“Haere e tama ma. Haere me te whakaaro ki te pupuri i te rongo toa a o tatou tipuna. Kia wehi ki whakaaro ki te pupuri i te rongo toa a o tatou tipuna. Kia wehi ki te Atua. Whakahonoretia te kingi”
“Farewell, young men. Go and uphold the name of our warrior ancestors. Fear God. And honour the king.”
Our heads were bowed as our whanau recited those words. The pride had caused such a sudden rush through my blood, I could not hold the tears back. For those words had affected me hugely because I knew for a fact that all my brothers here, together as one, would use those words as a motivation to fight for our freedom of our whanau, and to give all that we had into it. I feel the strength of my whanau giving me more hope and confidence, trusting me with all their might to represent our iwi.
Room 5 is currently focusing on The Maori Pioneer Battalion. Our task was to imagine we were one of the 500 men in the Maori Contingent. We had to imagine we were had boarded the troop ship ‘Te Hokowhitu-a-tu’ in February 1915 and describe on a page in our fake diaries how we felt hearing the words :Farewell, young men. Go and uphold the name of our warrior ancestors. Fear God. And honour the king. (When translated into English)
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