1915, 2015, 2025 - ad infinitum?

This is good news for everybody in, or visiting, Wellington. It’s a - literally - big display at the national museum, Te Papa, that’s focused on the experiences of NZ servicemen and women (ie a nurse) at Gallipoli. For non-Kiwis/Aussies, that was a campaign in Turkey Türkiye in 1915, planned by Winston Churchill, pitting NZ and Australian troops against the Turks, that was a disaster for all concerned, on both sides. But it had the effect of establishing our bi-national ANZAC identity for ever after, and the date it began, 25 April, is our day of remembrance in both countries.

The exhibition opened in 2015, to mark the centenary, and was meant to close in 2018, but has been so popular that its run has been extended over and over, with its closing date now pushed out again till 2032. Getting on for 5 million people have visited it already, and I reckon not a single one of them would have failed to be moved by it. Weta Workshop’s genius was to tell the story by focusing on a single, different, moment experienced by eight real people - soldiers, doctors, the nurse - who are all constructed in minute detail, 2.4 times life size. While that makes the models’ physical perfection that much more visible and awesome, it doesn’t distract from the story each one tells, that draws you right in. I’ve visited it several times, and been gobsmacked without fail.

I have to admit, having been beforehand to the Anzac centennial ceremony at Chunuk Bair itself may have made me a bit more susceptible, but the exhibition is so stunningly well done that, honestly, no-one would be immune to the emotion that this brilliant display evokes. It’s just such a horrible shame, eh, that there are soldiers out there right this very minute, in multiple countries, reproducing these scenes in real life.