Speech
Art work opening at the In Flanders Field Museum, Belgium
Ladies and Gentlemen, I greet you in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.
Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and (Sign)
May I specifically greet you: Your Worship, Luc Dehaene, Burgermaster of Ieper; Frans Lingel, Chairman of the In Flanders Field Museum; Your Excellency Peter Kennedy, New Zealand's Ambassador to Belgium; Air Vice Marshal David Bamfield, Vice Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force; Piet Chielens, Director of the In Flanders Field Museum; Kingsley Baird, Artist-in-Residence; Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thank you for inviting Susan and me to attend the opening of this work of art by Kingsley Baird, Artist-in-Residence at the In Flanders Field Museum.
I speak to you today not only in my capacity as Governor-General, that is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's representative in New Zealand, but also as a representative of the New Zealand people.
By almost every yardstick, the First World War was unlike any war that had occurred before. At its inception in 1914, people cheered and soldiers joked of being "home by Christmas."
But it would be five Christmases before the war was over and millions of people - both soldiers and civilians - would be killed or injured. The conflict that not only spanned the globe but saw the battlelines spread from the front line to the home front.
In the aftermath, homes, businesses and the fabric of whole societies lay in ruin. Empires fell, and as new nation states were born, millions of people were displaced.
With the exception of skirmishes in the South Pacific, for New Zealand, the actual fighting was far more distant. Even so, the War was among the most disruptive social experiences in our young country's history, and the most costly in terms of human life, surpassing that of the Second World War.
Of the 250,000 men of eligible age in 1914, 120,000 were mobilised. More than 50,000 injuries were sustained and the final death toll of about 18,000 represented almost 8 percent of eligible men aged 19 to 45. Many returned home as invalids. Many more were mentally scarred by the horrors they had seen. This sacrifice came from a population of just 1.1 million people. In one morning in October 1917, for example, at Passchendale, more than 800 New Zealanders died and a further 2000 were injured in what remains the most disastrous day in our modern history.
For my wife Susan and me, this amount of sacrifice was vividly brought home to us when we viewed the Commonwealth Cemetery at Tyne Cot yesterday and saw the names and headstones of so many who fell in the service of their country.
The First World War changed the way that people viewed such conflicts and artists were at the forefront of this re-evaluation. No longer was death in battle always glorified. No longer did the call to war remain unquestioned. Poets such as Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and John McCrae, whose famous poem bears the same name as this Museum, brought home to all the horrors of war.
The In Flanders Field Museum has recognised the special role of artists as "witnesses" to the carnage of war. Since 1999, it has run an Artist in Residence programme and artists from Britain, Belgium, Spain and Israel have participated.
It is with great pride that in 2007, the 90th anniversary of the epic Third Battle of Ypres, the Artist in Residence is Kingsley Baird, the first New Zealander to hold the position. I am advised that Kingsley was chosen by the Museum following a short-listing process facilitated by New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade and our country's art-funding agency, Creative New Zealand.
I cannot fault that choice. Throughout his career as an artist and teacher, the themes of memory and remembrance, loss and reconciliation have underpinned Kingsleys' work. The way that memorials can contribute to reconciliation, and communicate a sense of loss, was most publicly demonstrated in the design for New Zealand's Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, unveiled in 2004.
I am advised that Kingsley designed the work before us in collaboration with knitters in New Zealand, lace makers in Flanders and the Museum, and with the support of the New Zealand Embassy and agencies and sponsors in New Zealand. This sort of international co-operation represents the collaboration needed to ensure people from different countries can better understand each other and can promote peace.
Kingsley's mural is a challenge to everyone to learn from the mistakes of the past rather than to repeat them.
It is with great pleasure that I open this display. I am sure that in its three months on show, it will provoke much discussion and debate.
I began speaking in all the New Zealand realm languages. May I close by speaking in Maori issuing greetings and wishing everyone good health and fortitude in your endeavours.
No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa