Kaitāia’s demolished mosaic wall finds new life in Far North town

Kaitaia's old mosaic wall has been transformed into a public artwork that doubles as a memorial and picnic area in the tiny Far North town of Broadwood. Photo / Louisa Millett

By Peter de Graaf of RNZ

A community mosaic in Kaitāia that sparked protests, a petition and even police complaints when it was demolished almost three years ago has found new life as an outdoor artwork in the tiny Far North town of Broadwood.

The mosaic, which lined a wall on Commerce St, was created in 1997 by Ahipara artist Jen Gay using tiles made by around 500 local schoolchildren.

However, when the area was redeveloped as a town square in 2023, the mosaic wall was to have been demolished and dumped.

In the ensuing outcry, Jen Gay collected 800 signatures in two days and locals staged a protest by linking hands along the demolition site.

Tempers grew so heated project staff complained to Kaitāia police over alleged threats.

Despite a pledge to rescue and reuse the tiles in the new square, the cut-up sections of wall instead ended up stored in a stonemason’s yard.

Jen Gay believed people were attached to the mosaic wall because so many had been involved in helping to make it 30 years earlier.

“It was made by children, from 5 years up, and it was a bit rough. But it’s not the Sistine Chapel, it’s the main street of Kaitāia, and people related to it.”

A new use for the tiles presented itself when the artist was approached by Broadwood resident Gay Semenoff.

The pair had previously worked on a mosaic seating area at Kaitāia College.

“She asked me, ‘is there any chance you could do something like that at Broadwood? We need an injection of some life. There’s no reason for people to stop in Broadwood. It’s all a little bit depressed, and it used to be a thriving little town.’”

Jen Gay told her she just happened to have a mosaic wall that needed recycling.

Turning the fragments into something new, however, wasn’t easy.

“They were one tonne [of] pieces, all different shapes and sizes. They made no sense at all, it was a nightmare figuring out how to construct something that was going to be fit for purpose in a public area, using something that was so ruined. But I hatched a plan.”

It turned out Broadwood also had a problem with people stealing wooden tables from the picnic area next to the town swimming hole.

Gay’s answer was to build, with help from locals, three theft-proof mosaic tables, four large planters, connecting seats, and decorative sculptures representing kūkupa (native pigeons).

Another local donated a barbecue, which was bricked in so it couldn’t be stolen, and Broadwood Gardening Club filled the planters.

The revamped picnic area included a memorial to local farmer and community stalwart Wayne Semenoff, who died late last year.

All the work was done by volunteers, with funding from Creative Communities and the Kaikohe-Hokianga and Te Hiku community boards for transport and materials.

“It’s an amazing community. Everybody wanted to help,” Jen Gay said.

“They can see that it’s brightened up the whole environment. Well, it is a farming town, so I had one person say, ‘Oh, it looks like it’s made by children’. But that’s good. It was made by children.”

Gay said the project was about 80% complete. She expected the finishing touches would take another month.

“We’ll keep working until it’s done. And it will probably never be done, because we’re just going to mosaic the whole of Broadwood. Now people are saying things like, ‘The rubbish bin looks like it needs mosaicing. Or what about those ugly concrete power poles?’”