Anzac services are ‘important annual tradition’
Small-town Anzac services remain an important annual tradition for their communities and one that needs to pass to future generations, attendees say.
Shirlene Curtis-reid attended Sanson’s 9am Anzac Day ceremony despite being a Feilding resident, because her ill-health prevented her from making the dawn service.
As a young woman she became a medic for the air force.
Although she did not serve in wartime, she attended Anzac services to remember friends and family who served overseas and some did not return.
Amanda Waipo was also unable to attend the dawn service, due to her pregnancy, but she was glad to be able to make the later Sanson ceremony to continue her tradition of attendance and support her husband, who is in the air force.
Annika Mcbrearty went to the Sanson service as part of the Feilding Brass Band and said she had observed a decline in attendances at small-town ceremonies over the years.
This year, about 50 civilians attended. Despite that, Mcbrearty liked that the smaller ceremonies were more personal.
She said younger generations often did not understand how important Anzac services were and had ‘‘broken the habit’’ of attending.
During the lockdown, when services were cancelled, she was the only one in her street to stand at her driveway at dawn on Anzac Day.
Beatrice Eccles said everyone in her street stood at the end of their driveways last year.
Attending services was a tradition that could only be kept so long as parents continued to bring their children, who could then pass it on to the next generation.
Delphine Parker, who organised the service, said locals returned each year because ‘‘we have always been very supportive of the soldiers who returned and those who did not return’’.
Her father-in-law, Arthur Parker, served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces during World War I. He said he survived the day 800 men died in Ypres, Belgium.
In Rongotea, siblings Louise, Olivia and Cameron Amey agreed attending Anzac services was something they did out of tradition. Their grandfather and great-grandfather were in the military, so when they were children they would go with their dad, aunties and uncles.
Although they don’t attend every year, Louise and Olivia – who now live in Wellington and Auckland, respectively – came home over the long weekend and decided to go.
Despite only having 100 more residents than Sanson, the Rongotea service was at least three times the size.
Paul Quarrie believed this was down to Rongotea being good at keeping tradition and the strength of the local RSA, of which his father – Manawatu¯ district councillor Andrew Quarrie – is chairman.
Paul Quarrie usually attended the Feilding dawn service as well as the local one but this year was in the middle of shearing and, unfortunately, ‘‘sheep don’t understand’’ that it was Anzac Day. ‘‘It is very important to remember the sacrifice of generations past and to pass on that knowledge to future generations,’’ he said.