OPINION:
During World War I there was no internet, texts, fax or Facebook.
Our people communicated through the wairua of music and poetry. E Pari Rā, was composed at that time by Paraire Henare Tomoana for his relative Maku I te rangi Ellison, who lost her son Whakatomo during the first World War.
The words of the song "E pari rā ngā tai ki te ākau, e hotu rā ko taku manawa" – describes the tide and the waves beating on the cliffs of Anzac Cove, being echoed by the sobbing and throbbing hearts of mothers, wives and sisters at home in Aotearoa.
The outgoing tide from Gallipoli, crimson red with the blood of soldiers slaying in the surf, symbolised the love of the sun reaching out to the mothers in Aotearoa, while the incoming tide and the beating waves on the shore of Anzac Cove was the love of the mothers reaching back to their sons, and the tears nullifying the tragic deaths and horror of war.
The song speaks of hope and heroism from the futility of war. The beauty of poetry and verse is its bridging of thought from the battlefields of death and destruction to the dreams of a better world rising from the pits of despair and desperation.