Lest we forget
This issue of new Phoenix is devoted to acknowledging ANZAC Day. Featherston and the wider Wairarapa has a unique association with the ANZAC memory. Not only was the WWI Featherston Camp the leaving point for 60,000 New Zealanders to serving destinations overseas – but, 81km heading east, the recently restored Tinui Church of the Good Shepherd is the site of New Zealand’s first ANZAC service (1916) and the erection of the first memorial on the summit of Mount Maunsell (Tinui Taipo).Up to 27% (or 1.47m) of New Zealanders are possibly related to men who were at the Camp (no you are not paranoid that everyone seems to come from Featherston!). This demographic estimate, ranging from 1.03m to 1.47m, seems high until you appreciate that these were younger men, who if they survived, had large families from which 4.5 generations have originated. In my own case, I have discovered from Archives New Zealand collections (1914 to 1918) that my grandfather and two great uncles were at the Camp. My mother’s family comprised of 14 surviving children.The geographic “arc” from the Featherston Stand He Tino Mamao sculpture to the Tinui Church of the Good Shepherd is an ANZAC trail commemorating these courageous young New Zealanders. It should be celebrated as a regional and national taonga
