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- By Times Junior Journalist Jianna Kapoor
Earlier this year my family and I travelled to Wellington. After a long drive, the first place we visited was the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, located on the Wellington waterfront.
As soon as I stepped inside, the museum was bustling with excitement. We explored some of the lighter exhibitions first, from birds and plants to the earthquake house.
However, as we wandered through the vast building, we soon came across the Gallipoli exhibition, called Gallipoli – The Scale of Our War.
The atmosphere immediately changed. We lined up, never expecting the experience to be so heart-touching. As we stepped inside the exhibition, we were greeted by a towering sculpture of Lieutenant Spencer Westmacott.
The figures were 2.4 times larger than real life and seeing the soldiers at that scale made the story of Gallipoli feel confronting and real. A timeline on the floor, beginning on April 25, guided us through the journey, while murals and audio stories brought each soldier’s experience to life.
Standing there, it felt as though I’d stepped into the past. One object that stood out to me was a trench periscope, which allowed soldiers to spy on the enemy while staying hidden. As I looked through it, the trench-like walls around me made it feel as if I were underground.
The floor beneath our feet told another story, showing how many people from different countries lost their lives during the Gallipoli campaign. In total, 130,842 people died, including about 8,700 Australians, nearly 2,800 New Zealanders, and around 1,350 Indian soldiers, along with many others from Britain and France.
Seeing these numbers made me realise how many young lives were affected, far from their homes. One of the most moving artefacts was a prayer book that saved the life of Private Hōne Tahitahi when a bullet struck it instead of him.
Near the end of the exhibition, we were invited to write messages on paper poppies and place them beside the statues, joining a sea of red poppies already on display. Before exiting, there was a faucet of cleansing water that we sprinkled on our bodies, following a Māori custom after being in the presence of the deceased.
I left the exhibition with a heavy heart and deep respect for those who served. We stand on land, the very land that holds us upon our feet, the land we grow up in, the world that we explore.
Yet we become greedy, unsatisfied, wanting more land from other countries. We don’t notice that the countries beside us are not defined by borders or places, but by their rivers that flow and mountains that tower.
Our world will continue to develop, because no matter how far we go, there’s always going to be more. If war continues in the future, our land will begin to fade and ache.
Remember, people disappear, but the land remains, carrying the memories of those who once stood on it. Lest we forget.
- Jianna Kapoor is in year 8 at Somerville Intermediate School
