"They didn't go away to fight for 'God, king and country', that was a narrative developed after the war," Te Rangikaheke said.
"He didn't sit us down and talk directly to us about the war, it came out in dribs and drabs every now and again, as moments of reflection for him."
He says the family were left having to piece together a lot of those thoughts.
"Dad once said that he didn't enjoy the job of killing people, and he killed a number of people who came up against him in the war. He didn't get any satisfaction from that, in fact he said that it left him bewildered at night when he put his head down to sleep."
Te Rangikaheke said it was more about the camaraderie and Maori were "keen on a good scrap".
"But we also had in our blood the ability to come back and work the land, be a father and provide for our people.
"The war generated a lot of hype, especially among Maori men, but not among our women who would be left at home waiting for them.
"I think they had a menial lifestyle, and there was an air of excitement about the war which attracted them - heading off overseas to another country on a great adventure."
He said there were many reasons why they went - the drudgery of manual labour and the need to escape the toil of daily life were other factors.
"They had inadvertently left behind the colonising processes of the day - that they may not have been aware of at the time - but it caught up with them when they got back."
Land confiscation and the death of his brother on the battlefields of France soon brought Albert Kiripatea back down to earth.
"Although he didn't publicly say it, he became quite despondent. Many of the men - Maori and Pakeha - had a lot of difficulty trying to get ahead and make their mark after the war.
"Pikirangi on the lakefront was where our papakainga (village settlement - "a nurturing place to return to") was, but the Public Works Act took that away and he ended up on Basley Rd.
"He was promised a lot of things by council in his struggle to maintain the whenua (land), but everything turned out ugly for him.
"He asked 'just give me a place where I can see Mokoia Island' but he ended up not being able to see a thing."
Mr Kiripatea said his father soon realised his efforts in the war meant nothing when he got home.
"The realisation set in when he saw the land being taken from directly under his feet.
"He asked "why did we go away only for those precious things to be taken away from us?".
"It's only now, 100 years later, that's starting to sink in - that it was an absolute waste of time.
"Were our people told lies - the people of the Commonwealth - by the Empire?"
In the one suit he owned Albert Kiripatea went to every march or parade he could but he never went to the RSA for a drink, he was not a social person.
"But he was a wonderful man, a man of mana and integrity, he never hit his kids or beat up his wife, not that anyone should hit a woman - but he was a very grumpy bugger at the same time.
"I can understand now why he had a grumpy disposition. It seemed that his efforts and the efforts of many soldiers, were just ignored.
"I know some of the institutional racism that existed got on his nerves.
"The banks didn't want to know him when he asked for money to develop his land - but if he wanted to sell - they were his best friend."
Albert Kiripatea, unlike his brother, survived the war, was married three times and had 31 children. But the mark of war followed him all of his life after he was badly wounded, suffering gun shot wounds to his stomach and shrapnel wounds to his neck.
"All the men who came back had issues with the war and what it did to them.
"My dad was no different, he was itinerant in many ways.
"But he would pray daily, early in the morning and late at night, he stuck to his tikanga and I think it was his way of overcoming the mountains that confronted him."
- Matthew Martin
