Cenotaph Stories

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Staying connected
Charlotte Macdonald
History, Victoria University of Wellington
In 2020 we are learning anew what distance and separation means. Charlotte Macdonald shows us that while distance in war time or distance to stop the spread of disease are two different reasons for separation but in both we turn to all the tools we have to stay connected, to save life as well as lives.
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I am the process not the product
Dina Jezdic
Contemporary Reflections Grant Recipient
Dina Jezdic reflects on her experiences as a child leaving Belgrade and arriving in New Zealand, and how New Zealand's first Covid-19 lock down transported her mind back to memories of Belgrade, and those times of constant awareness of politics and uncertainty.
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Back in my day, flour was a precious commodity!
FotuoSamoa Jody Jackson-Becerra
Contemporary Reflections Grant Recipient
"Gather around tamaiti, because I have a story to tell." FotuoSamoa Jody Jackson-Becerra shares a talatu’u, a story about a time, when everything changed. The year was 2020.
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Māori Mobilisation: Wartime, Peacetime, Covid-19-time
Dr Aroha Harris
University of Auckland, History Department
Historically, major crises – whether war or disease – that took and disrupted far too many lives also generated unreservedly Māori responses, often paying attention to whānau and community health and wellbeing. Dr Aroha Harris ponders iwi Māori capacity to mobilise throughout the 20th and 21st Century.
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Life on the curve: stories of essential workers in times of war
Virginia Gow
Contemporary Reflections Grant Recipient
Virginia Gow comes from a family of medical specialists and essential health workers, some who served in the First World War and the 1918 influenza pandemic, allows for an interesting outsider-insider vantage point on the concept that our fight against Covid-19 has been like a war.
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Names not numbers
Christopher Pugsley
Lieutenant Colonel (Retired), ONZM, DPhil, FRHistS
Christopher Pugsley, reflects on the upcoming Anzac Day in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, and how we still remember those who were killed during war and those returned service men and women from all conflicts.
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Reflections in the Port: Pandemics & the Moana Cosmopolitan
Emily Parr
Contemporary Reflections Grant Recipient
Emily Parr reflects on the fifty three years that have passed between her and her great-great-grandmother; Louisa Kronfeld, and the stories and experiences that connect them across the Moananui-a-Kiwa.
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Centenary of the Anzac Day Act
Dr Boxer’s Service and the Making of Anzac Day
Dr Stephen Clarke, Making History Ltd.
100 years ago Anzac Day 1920 — the fifth anniversary of Gallipoli — was declared the most solemn and impressive to date. Unlike the spontaneous first Anzac Day in 1916, and the muddled observances that followed, this was the result of a conscious effort to make Anzac Day 1920 a sacred day.
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Reflections from Māhia
Jason Renes
Contemporary Reflections Grant Recipient
The link between Rongomaiwahine’s fight against COVID-19 and my whanaunga’s World War 1 experience is how the memory of loss leads to the protection of whakapapa. In this piece Jason Renes explores his whānau biography and the memory of loss.
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Samuel Frank Noon
Madison Pine
Collection Technician, Online Cenotaph
Samuel Frank Noon, was a Malaya and Thailand Veteran, he was devoted to the Veteran community and played a significant role helping to organise the Auckland War Memorial Museum Anzac Day ceremony. In March 2019, Madison Pine spoke to Eileen Noon about her beloved husband Sam.
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