We remember them still

Iwas driving back to Taupo¯ after attending the Tu¯ rangi Dawn Parade at Waihi Marae when I heard, during an Anzac Day discussion on RNZ, the following statement: “It is possible to die twice: once when you physically pass away, and again when your name is no longer remembered”.

Judging by the turnout in the Taupo¯ District last Sunday, those who have served and died overseas are well and truly remembered. From the poignant service at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Tokaanu, where the churchyard cenotaph records just one name: Te Turi Wharepapa, killed in Belgium in 1917, to the longer lists on the cenotaphs in Taupo¯ and at Waihi, many of them well-known local names from local hapu and iwi and early families, we remember them still.

As dawn broke across the lake and the strains of the Last Post rang out, it was a wonderful day to gather and to say thank you, to recognise the sacrifice made by those who died, those who served and those who are still serving overseas. And, as one speaker at Taupo¯ ’s civic service said, Anzac Day is not about glorifying war. Quite the opposite.

Mayor David Trewavas spoke not only of those who died, but also of those who survived and came home, but with terrible scars, both physical and mental, which they and their families carried for the rest of their lives. He talked of his forbear, Joseph Trewavas, who fought in the Crimean War (1853-1856, 530,000 men perished) and was awarded the Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria herself, but who took his own life in 1905, apparently as a result of the anguish he suffered.

It was not just men affected. Tu¯ rangi RSA president Ken Jellyman spoke of the role of women in both world wars — including 10 New Zealand nurses killed when the transport ship Marquette was torpedoed in the Aegean Sea in 1915 — and who continue to serve New Zealand overseas. At the Taupo¯ service,

Tauhara College student Stacia Haitana spoke of the role of animals in war and the great sacrifice they made — such as the 10,000 horses sent to World War1, of which only four returned to New Zealand.

NZDF chaplain Rev Anthony Brooking, who took the civic service in Taupo¯ issued a challenge to everyone there: that we should continue to commemorate this occasion into the future, to make the past real and tangible, and pass on this understanding to our children and they to theirs.

He spoke of two recent initiatives: the unveiling at the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park of a memorial sculpture by Samoan New Zealander Michel Tuffery which honours the service of soldiers and coast watchers from the Pacific Islands in support of New Zealand during both world wars and later conflicts. The second is the purchase of a building in Le Quesnoy, the French village that Kiwi soldiers liberated from the Germans in 1918. It is planned to open a museum of artifacts and exhibits honouring the New Zealanders’ epic actions in securing the village’s freedom.

“These enduring monuments should galvanise future generations to continue to gather, as we do this morning, in remembrance, recollection and reverence,” Rev Brooking said.

Ka maumahara tonu ta¯ tou ki a ra¯ tou. We will remember them.