Freedom's faces

Whilst on a trip to the museum in a city little over an hour from us, we came upon the Maori Battalion display. Men who served during the Second World War for New zealand. Theirs is a facinating story of spirit and courage, adventure and comaraderie, victories and tragedies. They served on the battlefields of North Africa, Greece, Crete and Italy.

The Māori Battalion followed in the footsteps of the Māori Pioneer Battalion that served during the First World War with success, and was wanted by Māori to raise their profile, and to serve alongside their Pākehā compatriots as citizens of the British Empire. It also gave a generation of people with a well-noted military ancestry a chance to test their own warrior skills.

Our farm kids' maternal great grandfather served in Italy too. He spent 4 years or so confined to a tank. Once home, he never spoke of what he had seen but his life carried the scars. And the drink helped him forget.

Whilst the children watched a short film about the Maori battalion, I wandered along the rows and rows and rows of faces, faces of men who had dodged bullets, carried messges, fought in trenches for our freedom. I prayed for them and their families...and wondered where they all were now and how the war had shaped their lives.

Two little boys - Rolf Harris

Two little boys had two little toys
Each had a wooden horse
Gaily they played each summer's day
Warriors both of course
One little chap then had a mishap
Broke off his horse's head
Wept for his toy then cried with joy
As his young playmate said
Did you think I would leave you crying
When there's room on my horse for two
Climb up here Jack and don't be crying
I can go just as fast with two
When we grow up we'll both be soldiers
And our horses will not be toys
And I wonder if we'll remember
When we were two little boys
Long years had passed, war came so fast
Bravely they marched away
Cannon roared loud, and in the mad crowd
Wounded and dying lay
Up goes a shout, a horse dashes out
Out from the ranks so blue
Gallops away to where Joe lay
Then came a voice he knew
Did you think I would leave you dying
When there's room on my horse for two
Climb up here Joe, we'll soon be flying
I can go just as fast with two
Did you say Joe I'm all a-tremble
Perhaps it's the battle's noise
But I think it's that I remember
When we were two little boys
Do you think I would leave you dying
There's room on my horse for two
Climb up here Joe, we'll soon by flying
Back to the ranks so blue
Can you feel Joe I'm all a tremble
Perhaps it's the battle's noise
But I think it's that I remember
When we were two little boys

Photos: A marching song of the Maori Battalion :: photos of the men in the Maori Battalion ::

Most New Zealanders of my generation will know Rolf Harris - an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, painter and television personality. Harris was born and grew up in Perth, Western Australia