A small child’s hand holding fast to the little finger of a tane’s against a sparkling beach background is the winner of the Aroha section of the 2018 ETW Poster competition.
The man behind the simple yet powerful poster is artist and Whakatane based pre-school teacher Jordan Schick.
He says the image drew itself because it says so much about his own life as a father of two boys.
“Creating that image took me back to when I stayed at home with my youngest son for two days a week. We’d go to the park and the beach. We’d play and climb rocks and throw stones into the sea. I loved those days and so did Te Koha.”
“When we had Jordan, our eldest boy, my wife, Sina and I felt, like many young parents, that we were doing the right thing by working long hours to provide for our family. By the time Te Koha came along, I was studying early childhood education and we made a conscious decision to earn less but spend more time with our tamariki in those all-important early years.”
Whānau first
Te Koha is now at school and Jordan works at a local pre-school four days a week.
“Friday is meant to be my art day but with kids, that ends up being a ‘do everything’ kind of day.”
Jordan puts his whānau first but that doesn’t stop him working to combine his career as an early childhood educator with his other professional skill as an artist and designer.
He created his winning ‘Aroha’ image, sitting on the couch, working on a new iPad he had recently invested in to further his artistic ambitions.
“Yep. I was just working at home on my iPad and now I’m able to pay it off with my prize money. It’s fantastic. My art has paid for itself. Hopefully, that’s going to continue.”
Design a poster
The competition to design a poster was based around three of the values that underpin the E Tū Whānau kaupapa:
- AROHA – giving with no expectation of return
- MANA MANAAKI – building the mana of others through nurturing, growing and challenging
- WHAKAPAPA –knowing who you are and where you belong.
E Tū Whānau is a movement for positive change developed by Māori for Māori. It’s about communities taking responsibility and action and supporting whānau to thrive.
Entrants could use any medium to depict a value and could enter as many times as they liked. More than 250 entries were received overall.
