April 23, 2015
Waiata for London Anzac service
New Zealanders in London are preparing something special for tomorrow’s Anzac Day commemorations marking the centenary of the Gallipoli landing.
As well as a dawn service at Hyde Park Corner there are other services through the morning at St Paul’s Cathedral, the Whitehall Cenotaph and Westminster Abbey.
High Commissioner Sir Lockwood Smith is expecting thousands of people at the dawn service, which will end with Ngati Ranana leading the singing of the song E Pari Ra.
"A lot of people in the UK here are familiar with the haka with the performance of the All Blacks but a lot of them are not so familiar with things like waiata and we're hoping television up here will cover it, certainly TV3 will be covering it for New Zealand, and we hope more British people will see this unique aspect of our culture and the way it brings Maori and non-Maori together because there are plenty of non-Maori people who are joining the mass performance and I think it will be a very special and moving tribute," he says.
The waiata was written in 1918 by Paraire Tomoana for his relation Maku-i-te-Rangi Ellison, whose son died in the war, and it expressed the feelings of a nation in mourning.
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com