The Green Family Scholarship was set up in 2007 to help Bermudians with financial need to attend college and university abroad. Too many Bermudians were unable to receive a higher education because they are unable to afford the fee, so the Green Family Scholarship was set up to address this problem. The Green Family has received so much from Bermuda over the years so that they are grateful to be able to give something back. – www.greenfamilyscholarship.bm

On a regrettable morning in 2009, the 400th anniversary year for the wreck of the Sea Venture (which led to the settlement of Bermuda in 1612), an icon of local tourism of the name met its Waterloo, but unlike that ship or the men of the Battle, its demise was utterly complete, as happens when bulldozers are applied to buildings of local stone. Waterloo House represented in the Bermuda vernacular and in Bermuda stone and lime mortar some of the glory days of tourism in these islands, in what some might say were gentler and more civilised times. The distinctive hotel joins a growing list of extinct guest houses and hotels, the death knell of which was sounded in part when earlier authorities fell in love with the instant money associated with "international business".

Thus began the serious neglect of tourism and of the thousands of Bermudians who depended on that trade, the Number One international business, a fact the then-leaders overlooked to the Island's detriment. Many still jump on the bandwagon, to bleat or trumpet their refrain that "Bermuda tourism is dead", helping to create a self-fulfilling prophecy: will the real killers please stand up and admit their crimes against local humanity?

Of course, the other "international businesses" are welcome here, but at the end of the day, tourism is fundamental to Bermuda and the wellbeing of its population, for it calls on our only natural resources, our people and our heritage, both manmade and natural. What should always been seen as a necessary partnership of tourism and international business has devolved into a one-upmanship where proponents of the latter take too much pride in pointing out the second-place position of the former, in "GDP terms" and other accounting jargon, that means little to nothing to those who depend directly on tourism for a wage.

Waterloo House and many other tourism and heritage gems have been sacrificed on the altar of international business, deaths which unwittingly contribute to the downgrading of some of the social and cultural reasons why international business and tourist visitors wanted to come here in the first place.

Being optimistic, perhaps the "New Waterloo House", as it is presently styled on a billboard on the hoarding which disguises the hole of its former reality, will be a good building in the Bermuda vernacular, as has been achieved in some other new buildings and will contribute through its design to the uses of both tourism and international business.

In the meantime, delightful new life has sprung on the edge of the ruins, forming "Bermuda, My Home", "the Country's largest Urban Public Art Exhibit", comprising a "huge canvas of 11 vignettes stretching 180 feet along Pitts Bay Road". The concept of The Green Family Scholarship, Berco Ltd, (the gracious sponsors) and Masterworks, 11 local schools were invited to paint a panel on the Waterloo House hoarding and to there "capture the essence of life in Bermuda", presumably including perhaps a little heritage.

From east to west, Clearwater Middle School appropriately starts with a map of a "green" Bermuda, surrounded by the natural wonders of the sea, with a delightful magnifying glass highlighting the school. They are to be forgiven for marking the major heritage site of Dockyard with the word "Shopping"! Next, the Bermuda High School founds their painting on a "Feel the Love" beach with a rainbow of people at the top, with a picture on an easel with the national flower, the Bermudiana, in the centre of a moongate.

The T. N. Tatem Middle School puts people up front with eight self-portraits presiding over images of St. David's Lighthouse, longtail and skink, kites and flowers, and the essence of the modern age, the cellphone. Saltus Grammar School is a riot of colour, surrounding a pink Bermuda bus, a transportation icon that appears in a number of the paintings. Multi-coloured Gombeys and parrotfish vie for attention with 24th May Race, sandcastles, and other symbols not quite understand by an ancient observer.

Dellwood Middle School painted a coastal scene with Bermuda dinghies, a canoe and a marlin, while on shore a red Bermuda buttery and Gibb's Hill Lighthouse straddle the land with a great fuse-lit cannon on a tiny carriage. Somerfield Academy goes almost for 1960s slogans of "Peace" and "Love", with the more current "Unity", all connected to the central image of the "Birdcage". Perhaps the Police Service enforces that triumvirate of good intentions from that perch on Front Street.

Mount Saint Agnes depicts a stratified world of sky, sea surface, land and undersea images. Pink houses, kite flying, frogs and dogs, and a barbeque paint a Bermuda in the sun. Perhaps fresh from an ocean voyage, the Learning Academy Express centered their mural on a great life ring named the Spirit of Bermuda, flanked by a Gombey and a large flower with an accompanying bee. Whitney Institute has students playing hopscotch and making a kite, watched by an i-Pod enhanced pupil, all against vivid background colours.

Sandys Secondary Middle School emphasises sports in Bermuda, along with a pink bus. Cricket, swimming, football, hockey and badminton compete with images of a laptop, iPod and TV controller labelled "Panthers" and a musical drum. The westernmost panel is the work of the Education Centre feature a large central "eye" on Bermuda, clearly painted by a cricket aficionado, for a ball, two crossed bats and a wicket cover the pupil. Appropriately, that panel is labelled in a way that can describe the whole group: "Bermuda my Home – Thru My Eye."

The Green Family, Masterworks and the schools are to be congratulated for that splendid piece of transient heritage, which hopefully will inspire passersby to think on what is important to Bermuda. It is a pity that parking in front of the mural could not be banned for the duration of the existence of this student mural.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to director@bmm.bm or 704-5480.