Paraire Tomoana, a composer of that time, wrote songs of the war, I Runga o Ngā Puke, E Pari Ra, Te Ope Tuatahi, and others, including Pokarekare Ana. From the horrors came hope, from the mud and bloodbaths came beauty, from death and despair came dreams of glorious futures.
E Pari Ra talks of the beat of the waves on the cliffs of Gallipoli at high tide carrying the forlorn messages of the dead sons to their mothers in Aotearoa and Australia, carrying these greetings on the crimson outgoing tides to the homeland shores.
Tears of love from the mothers to their sons were borne on the incoming cleansing tides, arms reaching, healing the hurt that only mothers' tears and embrace can do. From horror came hope, from bloodbaths came beauty, from death came dreams of peace.
The ocean's swells were a metaphor for the waves of soldiers killed in all the epic battles of WWI, Passchendaele, the fields of Flanders, Greece, Belgium, Germany and Egypt. The lapping waves were the symbol of sobbing hearts and souls.
The waiata I Runga o Ngā Puke talks of the whispering winds of freedom among the satanic hills and valleys of death and destruction. It's a song of a love-stricken lass watching her boyfriend march on to a troop carrier never to return.
Their love eternally reverberating among the mountains' capes of war, neutralising hate and reducing it to an inconvenience of the moment. Music can do that. Pokarekare Ana was written just before this period but has become the most famous love song this country has produced.
Great things have emerged from great despair, and Aotearoa New Zealand is leading the charge against Covid-19, against seemingly impossible odds.
Anzac in WWI was a renewal of our nationhood built on the signing of the Tiriti o Waitangi in 1840.
2020 should be a recommitment to those monumental events of the past as we recreate beauty from body bags, hope from horror, dreams from disaster.
Happy homebound, Anzac, everyone!
Tihei Mauri Ora!
• Ngahiwi Tomoana is chairman – Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated
