Lianne - One City Together
  • Home
  • About
    • About Lianne
    • My Priorities
  • Speeches
  • Gallery
  • Contact

Mayor's speech restoration of 'Poppies over Gallipoli'

28/4/2015

 
Kia ora koutou katoa.
 
The Hon Nicky Wagner representing the government of New Zealand, Her Excellency Damla Say, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey, MP for Christchurch East Poto Williams, MP Nuk Korako, Councillor David East, Andrea Cummings, Chair of the Burwood-Pegasus Community Board, members of the Avon-Otakaro Network and friends.
 
It was on Remembrance Day 2003 that I, as the MP for Christchurch East, had the honour of unveiling this commemorative sculpture, Poppies over Gallipoli, designed by Ian Lamont and Judith Streat.
This event marked the culmination of a two-year collaborative effort by both the Burwood/Pegasus Community Board and the New Brighton Returned Services Association. Community and Council working together at the community board level to achieve an outcome that is owned by the community for the city to share – what a great result it was.
 
The earthquakes stopped this sculpture from being the striking landmark it had become. The damage was indicative of the damage to the whole area and their restoration on our first extended ANZAC weekend speaks to the restoration that will come to the area that I know and love so well.
 
The story of how the poppy became an international symbol of remembrance is filled with meaning, but the fact that it has an ANZAC twist in New Zealand makes this sculpture even more special.
 
For every generation there has been enormous symbolism in the poppy, the small red flower that grew so abundantly in the fields of war dating back to the Napoleonic Wars when poppies were the first plant to bloom in the churned up soil of soldiers' graves.
 
This connection between the red poppy and the war dead was renewed over a century later on the battlefields of Belgium and northern France. Those who served on the front line had noticed the extraordinary persistence of an apparently fragile flower; the cornfield poppy, which splashed its blood-red blooms over the fields every summer.
But its place in history was immortalised when a Canadian medical officer scribbled a poem on a page torn from his dispatch book, verses which were later published under the title In Flanders Fields
 
The inspiration for the verses had been the death of a comrade, for whom he had performed the burial service, and the significance of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance is described in the lines: "If ye break faith with us all who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields".
 
These verses served to inspire a French widow in 1920 to manufacture artificial poppies for veterans' organisations worldwide, the proceeds of their sale to go to their own veterans and dependants as well as to benefit the thousands of destitute children in France.
 
The first such poppy appeal was held on Armistice Day in 1921, but the ship carrying the poppies from France arrived in New Zealand too late for the scheme to be properly publicised prior to Armistice Day. The Returned Services Association therefore postponed its poppy campaign until the day before ANZAC day 1922.
 
And that's why Poppy Day in New Zealand is forever associated with ANZAC day, thus setting it apart from the rest of the world.
 
As I said at the Dawn Service two days ago we do not glorify war with these memorials and events, we commemorate the lives that were lost, we commit to the peaceful resolution of conflict and we honour the values they fought for.
 
Courage, loyalty, selflessness, honour and sacrifice – these represent the true character of the Australia New Zealand Army Corps and the bond that was forged between two nations on a distant battlefield a century ago.
 
And the freedom they fought for is symbolised 100 years later by a representative of the government of Turkey standing side by side with us today in honour of this occasion. The symbol of the poppy under-scored by those powerful, compassionate words of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, which she will read today.
 
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou. tena ra tatou katoa.
 
 
 
 
 
 

    Speeches

    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Speeches

    Social Media