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Perhaps, as the horrors – death, fire, and endless mud – unfolded around him, the soldier could grasp the conch, feel the warmth of a distant ocean, perhaps even hear it.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has unveiled a monument in the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, commemorating the war service of the Pacific Islanders.
The monument included a 4-meter-high bronze sculpture of a conch shell, called The Hotunui language of the Pacific. (The deep sigh of the Pacific)
Ardern said the ceremony was originally supposed to take place a year earlier, but was delayed by the Covid-19 shutdown, making it all the more special now that it has finally been unveiled.
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern inaugurated a new war memorial, Te Reo Hotunui or Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, for the Pacific islands.
“This monument is a recognition of the service and sacrifice of the Pacific peoples who supported New Zealand in WWI and WWII, and subsequent conflicts around the world.”
It was an enduring symbol of Aotearoa-New Zealand’s special bond with its Pacific neighbors, he said.
Capital artist Michel Tuffery, of Sāmoan and Cook Islands descent, created the shell after hearing the story of one discovered in WWI.
Soldier Angene Angene, her friends and the conch
During World War I, the New Zealand Tunnel Company, who were the first Kiwis to reach the Western Front, completed two vast networks of quarries below the town of Arras in northern France. After World War II, the tunnels were closed, but some time after they were rediscovered in 1990, a conch shell was found near a pillar inscribed by Private Angene Angene.
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Elder Peter Jackson blesses the memorial, The Hotunui Language of the Pacific.
Angene, one of a small group of Cook Islanders who served with New Zealanders on the Western Front alongside Private Isaac Solomona and T Kopunaiti, enlisted on Rarotonga and survived the war.
The shell, a Chicoreus Ramosus, is of tropical Indo-Pacific origin and it is speculated that one of the trio took it on their journey and kept it while in Arras as a reminder of their home.
Speaking at the dedication, Tuffery said that after learning about the shell while in France, he tried to find it.
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Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Hunt with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the start of the dedication ceremony.
“I went on my own trip to Arras to look for the shell, and the curators apologized on Armistice Day; the shell had been moved to a private museum.” While he didn’t find the shell, he said it gave him the inspiration to create “this beautiful narrative.”
The monument, which joins six other international monuments in Pukeahu, cost $ 450,000 and was funded by the government.
