As part of the communities WW1 celebrations this installation is based around the poem of Mike Subritzky, New Zealands leading war poet and Katikati born.

He is the first New Zealand poet to have his war poetry read at Westminster Abbey (2004, by Lord Freyberg), and the first Kiwi poet to be read at ANZAC Corner (The Honourable Russell Marshall), Hyde Park, London.

What better way to present the poem but inserted into a rock from a local farm and accompanied by the portrait of WW1 soldier.

SPIRIT OF ANZAC

They clad us in the colours of the forest,
and armed us with the weapons made for war.
Then taught to us the ancient trade of killing,
and lead us to the sound of battles roar.

So give us comfort as we lay down bleeding,
and pray upon our cold and stiffened dead.
But mark our place that we might be accounted,
this foreign soil becomes our graven bed.

Now children place upon this stone a garland,
and learn of us each Anzac Day at dawn.
We are New Zealand’s dead from distant conflict,
our sacrifice remembered ever more.

Mike Subritzky