An information panel installed with the work reads:

Aotearoa: Land of the Long White Cloud

“We need to keep the window open on our relationships and let nature merge the connection”

This mural combines an arrangement of windows, cloud, hand carving and familiar scenery to bring qualities of mythology, human creativity and natural phenomena into the present. The motif along the top is derived from a “Stairway to Heaven” pattern, inspired by the carved ornamental panels found in whare whakairo (meeting house) on marae throughout New Zealand.

The mural is on the wall of the old Electricity Department building which once housed the electricity generating plant providing power to Nelson central city.

The mural was repainted by the Unemployed Artists Collective in 1993, and recreated in 2009 by 28 locals and Chris Finlayson, thanks to a Nelson City Council initiative.

See also:

• Aotearoa by Chris Finlayson - Street Art Cities