Battalion whanau remember lives lost as branch takes final parade at service

L-R: Gordon Paku, chairman, Janice Mangere, secretary, Heretaunga branch of the 28th Maori Battalion, laying a wreath - Anzac Day service, Ruahapia Marae, Hastings, the final parade of the Heretaunga

An Anzac Day service marking the final parade of a Hawke's Bay branch of the 28th NZ Maori Battalion Association turned particularly emotional yesterday as a crowd of about 200 awaited the hakari afterwards on a marae near Hastings.

The service was at Ruahapia Marae, the final parade of the Heretaunga branch which is being called to a close following the death last October of Rangi Whaanga, who had been Ngati Kahungunu's last surviving member of D Company.

His brother, Jim Whaanga, was among those present as family filled in time between wreath-laying and playing of the Last Post that closed the service by queuing with the frames and photographs they'd placed in front of the wharenui late-morning.

Then in succession they related some of what they'd been told, of and by brothers, fathers, uncles and grandfathers who had gone to war, in many cases losing their lives overseas or coming home wounded and shell-shocked and, in some cases broken, all in voluntary service fighting for rights which branch chairman Gordon Paku said were not really given until the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948.

The act changed the status of people born in New Zealand from British subject to New Zealand citizen. The men had fought as volunteer British subjects for "the right to citizenship, in their own land", Mr Paku said.

Many had enlisted from a young age, some trying as young as 14.

"He thought he was going to see the world," said one as she clutched a photo. "He came back a very different man."

They talked of men who had fought in the Boer War, the wars in Europe and North Africa, Malaya, Borneo, Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan, and the women and families who had let the boys go.

Mr Whaanga had gone at 16 in World War II to Italy, and also served with J Force to Japan after the war, and then Korea and Malaya.

While the national association was voted out of existence in 2012, Mr Paku reiterated yesterday that in the Heretaunga branch that could not happen before the last survivor had died.

The branch still has 10-20 "active" members and it may remain in some form for some time, with some also reiterating that while the men have passed the legacy becomes stronger as time goes on.

Yesterday's parade included Te Reo Hamuera Silver Band, which has been closely associated with Maori Battalion parades for more than three decades.