Northland remembers
Thousands commemorate Anzac Day • Younger generation honour fallen soldiers • Why it’s important to attend services • Sheryl Mai: A day of great significance
At least 5000 turned up to honour Anzac war veterans throughout Northland and organisers were particularly pleased with a huge turnout of primary school-aged children.
After missing out on last year’s commemorations due to Covid-19, Northlanders flocked to their nearest centres on a crisp morning to say “we will remember them”. The theme for this year’s Anzac Day was women in the military.
“I’m very happy with the turnout. The weather was good once again, we struck it right. A lot of people did miss last year and it reflected this morning,” Whanga¯rei RSA president Kevin Peachey said.
“I think the popularity is growing over the years. There are lots of younger people involved. There’s more and more children coming to these parades now.”
Whanga¯rei Girls’ High School head girls Aimee Clemow and Chloe Overeem read out the names of 30 war veterans who didn’t return from WWI while Peachey and Echo Lillicrap were the first to lay a wreath.
Peachey told thousands at Laurie Hall Park during the dawn service the role of women in war was originally associated with weeping, waiting, and working but that had changed.
Women, he said, now serve in conflicts and while their military involvement in WWI was rare, it did exist. He cited Russian aviator Eugenie Shakhovskaya, the first woman to become a military pilot when she flew reconnaissance missions in 1914.
“The 1914 war was very much a men’s domain and it was unthinkable for a woman to fight alongside men. Yet by the end of the war, over 200,000 women were in uniform officially serving their countries.”
To many, he said, the idea of women in combat was abhorrent during WWI — far removed from the picture of the “ideal women” as gentle, nurturing and pacifist.
Captain Brendon Clark of the Royal New Zealand Navy said the terrible loss at Gallipoli and on so many other battlefields brought grief and loss to many homes across New Zealand.
Over the past year, at any one time, he said about 1200 of our sailors, soldiers, airmen, and airwomen have been contributing directly to New Zealander’s Covid-19 response by being at the frontline in managed isolation quarantine facilities.
“There’s no doubt that this work has challenged our personnel and their families. The operation has also demonstrated that military personnel are dedicated professionals who have committed to upholding New Zealand’s national interests and the principles we all hold so dear, both at home and abroad.
“Today we also acknowledge that this modern service just as it was in the past, never without costs and sacrifices. The men and women of the armed forces choose to serve. Our families do not. And for that very reason we must acknowledge the sacrifice that our wha¯nau make thereby enabling us to serve.”
United Kingdom defence adviser to New Zealand, Wing Commander Andrew Bryant, spoke about supporting war veterans and the challenges they might face in terms of mental health, which was just as challenging as physical health at times.
“So on this Anzac Day, we think carefully and challenge ourselves about how our actions might help, whether through making a donation, or things that we might do differently.”
In the mid and Far North, hundreds of people of all ages turned out to Kerikeri and Paihia dawn services.
In Kerikeri a crowd of around 500 gathered at Kerikeri Domain outside Procter Library on a clear morning.
At 6am, the lone piper could be heard playing bagpipes as returned servicemen and women along with RSA members, Fire and Emergency staff and school cadets marched from the street through the gates.
Far North District Council chief executive Shaun Clarke spoke about the loss of life during WWI. He was followed other speakers honouring the sacrifice soldiers made, their courage and the impact on families.
After hymns were sung, there was a minute of silence before the Last Post was played.
The roll was called for locals who served in World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War, before the bagpipes sounded once more.
The head boy and head girl of Springbank School recited poems before the laying of the wreaths.
The New Zealand and Australian national anthems were played, then the parade filed out of the domain and the public were invited to lay poppies alongside the wreaths.
All over Northland people gathered to remember the dead at events big and small. Some services were organised by RSAs, while in smaller places locals commemorated past sacrifices in their own way.
In Tapuhi, on farmland about 10km north of Hukerenui, a lovingly restored memorial is inscribed with the names of local men who died in WWI.
More than 120 people turned out for the 9am service there, which even featured a fly-past by a Cessna, a piper and a gun salute by Taumarere’s Roger Crowden firing an 1823 rifle.
Chairs and tables were set up on the road for tea and Anzac biscuits afterwards.
Organiser Kevin Judkins, a former captain in the Merchant Navy, spoke about how the treaty that ended WWI, instead of bringing peace, spawned a raft of new conflicts across Europe and the Middle East which continued to be felt today.
He remembered two Tapuhi servicemen who passed recently, Stan Hayes and Glynn Henwood.
Henwood had the foresight 20 years ago to plant two kauri behind the monument. They form the number 11, the number of names inscribed on the monument.