'Za sto sam ostavila moju ljepu domovinu?'

Among the images on the Croatian/Dalmatian pou that was unveiled at Te Ahu on Saturday are a mother and child, pondering what they had left behind when they emigrated to New Zealand.

"Za sto sam ostavila moju ljepu domovinu?' the mother asks. Why did I leave my lovely homeland?

So Drago Yelavich told Saturday's gathering as the pou was progressively unveiled. And while life in New Zealand might have been tough for the early arrivals, there was good reason to be grateful that they had come here, and stayed.

Mr Yelavich said the Dalmatian community had been "absolutely delighted" to be invited to contribute a pou alongside those representing the iwi of Te Hiku and another representing Pakeha. The result paid homage to the forebears of today's generations, often ostracised and discriminated against but determined to make a new home, and to contribute.

Fittingly, carver Paul Marshall had fashioned the pou from swamp kauri with an estimated age of up to 40,000 years, difficult wood to work with, but linked with the gumfields where many of the immigrants worked hard, often for little reward.

"But with fortitude, guts, sweat, tears and perseverance they were able to prosper for their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren," Mr Yelavich said.

"We now feel and believe that this visually stunning memorial will be an enduring edifice to admire and that everyone can be justly proud of."

Mr Yelavich went on to describe the pou's features, beginning at the top with the Biokovo mountain range followed by a typical stone house, the Adriatic Sea, trading and fishing boats, a steeple and bell tower, a monk playing a gusla, a tamburica player and dancers.

Lower down a young man stands on a jetty, waiting for the ship that will take him to New Zealand, a koru representing the joining of his place of birth and his new home.

There are crude shanties, gum diggers, camp oven bread and a spit-roasted lamb, orchards, grapes and wine-making, fishing and farming.

Many young Croatian men took Maori wives, Mr Yelavich added, and from those marriages came fine, strong, able children who had excelled in every sphere, from business, the professions and trades to the arts and sport.