THE MOUNTAIN SIGNAL - Special thanks to the volunteers and visitors who help make this site grow and bloom!! Cheers, Olwyn

Photos of the month - Te Reo Hotunui o Te Moana nui a Kiwa, or, The Deep Sigh of the Pacific. Unveiled 27 March 2021.

Pacific soldiers fought alongside New Zealand soldiers and lives were lost. The Pacific Islands Memorial at Pukeahu National War Memorial in Wellington, N.Z. sits above State Highway One, on which traffic crawls through the Arras Tunnel - named after the tunnels from the First World War in France. During WW1 the New Zealand Tunnelling Company completed two vast quarry networks underneath the city of Arras, in northern France. Post-WWII the tunnels were closed, but sometime after they were rediscovered in 1990, a conch shell was found near a pillar inscribed by Private Angene Angene – one of a small group of Cook Islanders who served with New Zealanders on the Western Front alongside Private Isaac Solomona and T Kopunaiti – enlisted in Rarotonga and survived the war. The shell – a Chicoreus Ramosus – is of tropical Indo-Pacific origin and there’s speculation one of the trio took it on their journey and kept it while in Arras as a reminder of their home. The shell location in 2021 is unknown as it is in a private museum somewhere in Europe.

The memorial stands four-and-a-half metres tall, and is intricately engraved, designed by Michael Tuffrey. There's a whole lot of symbolism. The conch is symbol that is used right through the Pacific and reflects the Pacific. A conch shell is used to call our peoples to come together and it is like our last post, when someone blows the bugle. Stones from around the region, - Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Niue Solomon Islands, among others were dropped inside a hole before construction commenced and now buried underneath the conch. Burying a mauri stone is a mark of respect to Papa, the earth mother, and bestows a blessing on the site and the buildings placed there. Poppies etched with a base of a fired artillery shell in each centre - symbolises the artillery. The memorial, which adds to six other international memorials at Pukeahu, cost $450,000 and was funded by the Government.

Beautiful -see the poppies.

Please email me any photographs and old postcard images of South Canterbury for the site! Thanks.   Adopt A Cemetery in South Canterbury

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My viewers know more than I do.  We are very interested in what you know. We want to help you share.  volunteer: There are many opportunities for people to become involved in the GenWeb Project which is dedicated to making genealogical information available online for free.  South Canterbury war memorial transcriptions, cemetery listings, electoral rolls, Wises Directory information, school reunion announcements are areas where you can get involved. Does not take any special skills other than the desire to help others.  Also looking for volunteers to do lookups in genealogical material.  If anyone knows of information sources for South Canterbury or if you want to volunteer to help with lookups etc., please send me an email . I am looking for three more photos on South Canterbury scenes, buildings, events etc. with similar dimensions.  Images welcomed.

Keeping Internet Genealogy Free. If you have an interest in South Canterbury this site will be a good starting place.  My mission is to provide local history and family history scholars information to help facilitate research.  If you would like to contribute information to these pages, please email me.

NZGenWeb Regional Projects are dedicated to the free exchange of public - domain records via the internet. Volunteer's are still needed to adopt other NZ regions.

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