![]() "He is currently even more forlorn behind metal gates while the building is under construction." "Margaret Mahy and her Lion in the Meadow should be celebrated in this town," she said. The recent consideration of the move was brought about by a letter to mayor Judy Turner by Julie Smith, a receptionist at Whakatāne Intermediate School, who was worried the statue would be forgotten about in the redevelopment and that its current location was not prominent enough. ![]() ![]() When the library was moved to its current location at Te Kōputu a te Whanga a Toi, some people felt the lion should have gone with it, while others argued that it should stay in the courtyard named after the author. The site was chosen for the statue, and the courtyard it lounges in, because at that time it was at the entrance to Whakatāne's library where many of her books are enjoyed by children. Wellington artist Jonathan Campbell was commissioned by the Molly Morpeth Canaday Trust in recognition that Whakatāne was the birthplace of the much-loved New Zealand children's author. The lion, a character from Mahy's first published children's book, A Lion in the Meadow (1969), has been in Margaret Mahy Court since 2007. The bronze statue's position has been a sore point with some Whakatāne residents since the relocation of the library to Esplanade Mall in 2012. The Beacon photography department has transposed an image of the lion statue onto the lawn in front of Te Koputu just to see how it looks. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |