Transcript
The bellowing morning karakia was swept through the air by the vigorous breeze at the National War Memorial.
Beneath a grey sky painted by swirling clouds, the dignitaries stepped forward one-by-one to a hole in the ground.
From Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Niue, Solomon Islands and others, they each clasped a stone from their respective countries to drop inside.
Above the hole will soon be the Pacific Islands memorial at Pukeahu, New Zealand's National War Memorial in Wellington.
And at the ceremony, the design was unveiled.
Te Reo Hotunui o Te Moana nui a Kiwa, or, The deep sigh of the Pacific.
It will be an engraved four-metre-tall bronze conch shell, sitting on one of the grass terraces that tumble down the hill from the towering carillion at the park's centre.
The park sits above State Highway One, on which traffic crawls through the Arras Tunnel - named after the tunnels from the First World War in France.
The memorial's designer is Michel Tuffrey.
MICHEL TUFFREY: That tunnel down here, Arras - it's connected to that. One of the soldiers had left a conch inside Arras, in the tunnel there, so I went on a mission to look for it. So I thought it was quite appropriate because it's a universal symbol that we use right through the Pacific, so it just made sense. Having the maire, or 'ei, strung around it just to celebrate our now. Then we've got poppies with shells - the actual shells from the artillery. There's a whole lot of symbolism.
Mr Tuffrey's design was selected from 19 entries.
The chair of the panel that selected it is Niue's High Commissioner to New Zealand, Fisa Pihigia.
He said selection was hard, because unlike the other memorials at Pukeahu -- Britain, Australia, France, the US, Turkey, etc -- the Pacific one has to represent an entire region.
FISA PIHIGIA: We are all different in our own identities, and to come up with one design that represents the whole Pacific is not easy. But the conch shell, it reflects the Pacific in a way that we use the conch shell to call our peoples to come together. It's like our last post, you know, when someone blows the bugle.
Hundreds of Pacific men from the farthest flung islands and atolls fought in the First World War a century ago, as New Zealand and Britain looked to the territories for reinforcements.
Many spoke no English and weren't accustomed with military uniform -- especially narrow, heavy boots.
They were then sent to the other side of the world to fight the empire's war, many to come face-to-face with European winters and diseases for the first time.
New Zealand's associate minister for culture and heritage, Carmel Sepuloni, says the contribution of Pacific Islanders in the First World War is often overlooked.
CARMEL SEPULONI: It's important because it serves as a reminder of the fact that Pacific soldiers fought alongside New Zealand soldiers, and lives were lost. And for many New Zealanders and Pacific peoples like myself even, it's not something that's commonly known. But I want, you know, other Pacific children growing up in this country to have a very clear and vivid picture of what our history is.
Michel Tuffrey hopes the memorial will help do that.
MICHEL TUFFREY: We've got the memorial space for our people, finally. That void that was missing in the memorial services. That's a huge history that we don't know about.
With the mauri stones from around the region now buried in Pukeahu's manicured lawn, construction of the sculpture will take place over summer.
It's hoped to be open by Anzac Day, in April next year.
