Waiuku Sculptures

 Fred Graham - Birds soar in 

Commissioned to recognise NZ Steel’s Glenbrook mill’s 50th anniversary in 2015, the eight-metre steel statue, designed by acclaimed local artist Fred Graham, was brought to life by an army of Waiuku and districts engineers and tradespeople. Graham says its triangular panels depict the three Franklin sites that converge to see steel forged at the mill, Taharoa, Waikato North Head and Glenbrook. Fifty birds adorn the panels, the cut-outs recognising the lives of those connected to the mill who have passed, and the shaped birds the lives of those now associated with the mill, and the whanau supported by that relationship. Inside the triangle, pipes can be seen, honouring the pipeline that ultimately sees iron sand shaped into steel. “Atop the structure are three birds rising into the sky, the past, the present and the future,” the artist told the large crowd gathered for the opening. “Those elements are important because they recognise how important the mill has been to past generations - putting food on our tables, to us now, and to Waiuku and whanau yet to come.” Sixty tonnes of concrete make up a huge plinth for the almost two tonnes of steel that make up the statue, which can be lit at night. NZ Steel’s Glenbrook chief executive Glenda Stephens told the gathering that solidity honoured the relationship the mill felt to the town. “We are anchored here, this is where our people live and play, it’s a place at the heart of the mill’s community. “We want people to continue to come here and see a work that reflects our commitment to Waiuku, forged out of turning iron sand into the steel that sustains us.” “He has created something that will stand as an enduring monument to the mill, but which will also be a legacy for future generations of his own whanau, and the wider Waiuku community.” Featuring the Waiuku Stream, Centennial Park on Kitchener Road is commonly referred to by locals as Lions Lake. As a council facility, permission had to be obtained to put the sculpture in the park.

Fred Graham - Waiuku

Celebrated artist Fred Graham has unveiled a gift to the town he loves in the form of a sculpture carrying its name. ‘Waiuku’ becomes the latest addition to Auckland’s public art collection after its unveiling on the Glenbrook-Waiuku Road / Cornwall Road intersection. It expresses his aroha (love) and whakawhetai (gratitude) for the town where he has lived, worked and raised his family with wife Norma for more than 30 years. 

Based on the letter ‘W’. The four outer panels represent the people who have come from the "four corners" of the earth to be citizens of Waiuku and the surrounding districts. The four smaller inner vertical panels represent the Maori tribes whose names are associated with the area. The four koru acknowledge: the puhi, a girl of high rank: Tamakae who was that accepted chief: Tamakau who was the rejected chief and Te Atairehia who was the chieftainess after whom Ngati te Ata the tribe was named.  Tamakae was the provider, Tamakau the orator. Tamakau was first to meet the puhe but she requested Tamakae be presented. He was working in the kumara gardens and had to be washed in the wai (water) and uku (a type of white clay) at the stream that flows into the Manukau Harbour behind where the Waiuku Museum now stands, before he could meet her.  He won her heart, and they married, and from then on the area was known as Waiuku.  The sculpture is made of stainless steel weighing 1.4 tonnes. It is 5.2 metres tall and two metres wide. 

as printed in the West Franklin Breeze