Three local volunteers are facilitating a clean-up of Gisborne’s main street on Sunday and the public are invited to join them.
“We want to change the conversation around Gisborne’s CBD,” say former councillor of 10 years Meredith Akuhata-Brown, husband and furniture restorer Jason Akuhata-Brown and real estate agent Bronwyn Kay.
“Gisborne’s looking tired, so we thought let’s take the initiative and get it all jazzed up.”
They say the event has brought “a whole bunch of the community together”, including multi-generations, who will be creating art pieces.
This includes a mural by youth group Ka Timata on plywood at the end of the ANZ building.
The artwork will be coordinated by local musician Quinn Eru (known as One Three Official), and the kids have been practising different designs.
“They’re going to represent their rōpū (group),” says youth group founder Freddy Bishop.
“They’re going to form Ka Timata (the name of their kaupapa) on the mural.”
The group are also considering drawing cartoon characters representing each of them.
“So that might be a kererū, a bird, because they want to fly and chase goals.”
The mural will say proudly to Gizzy that “we’re here”, says Bishop, who has many projects planned for the kids.
The spring clean is being done in partnership with Gisborne District Council, contractors and local businesses, who donated trailer-loads of paint, spray cans, plywood, paint rollers, scrubbing brushes and rubbish bags.
The council offered to water blast the streets and take care of the accumulated trash.
Council liveable communities acting director Kerry Hudson said they water blasted the CBD as part of routine maintenance work and saw this clean-up as a great opportunity to support the community.
“It is great to see the community also taking pride in our places,” she said.
The working bee starts at 3pm (meet at 111 Gladstone Rd) and will go to 5pm.
People are welcome to head along and help sweep the streets, clean windows or pick up a paintbrush and assist with a local artist’s mural.
Community events group Gizzy Local connected organisers with local artists and the youth group.
With an influx of cruise ship visitors, holidaymakers and festival-goers over summer, organisers want to inject “a vibe” into the CBD.
It is also a positive response to negative news articles and comments people have made about the state of the CBD.
“We’re saying as a community, we get behind Gisborne and do something about it rather than just talk about it,” Kay said.
Kay said the quote “the forest can only regenerate once the leaves have rotted” reminded her of what they were trying to achieve.
“You cannot regrow until something has kind of got out from the ground up. We’re starting again.”
The group are also keen to build momentum that encourages people to feel pride and ownership over their city, which they hope will continue long after the event.
Meredith Akuhata-Brown said Gisborne had been through a lot in recent years and everyone was feeling fatigued.
“This year has been a year of tiredness based on recovery after cyclones and weather events out of our control.
“Our region needs to be reminded underneath all that is a new growth.”
The team thought spring cleaning was perfect because it was about “the vibrancy of new growth and the fresh newness of colour”.
They also wanted to remind people they could create the Gisborne they wanted to see.
“2025, revive!”
