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Dawn service, Anzac Day, Auckland 1986

The dawn service at the Auckland War Memorial Museum 25 April 1986. The dawn service was introduced to New Zealand in 1939 by Australian veterans who had attended a similar service in Sydney the previous year.

Credit:

Chris Maclean and Jock Phillips

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Anzac Day

Anzac Day occurs on 25 April. It commemorates all New Zealanders killed in war and also honours returned servicemen and women.

Anzac art 1916

The date itself marks the anniversary of the landing of New Zealand and Australian soldiers – the Anzacs – on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. The aim was to capture the Dardanelles, the gateway to the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. At the end of the campaign, Gallipoli was still held by its Turkish defenders.

Thousands lost their lives in the Gallipoli campaign: 87,000 Turks, 44,000 men from France and the British Empire, including 8500 Australians. To this day, Australia also marks the events of 25 April. Among the dead were 2721 New Zealanders, almost one in four of those who served on Gallipoli.

It may have led to a military defeat, but for many New Zealanders then and since, the Gallipoli landings meant the beginning of something else – a feeling that New Zealand had a role as a distinct nation, even as it fought on the other side of the world in the name of the British Empire.

Anzac Day was first marked in 1916. The day has gone through many changes since then. The ceremonies that are held at war memorials up and down New Zealand, or in places overseas where New Zealanders gather, remain rich in tradition and ritual befitting a military funeral.

Sound: Anzac Day dawn service

Hear the 1956 dawn service at St Faith's Church, Ohinemutu. It includes prayers and hymns sung in Maori and English.

Transcript

Voice 1:As the dawn of another Anzac day approaches, we gather here at the obelisk at St Faith's Church, Ohinemutu, to pay tribute to the memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice in the Boer War, the Great War and in the more recent world conflicts.

Voice 2: After the last few lines of the dedication, we'll ask everyone present to repeat those memorable words 'We will remember them.'

Anzac dedication: At this hour, upon this day, Anzac received its baptism of fire and became one of the mortal names in history. We who are gathered here, 41 years after, and upon this hallowed ground, think of the comrades who went out with us into the battlefields of past wars but did not return. We feel them still near us in the spirit. We wish to be worthy of a great sacrifice. Let us therefore once more dedicate ourselves to the service and of the ideals for which they died that we may attain the heavenly mandate of peace on earth and goodwill toward men. As the dawn is now about to pierce the night, so let their memory inspire us to work for the coming of the new light into the dark places of the world. We will remember them.

Crowd: We will remember them.

End

Radio New Zealand Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright. To request a copy of the recording, contact Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Reference number D619.1.

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