Our head students attended three ANZAC ceremonies in Woodend and Kaiapoi this week.

They presented a total of six personal and heartfelt speeches on what ANZAC Day meant to them. It is with great pleasure that we present two of those speeches in this newsletter, one from Josh Keating, who spoke at Woodend on Monday evening, and one from Jade Wilson, who spoke at the Kaiapoi dawn service.

We also want to give a big shout-out to Abi Hannah, Lee Pockson, Te Hiira Kerr, and Wolf Pene. Their speeches were also fantastic, and they were great representatives of the youth in our community. We're so grateful for their contributions! 

Josh Keating:

ANZAC Day, a day brave families not by choice, let their loved ones see the world they were promised, they set out for a war the world was never ready for. They left their warm beds, beautiful homes, and loving families that for some, they had just started to fight for their country, and the future we now call today. As we breathe in the cold air, they were treated to warm weather, far from the normal of New Zealand.

As we marched up the street, they marched upon the beaches of foreign sand and soil. They laid the pathway we take using the bullets they fired, the lives they took, and the many lives they gave in the many battles they fought.

At times like these, as young children, we are always told to remember but never told what, we never questioned, tilted our heads, or screwed our noses, we bowed our heads when others did, we crossed our hands like others did, and tried our hardest to remember. But came up with nothing. As we grow older like the kids of the soldiers who fought, and their grandkids and so on...

We soon learn what it all means, we remember the name Gallipoli, what soldiers are, and what sacrifices they made, approximately 8000 sacrifices were made during Gallipoli, amongst those 2800 were dead; The Battle of Messines approximately 3700 more sacrifices, 700 were dead. These brave men signed up for the good of their country, to protect brothers and sisters, without even knowing their names, and they added to a great success but with a great sacrifice.

They created a bond through blood and saw what no man nor woman should see and with that, a brotherhood was sealed. These are the heroes, who to most will remain faceless, a name to a plaque, another place in the family tree. But they are much more than that.

To acknowledge the importance of ANZAC Day in a three-minute speech could only be defined with one word. Impossible. Because the sacrifices that were made back then, are responsible for the society we live in today. Oftentimes it’s hard for this generation to comprehend the significance of these sacrifices because their vision of war has been shaped through technology. Video games that teach kids that fighting each other is fun. That the wars fought by the brave men we are here to remember are similar to the ones they play on their computers as they sit on their comfortable chairs, in their warm houses, being well-fed and cared for.

Sometimes I hear my younger brothers talk about crazy scenarios where they would have to fight just like in these video games, and I come to the sad realisation that they don’t realise just how significant the sacrifices made by the ANZACs were. Because the sacrifices they made were so much more than any video game could ever portray. They gave their lives for their families, for their country, and for us, our kids, and their grandkids. They gave their lives for all of us here today and all of us who will be here for many years to come.

It’s important that we come together on days such as today, to remember those that we lost, those that came back, and the significance of their sacrifices. Because all of us are here today because of them. So let us never forget those that we lost, and keep their memory forever alive in our hearts.

We will remember them.

Jade Wilson:

Kia ora. I would like to start by sharing some memories of attending ANZAC Day ceremonies that I have from when I was younger:

Early morning. Putting my hands in my dad’s pockets to keep them warm.

Silvery breath rising from the crowd.

The itch of the scarf that I told my mother I didn’t want to wear, but I was wearing anyway.

The glistening of red felt on black coats.

Hurting my hand trying to straighten the poppy pinned to my jacket.

Trying to slick my hair back so that it looked the same as the women marching in the armed forces.

Letting go of my mother’s hand, standing on tip-toe to get a better view of the wreaths being laid.

The sky warming, turning gold, and red. Looking at the sunrise with wonder.

Trying to figure out where that lonely music was coming from.

Seeing people standing at the very front, wiping tears.

Understanding that there was something very special, something very sad about ANZAC Day, but not yet understanding exactly what.

Tēnā koutou, my name is Jade Wilson, and it is my honour to stand before you as this year’s Head Girl at Kaiapoi High School.

My earliest memories of ANZAC Day all look like the ones I’ve shared above. No matter where we were in the country, my parents would wake me and my brothers, and we would walk down to the local dawn ceremony.

It is important to me to remember how ANZAC Day felt as a young child. This is because I believe that not only is it important to recognise, to mourn, and to remember today, but that it is also important for us to look, with an almost childish wonder, at everything that we have now because of the sacrifices of those who came before us.

Growing up in Aotearoa is growing up attending ANZAC Day ceremonies. For me, this has always meant growing up learning to look both to the past and to the future.

To pay tribute in my life, to the lives of the men and women who have gone before me, who have made our lives possible, is an honour.

I remember them by looking forwards into the space that they fought to protect. Looking at days like today, where we are gathered here together, hearts open, to commemorate our past. Looking to days to come, where there will be nothing as powerful and important as our ability to come together, understanding where we have come from, and who we have to thank.

Our soldiers. Our ancestors. Our warriors. Our whenua.

Each generation since has inherited the dream for New Zealand that they believed in.

I look to ANZAC Day, to the many lives that were lost, and to the many sacrifices that were made. I look to ANZAC Day and I look to this dream that they fought for, and I see Aotearoa thriving, our forests, our rivers, our people. Safe, healthy, and together, so that we may pay our respects. So that we may mourn, so that we may remember, so that we may thrive.

This is what ANZAC Day means to me.

For our planet, our futures, our livelihoods.

For their sacrifices, their loves, their beliefs;

we will remember them.

Ngā mihi nui.

Thank you.