Exhibition marks war sacrifices

New Zealand sacrifices at Flanders Field will be remembered in Featherston at the Passchendaele: the Belgians Have Not Forgotten exhibition in July.
The free entry exhibition, which will run at the Anzac Hall in Featherston for six weeks from July 17 is touring six centres in the country and to commemorate the sacrifice of New Zealand soldiers at Flanders fields during World war I and will begin its national run in Wellington in early March, said tour spokeswoman Lauren McKenzie.
Ms McKenzie said Featherston is one of only two New Zealand centres with a twinning arrangement with Belgian counterparts; Featherston and Messines, and Waimakariri in South Island with Passchendaele.
She said two Passchendaele Museum representatives curator Franky Bostyn and Freddy Declerck, chair of the Passchendaele Society that runs the museum - were joined by diplomat Rowland Woods, the honorary consul for Belgium, and hosted by South Wairarapa mayor Adrienne Staples in December.
"they were greatly impressed with their visit and deeply honoured with an invitation to lay wreaths at the memorial in Featherston.
"The link between Messines and Featherston, that occasion and the enthusiasm of people like (South Wairarapa District Council Mayor) Adrienne Staples made their mind up to include Featherston on the six-centre tour itinerary."
Mr Declerck said the 18,000 casualties from 100 thousand New Zealanders who served from a population of a little over one million "is a very significant loss for New Zealand and I think there is no original family who has nobody lost, not only at Gallipoli, but also Passchendaele.
"Passchendaele should be significant in your country also."
In four hours time on one day alone, October 12, 1917, New Zealand forces suffered 2700 casualties, including 845 fatalities, trying to capture the Bellevue Heights on the outskirts of Passchendaele.
"They were slaughtered and had to be withdrawn. It took two days to clear the battlefield of bodies," Ms McKenzie said.
"That remains our bloodiest day with those losses more than the combined total from the eruption of Mt Tarawera, the Hawkes Bay earthquake, Tangiwai rail disaster, sinking of the Wahine, and Erebus."
Mr Bostyn said the people of Flanders and, more widely, the people of Belgium have never forgotten the New Zealand sacrifice.
"In 1917 your country left an important part of its history here in Flanders, not only the events, but also the men, the men are all here, a part of our land.
"90 years later we have what we have now one of the most prosperous areas in Europe, rebuilt and with great economics and it is thanks to these men who came here, voluntarily to fight for freedom.
"Our gratitude to them will last forever."
Passchendaele: The Belgians Have Not Forgotten reverses the journey made by those soldiers from the "uttermost ends of the earth" bringing the Belgian memories of the New Zealand sacrifice to life through images, movies and artefacts.
The exhibition features photographs by award winning British photographer, Michael St. Maur Sheil, sculptures by Belgian artist Rik Ryon made from driving bands of shells, and relics from the battlefields themselves, she said.
"We want to show New Zealanders how we care for the dead and how we remember and live everyday with their history," Mr Declerck said.
"In the early years after the war, New Zealanders couldn't afford to come to Belgium to commemorate your people, your people who are here under the graveyards, our graveyards and so it has been our duty to guard and commemorate them.
"Today, more and more ordinary people are thinking of an uncle, a great uncle, who they have not known and who they have heard stories about, that has come to Flanders battlefields.
"But where it is not possible for them to see it with their own eyes, they can never really know what happened here, where they have been, how they have suffered, what the mud was like and so on.
"We are saying to you, we will take care of your dead, but you are always welcome here in Flanders. Come travel in the footsteps of your ancestors. We would love to see you."
The exhibition will tour six centres, opening at the Hall of Memories at the National War Memorial in Buckle Street in Wellington on March 6, Ms McKenzie said.
From there the tour will travel to Christchurch, Dunedin, Featherston, Waiouru and Auckland.
The New Zealand Army is managing all the logistics and transportation throughout New Zealand.