PaeaG

I'm the 6th child out of a family of 10 and daughter of a Company C survivor . I travelled recently in May 2014 to battle sites and urupa with the Ngarimu VC Legacy Tour group. In 2010 with my own 2 daughters, I visited Gallipoli and had a private guided tour of all known sites of Maori dead. Our guide was Kenan Celik, the only Turk awarded The Order of Australia for his knowledge of The Anzacs. As I child I polished Grand Uncle Kurei Papuni's medal under my mother's watchful eye and thought how lonely he must be over "there". As an adult, I was to find out he had no known grave. Thanks to Kenan Celik who walked us over that path where Uncle Kurei would have gone the night he died. He walked many paths with us and I thought if rangatahi had this opportunity, it might impact positively on their lives too. A visit followed to Uncle Sonny Papuni's grave at Sangro River, Italy  where many dead are interred. Having visited all these places of warfare - Tunisia, Italy, Crete; Greece - in recent times, I have come to understand better the father I knew and the father whose familiar war photo were one and the same person - just coloured differently by the reality of war. Hindsight is a great teacher.