Mural honours local legend

A blank canvas brought to life on a grand scale. A familiar figure in black and white. A name, a number. 

Painted by hand, brushstroke by brushstroke, this mural in Pāpāmoa was slowly revealed to people passing by. They stopped to chat with the artist, standing and staring in the winter sun, commenting on the beauty and sheer size of the artwork and its progress, day-after-day, for two weeks, until it was done. 

The finishing touch, white paint on black: Hirini. 5. 

The mural honours local legend Sarah Hirini, one of the world’s greatest ever rugby sevens players. One of New Zealand’s greatest ever athletes. The pride of Pāpāmoa. 

As a member of the Black Ferns Sevens team, Sarah has won two Olympic medals, two Commonwealth Games medals, two Rugby World Cup Sevens titles, and seven World Series titles. 

The 31-year-old of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa descent has been a captain of the team since 2014, she was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2019, and was a flagbearer for New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. 

She has also represented her country in the 15-a-side game and won two Rugby World Cups with the Black Ferns. 

What else is there for her to win? What could possibly come next? Paris.

The week before she flew out to France, just five days after officially being named in the New Zealand Sevens team for the Paris 2024 Olympics, Sarah sat down with local artist Millie Pidwell at Pāpāmoa Sports & Recreation Centre, a community facility in Gordon Spratt Reserve that will soon celebrate its 30th birthday. 

Millie, who specialises in hand-painted murals, was about to start the largest project of her Murals by Millie career. An artwork 90 square metres in size. 

She had been asked to honour, through her art, a Tauranga Tiahuia – a wāhine of great prestige and talent, connected to the local area, “who is inspiring, who has a lot of mana”.

“I wanted to choose Sarah because I just think you are so empowering for women and for young girls,” Millie said. 

This mural is the first of six commissioned by Tauranga City Council around the city as part of its Tauranga Tiahuia Mural Project. These murals will be revealed throughout the year and were funded by the Department of Internal Affairs through the Hine te Hiringa – Empower Women Utilising FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 Fund. 

Millie’s mural has Sarah standing strong, in her playing jersey, in her element, surrounded by nature. There are three birds in the image, symbolising community and whānau supporting Sarah on her overseas travels.

“I love birds. They remind me of home. And the pīwakawaka, I think, is quite spiritual in itself. For me, I’ve found that they naturally represent family members who have passed,” Millie said.

For Sarah, too. The pīwakawaka on her shoulder in the mural represents her mum Ronnie, who passed away in 2021. It illustrates the strong connection Sarah still feels. 

“Having her alongside me, or on my shoulder, for the rest of my life is pretty special,” Sarah said. 

She and her husband Conor have lived in Pāpāmoa for about 10 years now, after moving up from the lower North Island to be closer to the New Zealand Sevens base in Mount Maunganui at the Adams Centre for High Performance. 

“We thought it would be a pretty cool place to live and now, for us, this is home.” 

They live within walking distance to close friends and family and Sarah enjoys the strong sense of community and “small town vibe”. 

“Obviously we live in a city, but it doesn’t really feel like that in Pāpāmoa, it seems so much closer, seems very tight-knit, and I think that’s why I love it so much.” 

She sees the community coming together at Gordon Spratt Reserve – where Pāpāmoa Sports & Recreation Centre is located – whether it’s on a busy touch rugby evening, or during Saturday morning sport. Sarah goes for runs in the reserve with Conor, and she takes her niece and nephew there to play. She sees people out with their kids, lots of dogs running around. Families. People having fun.

“I’ve done a lot of training out on those rugby fields,” she said with a laugh. 

The Paris 2024 Olympics almost didn’t happen for Sarah. She’s been fighting her way back to full fitness after an ACL injury last December, which required surgery. Against all odds, Sarah recovered in time for Paris – keeping alive her dream of competing in the Olympics for a third time. 

“Just to have an opportunity to represent my country again, I am extremely proud and very, very happy,” Sarah said. “And not just my country. I know how much this community has done for our team ... we can feel the support wherever we go.” 

She says people come up to her in the supermarket to say how much they love the team. That home support continues when they’re playing overseas. 

“I think that, for me, is why I love being here in Pāpāmoa, because of the community support that you get whenever you’re travelling, whenever we’re playing.” 

From Pāpāmoa to Paris and back again. Sarah Hirini – Tauranga Tiahuia – will soon return home and see for herself, for the first time, the mural painted in her honour. It will inspire and connect her coastal community for many years to come.