Descendants of soldiers who fought in the Māori Battalion say they were astounded to learn their family members never received their war medals.
Photo: Supplied
A list of 134 soldiers from the battalion's C Company has been published online, along with a call to their families to claim the medals on their behalf.
The medals have been sitting in storage for the last 75 years.
Photo: Supplied / Stephen Priestley
Stephen Priestley, the son of William Augustine Priestley, was overwhelmed to see his father's name on the list.
"When he was still alive I did ask him if he had his medals but he never ever answered me," he said.
"I just assumed, at that time, that he had been awarded his medals and he just had thrown them away. I felt very sad for my father, but very pleased that we will be able to get these taonga. They will be a remembrance to him."
Priestley's father was a truck driver on the East Coast when he joined the army.
A heart condition could have stopped him, but the medical officer in Tokomaru Bay, where he enlisted, recognised how hard he worked and decided not to perform a full medical.
Priestley said his father rarely spoke about the war, but when he did, he told stories about the good times he had with his mates.
"The only stories that we got from him about the war was when he went to a 21st birthday in Crete and had a very good time there. If he had of been caught he would've been charged and brought up in front of the Commanding Officer for going Absent Without Official Leave," he said.
"He must have had good soldier skills because he was never caught."
Lawyer David Stone spent a year and a half looking through every file from the Māori Battalion's C Company to find the soldiers who should have received their medals but never did.
He did it all in his own time after his request to the Crown for help on the project was rejected.
The Minister for Veteran Affairs, Ron Mark, said getting medals to whānau was not a straight-forward process.
"It's not a simple matter to try and resolve, there are some complexities," he said.
"For some it will be very easy, the soldier never received it, never claimed it and there it is, waiting for the whānau. The next part will be for the whānau to determine who should become the kaitiaki of that taonga on behalf of the whānau."
He said if re-elected, he would re-look at how the Crown could assist whānau to receive the medals.
But Haley Campbell was deeply grateful she did not have to wait.
Photo: Supplied / Haley Campbell
Her koro, Joseph Hemotu Campbell, and uncle, Pani Campbell, were both included in Stone's list.
"It was very overwhelming to see the names listed there. It was a proud moment for us and I just want to give a big mihi to David on behalf of our entire whānau. If it wasn't for his work we would have never known," she said.
"My dad was only 12 years old when my koro passed away, and dad was an only child so I let him know and he was quite blown away, really, to see his father's name on the list."
Haley said her koro may not be here anymore, but the memory of him and that of the 28 Māori Battalion would continue to live on.
"The significance of those taonga, they will be passed on to the next generation," she said.
"Those hōia in the Māori Battalion, they were fighting for our Māoritanga, to keep that alive."
Stone is working with the New Zealand Defence Force to organise a formal medal ceremony for whānau.
