If you've driven through Greerton this past week and caught a flash of colour where there used to be blank concrete, you're not imagining it. The Greerton Village Mural Festival has had paint flying since June 15, and by the time it wraps with a community celebration this Friday, five walls across the village will be completely transformed.
This one matters to us. The line-up includes Tautoko Matehaere, Marsh Pearson and Manea Ngatai — names that have come through our doors more than once for cans — alongside Louis Mikaere and Millie Pidwill. Five artists, five sites, one village getting a serious glow-up.
Why Greerton
The festival was put together by Tauranga artist Sam Allen, who spent time with locals working out where the murals should go and what they should say. His reasoning is the kind we can get behind:
"The reason I initiated this project was to give love to Greerton because I've seen artworks go up around the city, the city centre, and over at the Mount, and I feel like this community needs some extra love and care – to put art on the walls and make this a better environment for people to live and work and exist here."
The walls
At the Chadwick St stairs, Marsh Pearson is putting up wheku and manaia figures standing watch over the space as kaitiaki, layered with tukutuku-inspired kaokao patterns. Tautoko Matehaere's piece reinterprets marae architecture in a bold purple-and-orange palette — a wharenui framed by carved guardians and native planting, with a taniwha emerging from beneath the brick. Matehaere put it simply:
"I think this festival is really important because it brings artwork and murals to communities that don't often get these sorts of large-scale projects. It's a great opportunity to revitalise Greerton and to give it some new life with some amazing new artwork."
Manea Ngatai is covering the carpark side of the Salvation Army Family Store with cherry blossom trees and classic cars, a nod to Greerton's long-running seasonal festival. Louis Mikaere's piece welcomes traffic in from the southern gateway with woven threads and birds, and Millie Pidwill closes out the northern end of the village with two fantails in flight near Greerton Hall.
Come through Friday
The official unveiling lands at 1pm Friday, June 26 at Greerton Library, with kapa haka from Greerton Village School and a live set from Treble in Paradise. If you've got cans sitting in the garage and you've been putting off your next wall, this is exactly the kind of thing worth wandering down to see in person.
We'll be watching to see what comes next from this crew — and if you're working on something of your own and need supplies, you know where we are.
Source: "Murals to brighten Greerton," SunLive, 12 June 2026