Nine Academy students and alumnae finally had the chance to see their artwork at the unveiling of the new mural at the elephant pavilion of the Honolulu Zoo last week.

During the second semester of last year, Shaianye-Victoria Natividad, Kyrie Holmes, Sierra Ching and Noemi Yoshida, Sidney Palea, Jaclynne Stern, Baelle Gay and Caroldine Huihui-Awa worked to finish the piece before the school year ended, but the project could not be completed until July.

Stern said, “It took a lot of dedication and time to finish this project. The piece involved a lot of details which made it very hard to create and paint, but in the end it came out just as we pictured it.”

The Watumull family is originally from India. The mural at the new elephant pavilion honors the memory of David Watumull, well known philanthropist. According to his wife, Sheila Watumull, the pavillion fulfills the couple’s dream for people to share their connection to elephants.

Ceramics teacher Kaycie Baltunado, who supervised the project, said, “The girls and I are humbled and grateful to Sheila Watumull for choosing our school to be a part of this beautiful project.”

The mural involves various cultures to showcase the diversity of Hawaii and the origin of Asian elephants.

Palea said, “In the mural we incorporated Eastern Asian regions of China, Japan and India, with the final area being Hawaii. The mural is broken into four different columns to point out the main features of each culture. On the Hawaii column there is King Kamehameha, an ukulele, a volcano, Nene, the ocean and tribal designs. On the column of India, there is an elephant, an Indian girl, a peacock, popular Indian fruits and the Taj Mahal. On the China column there are a Chinese pavilion, tigers, bamboo, the Great Wall of China and rice fields. On the Japan column there are a swan, Buddha, cherry blossoms, a geisha and koi.”