Gisborne’s main street has been “spruced up” and “revived”, with local artists painting bright colours to uplift the community.
About 30 residents swept the streets, painted over unwanted graffiti, and cleaned up rubbish, and the outsides of shop windows as part of the Spring Clean on Sunday.
Any blank piece of plywood that covered an empty or abandoned building on the riverside end of Gladstone Road now has a pop of colour. 
“People just got to it,” says Meredith Akuhata-Brown, one of the Spring Clean organisers and a former district councillor for 10 years.
She organised the event alongside her husband Jason Akuhata-Brown, and real estate agent Bronwyn Kay.
Meredith Akuhata-Brown said that like all things Tairāwhiti, it was made possible by the local people’s generosity, as businesses donated trailer loads of paint and supplies.
If people are proud of their city, they might not scribble on the walls, she said.
“Conversations on the day led to what else can we do with our partnership with the council.”
Shared ideas included new Tairāwhiti flags lining the streets to tell the region’s story.
“There could be a region-wide design competition.”
After years of being left in storage, an image of local steam train 165 has also been placed on the row of street art painted on the plywood that covers the old ANZ building, currently undergoing construction.
Rotorua artist Jacob Chrisohoou was commissioned for some artwork at the skatepark but it had to be put in storage when plans changed, so the Spring Clean organisers decided to take it out and feature it on the main street, Jason Akuhata-Brown said.
He said there has been a “ripple effect” since Sunday, with many other artists saying they are keen to “add their flair in other parts [of Gisborne]”.
Council acting director liveable communities Kerry Hudson said the council was hugely grateful to those who turned up to give the CBD “a bit of a spruce up”.
“The group did the mahi to improve some of the city’s derelict spaces and not rely on absent landlords or councils to make it happen.”
She said the council helped prepare the area by water-blasting the pavers and the Masonic Building and a few other vacant shopfronts on Gladstone and Lowe so they could be painted for the graffiti cover-up.
“Council will continue to clean vacant shops to keep things looking nice for summer,” she said.
On Sunday, seven local artists or art teams participated in the event, with many returning on Monday and throughout this week to continue their projects.
Among them was the Youth Group Ka Timata, founded by Freddy Bishop. At one point, he and his partner Arihi Matenga had about 20 children – friends of their four boys – spending time at their home each day instead of attending school.
Since starting Ka Timata in March, Bishop has reduced the number of children to seven by helping some return to school and equipping others with IRD numbers to find jobs. They are also looking into helping the kids with NCEA credits by correspondence.
In the early 2000s, Jason Akuhata-Brown established a youth group called Ka Timata, which Freddy participated in as a child and drew inspiration from to recreate.
The kids that remain in the youth group say projects like the spring clean inspire them.
“It keeps us feeling better both physically and mentally and keeps us out of trouble, and off the streets,” youth group participant and son of founder Kayhden Matenga-Bishop said.
Another artist and nephew of Freddy, Donald Bishop-Witeri, studied te reo Māori and Māori arts at Toihoukura at the Eastern Institute of Technology and sometimes taught art to the Ka Timata kids, he said.
His art piece will be on the plywood that borders the abandoned Masonic building and the picture will represent Kiwa, from Tūranganui-a-Kiwa.
“I’m going to be having his waka coming out of the sea, but using Te Ika-a-Māui (North Island) as his spine and then going into a beach sea view and connecting that up with the night sky,” Bishop-Witeri said.
Bishop-Witeri is not the only talent from the institute’s Māori arts at Toihoukura programme. There is also art from first-year students Georgia Latu and Tumatauenga Kururangi and third-year student Renee Macdonald.
Latu said their work is inspired by Pitau-a-Manaia, which is a common symbol in Te Tairāwhiti, found on wharenui and marae.
She said once the artwork is done when you first look at it, you will see the Pitau design, but upon further inspection, you will see a figure.
It asks you to “look deeper than what you see on the surface”, she said.
Self-taught artist Bob Henare said his artwork says “0 Six″ (the Tairāwhiti area code) and represents everyone on the East Coast.
“I’ve been drawing my whole life, back in our days we didn’t have anyone to learn it from.”
He said painting public murals is something he always wanted to do, but never thought would happen.
Event manager and artist Stellar Kristel said this is her first time creating a mural and she is thankful to all the local businesses who donated paint and equipment.
Her artwork is a yin-yang-inspired image of the sun and the moon.
“It represents the duality of all things – males and females, sun and moon, and all of the different cultures we have, and how all of our opposites complement each other.
“We need each other to balance out and find equilibrium,” she said.
