student learning centre.

She’s a former student at the school where her mum, Tracy Murray, was an art teacher for 18 years and where her son is now in Year 10.

“So, I’ve been part of that school community for a really long time and now I paint murals full time.”

Deputy principal Polly Thin-Rabb asked Pidwell if she would be interested in creating a mural because of her links to the school.

After involving students and staff in ideas, Pidwell came up with a design that represented the culture and diversity within the school.

“I wanted to reflect this by unifying the many cultures that make up Te Puke High School.”

Flowers represent the nationalities of the school, including international students, a kowhaiwhai pattern symbolises strength, love and resilience and the colour palette of green, yellow, purple, pink and blue reflects the school’s house colours.

Three native birds – kereru (wood pigeon), piwakawaka (fantail) and pukeko – also feature.

Pidwell was asked to work on the mural during school hours.

“It was treated like an artist in residence and [students] could see the whole process take place.”

She says she felt it was a good learning experience for students, especially those interested in art.

“They were asking questions like ‘how do you start doing this’ and I had the design so they could see how it was going to come together in the end, which was cool.”

Head boy Harrison Matthews and arts leaders Mollie Wilton and Juliet King were involved in the process.

“It’s really inspiring to see a former art student and leader achieve this and … it opens up a route to something that artistic students may not have recognised as a job or something they can do [after school],” said Wilton.

King said she felt students found seeing the mural take shape inspiring.

“As an exchange student and someone who’s worked with exchange students, I think it’s really beautiful to see all those different cultures being so connected onto one canvas.

“So, I think it’s a really beautiful way of celebrating our culture and arts at Te Puke High School.”

The mural features flowers representing various nationalities within the school as well as native birds, and also incorporates the school’s house colours.

Matthews liked the way the school’s house colours have been included in the mural as well as the flowers representing different nationalities within the school.

“It definitely adds to the calm atmosphere of the library and I do think it was intentional. At the [student] executive meeting we talked about keep the colour very neutral and very welcoming at the same time.”

Both Wilton and King spoke to Pidwell as she was working on the mural and were surprised by how quickly Millie worked.

“We thought she had this incredible ability to be able to do all these details and so quickly and so effortlessly.”

Pidwell has other murals in Te Puke – indoors at Giggles Te Puke Early Learning centre, within the school grounds at Te Puke Intermediate School and on the container outside Te Puke Pizza Hut, as well as others inside and outside at private homes.

She also created a large mural at Gordon Spratt reserve in Pāpāmoa.

Each flower in the mural represents the national flower of these countries: kōwhai: New Zealand; cherry blossom: Japan; cornflower: Germany; golden wattle: Australia; Tahitian gardenia: Polynesian Islands; lotus: India