28th Māori Battalion Memorial flag (finally) flies high again with rightful honours

The 28th Māori Battalion’s Battle Honours Memorial flag with the battalion’s 42 Campaign and Battle Honours were presented and recognised at Muruika, Ohinemutu yesterday and raised by the corps’ sole surviving member, Tā Robert Boom Boom Gillies.

“It’s settled, we got it, it’s done, yes it has been completed,” Tā Robert said.

The award of campaign and battle honours is an acknowledgment by the sovereign, which recognises the presence of a battalion and allows the battalion to display its battle and military traditions, but the 28th Battalion’s campaign and battle honours were never been publicly displayed.

The lead researcher on the establishment of the flag was Dr Harawira Pearless.

“We made this flag together. Tā Bom wanted us to follow Māori protocol and not that of the Treaty partner,” Dr Pearless said.

“We were told that there was no line of inheritance between the 28th Maori Battalion and a successor unit to receive these campaign and battle honours.

“However, Tā Bom has accepted the flag on behalf of his fallen soldiers.”

In displaying the campaign and battle honours for the first time, Tā Robert’s hope is that the New Zealand Defence Force 28th Battalion flag and the 28th Battalion Battle Honours Memorial flag stand side by side as pou maumahara that acknowledge the parallel sacrifices of tangata Tiriti and tangata Tikanga Māori during World War II.

Undergraduate scholarship winner Leigh Albert with, from left, VC recipient Willie Apiata, Māori Battalion veteran Sir Robert “Bom” Gillies and Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Following the Kawe Mate Taonga Tūpāpaku at Muruika Urupā, Tā Bom will be presenting the 28th (Māori) Battalion Battle Honours Memorial Flag at Waitangi on February 18 and thereafter a kawe mate will be carried out to the Kamupene C and Kamupene D rohe before the taonga tūpāpaku returns to Waitangi on Anzac Day.