Anzac Day at home 2023

Commemorate from Home

Unable to attend in-person commemorations? This page brings you a range of additional ways to engage in remembrance.

For information on this year's in-person services at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, click here.

Lest We Forget Poetry Competition

In 2023, for our annual Lest We Forget poetry competition, writers were invited to respond to the theme of Pause for Thought. The competition was open to all ages, and we received 78 entries. The Museum would like to acknowledge our late sponsor, Michele Mann for her generous support of this programme.

Each of the eight finalists received a $150 Westfield giftcard and a voucher for the Tuitui Museum Bistro & Café.

2023 winners

18+ years age category

Julia Banks
Christina Cie
Edna Heled
Annemarie Hutton-Watt

12 – 17 years age category

Jaime-Rea Ruiterman
Saniya Lal
Harini Nellipudi
Joy Pillay

Click through to watch the finalists read their poems at Anzac Day 2023 in the Hall of Memories II.

WATCH NOW

Things to do

Explore creative ways your household can get involved this Anzac Day

RECIPE

Bake Some Anzac Biscuits

The Anzac biscuit is not only a beloved baked treat, but a delicious way to commemorate New Zealand's service men and women. From our Documentary Heritage collection, taste an iconic part of New Zealand's culinary history with this recipe from 1924.

CRAFT ACTIVIY

Make your own poppy

You can create your own poppy at home! We've put together two different methods for making poppies using whatever you have in your craft box and a little Kiwi ingenuity.

GET CRAFTING

ARTICLE

Learn to talk like an Anzac

Just as words like 'lockdown' and 'bubble' have come to define our COVID-19 lives, war spawned a new, often times humorous, language to describe the miserable, dangerous and peculiar world that soldiers found themselves in. Discover some of the phrases coined by WWI soldiers - some you may still use today!

ONLINE CENOTAPH

Place a virtual poppy

This Poppy Day, you can honour those thousands of New Zealand servicepeople without known graves, by laying a virtual poppy on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.

LAY A POPPY

Things to watch

Discover Auckland Museum's original videos

VIDEO SERIES

Life as a young Anzac soldier

In this Auckland Museum original miniseries, learn what life was like serving for New Zealand in WWI from a first person perspective.

Watch more

TIMELAPSE

Centenary Dawn Service

2015 marked 100 years since the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli. As part of the centenary commemorations, a timelapse video was filmed showing the sunrise over the Dawn Service.

PLAY

VIDEO

The Last Post Bugler

Every day at 5pm the Museum plays 'The Last Post' to signal closing for the day and to reflect our place as a War Memorial. Former Mayor of Howick Morrin Cooper tells us about recording the performance over 15 years ago and why the bugle was used during wartime.

PLAY

Things to read

As Auckland's War Memorial Museum we work year round to commemorate our service personnel through new articles and stories.

25 years of Online Cenotaph

Online Cenotaph has been commemorating the experiences of Aotearoa New Zealand’s military service for more than 25 years. Online Cenotaph is a collection of data relating to Aotearoa New Zealand’s operational military service including personal, biographical, demographic, social and military information. But it is much more than a collection of datapoints.

LONG READ

Standing Corrected

Remembrance isn't always set in stone. Learn more about our ongoing dedication to commemoration to New Zealand's service personnel with the story behind the fascinating process of corrections and additions to the names chiselled into the walls on the Rolls of Honour.

Vietnam through the lens of Lance Corporal Heremaia

Lance Corporal Te Hira Wati Heremaia served with both the New Zealand Special Air Service and as part of the New Zealand Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion. During his tours in Vietnam he took many photos, preserving his wartime experience. Our thanks to Te Hira’s granddaughter, Taylen Heremaia, who got in contact and made the generous offer to share her grandfather’s slides.