This portrayal of Katikati’s main street is based on a sepia photograph taken between 1935 and 1940. The National Bank agency, which opened once a week, is the tiny building in the foreground. It was on the site now occupied by Village Fare. The building was later used by an accountant, as a bus depot and than by lawyer, before being removed.
The street seems deserted. It can’t have been sale day, when all the farmers and their wives come to town. After the sale of cattle, sheep and pigs at the sale-yards at the north end of town, the stock was driven along the main street to the railway station on the other side of the river to be railed away. The animal’s behaviour was not always as placid as the shopkeepers would have wished! For artist Peter Cramond the mural represents Katikati’s past and future – two cultures together in a community.
A positive spiritual energy form the past is helping those in the present to build a strong and secure future. Peter is from Mount Maunganui. He says a diving accident in 1982, in which he broke his neck, had one big plus – it enabled him to concentrate on painting full time.
