Cecelia Kumeroa designs bicultural logo for Whanganui's first Heritage Month

The lights atop the Watt Fountain have decorative metal scrollwork. Photo / Supplied

The logo designed by Cecelia Kumeroa for the inaugural Whanganui Heritage Month mixes European and Māori design.

The month will be led by the Whanganui Regional Heritage Trust, and trustee Helen Craig said everyone agreed the logo had to represent both Māori and European heritage.

Kumeroa, a Whanganui School of Design graduate and now a designer, used the metal scrollwork of the lights atop the Watt Fountain in Victoria Ave as the start of her design.

She modified the shape to reference the mangopare (hammerhead shark).

For Māori, mangopare symbolise strength, leadership, agility, tenacity, unrelenting determination, courage, and wealth - and the stylised mangopare shape is part of the MetService logo.

The typeface Kumeroa used also references history - it's similar to that on heritage building facades.

The logo has been produced for the inaugural Whanganui Heritage Month this August.

The logo also references the mangopare (hammerhead shark), for Māori a symbol of strength and persistence. Graphic / Supplied

The heritage month working party includes Whanganui Regional Museum and Alexander Heritage Library staff.

Various groups will run the events within it, and they will include celebrations of the Durie Hill Elevator, St Paul's Memorial Church in Pūtiki, the Sarjeant Gallery and Bushy Park homestead and forest.

• Kelly Scarrow is co-ordinator, and wants to hear about any events that other groups can offer - before June 14. She can be contacted on 027 304 2126.