The last surviving member of the 28 Māori Battalion, Tā Robert Gillies parading the Battalion’s battle honours flag for the first time ever in Rotorua this weekend.
The 28th Māori Battalion Battle Honours memorial flag will fly for the first time in 76 years on Waitangi Day at the Muruika Urupa.
It will be presented by Tā Robert Gillies, the battalion’s last surviving member, in Rotorua on February 6, who says it will be “very warming” to see the flag paraded “in memory of the men who gave their lives”.
Gillies, who served in B Company during World War II from 1942-1945, said up until now the battalion’s 42 Campaign and Battle Honours had never been publicly displayed.
“This is 70 years too late,” he said.
“We were volunteers not conscripts and we fought for six long years. The whole Battalion agrees.”
Gillies hoped the New Zealand Defence Force Māori Battalion flag and the 28th Māori Battalion Battle Honours memorial flag would stand next to each other as pou maumahara (memorial carving) acknowledging the sacrifices made during World War II.
He told the Rotorua Daily Post he had mixed emotions about the flag being paraded after so long.
“It is very warming to see the flag flown after so long in memory of the men who gave their lives,” he said.
“It represents not only us but the whole of Māoridom. The missing men will always be sadly missed and they will always be remembered by the whole iwi.”
Tā Robert Gillies - the last surviving member of the 28th Māori Battalion. Photo / Andrew Warner
Asked why it had taken 76 years for the flag to be publicly displayed, Gillies said one reason was the battalion had been forgotten.
He would present the flag at Waitangi on February 18 where a kawa mate (mourning ceremony) will be carried out, before returning the Taonga Tūpapāku to Waitangi on Anzac Day.
In March 2008, The New Zealand Defence Force presented a 28th Māori Battalion commemorative banner to the 28th Māori Battalion Association at Tūranganui a Kiwa. But the banner did not show the battalion’s campaign and Battle Honours.
In March 2021, Gillies lodged a statement of claim with the Waitangi Tribunal that the Crown had failed to protect the mauri, mana, mātauranga Māori, embedded kōrero and taonga of the battalion by omitting to display the campaign and Battle Honours.
Thousands attended a medal ceremony in honour of B Company of the 28th Māori Battalion at Rotorua’s Te Papaiouru Marae on December 3. Among the crowd were whānau of 89 battalion soldiers who were presented with their ancestors’ World War II service medals.
At the ceremony, Gillies directions were that a memorial flag was to be produced and displayed without further delay.
