A Taniwha - Mythical Creature

I spent a fun week working alongside artists Joanne Black and Kate Fennimore, and ten enthusiastic Galatea Primary School children. Our mission was to create a fabulous piece of wearable art.

The children, full of inspiration came up with the idea of building a Taniwha, which is a mythical creature of Maori origin.

It was such a great exercise for learning - the children not only used skills in creativity but also in, team work, negotiation, problem solving and design.

All sorts of recycled materials were found and brought to school by the pupils for the big build. They brought chicken wire, packaging and strapping, table clothes, old silk flowers that had seen their best, mill cardboards off cuts, old sheets, tree pruning’s from near by and a lot more.

Putting our creature together was fun. With one of the students as a model, make up was applied, each part of the constructed creature was fitted onto our model and she was ready for the photo shoot.

It was a great way to spend a creative week helping to facilitate the children’s learning.