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Researching military records

Medals

All enquiries about medals should be sent to:

NZDF Personnel Archives & Medals
Trentham Military Camp
Private Bag 905
Upper Hutt 5140
ph 04 527 5280

The New Zealand Defence Force has developed a series of links, Personnel Archives & Medals, that include details about applying for medals or replacement.

Personnel files

Find information on how to order a soldier's full military record on the NZ Defence Force website. You can also check their entry on Auckland Museum's Online Cenotaph website.

Websites

  • Kia Mau - originally designed for senior Māori-medium teachers and students.  The website focuses on two waiata and two haka that have an association with the Māori Battalion.  It also includes teacher's notes and video clips.
  • Dictionary of New Zealand Biography = Ngā Tāngata Taumata Rau – features biographies of over 3000 New Zealanders, including many people associated with the 28th Māori Battalion, such as Arapeta Awatere, Frederick Baker, Charles Bennett, James Hēnare, Wī Hūata, K.A. Keiha, Eruera Love, Haane Manahi, Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu, Apirana Ngata, Hanara Reedy, Rangi Royal and Charlie Shelford. These biographies are also available in te reo Māori.
  • The Cenotaph – developed by the Auckland Museum = Tamaki Paenga Hira, this database contains records and some photos for over 115,000 New Zealanders who served in overseas wars, from South Africa in 1899, through the First and Second World Wars to Korea, Malaya and Vietnam in the 1950s to 1970s, and even recent peacekeeping deployments.
  • Te Rau Aroha Museum – located within the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, it tells the stories of Māori participation in the armed forces, including the history of D Company, 28th Māori Battalion.
  • Nga Tama Toa - Nga Taonga a Nga Tamatoa Trust guardians of C Company oral history and memorabilia collection.
  • Gisborne Photo News - archive of this monthly serial published between 1954 and 1975. It includes a number of photographs of mostly east coast 28th Māori Battalion (and their families) after the war.

 

Film and Television

  • Maori Battalion - March to Victory (1990) – produced, directed and written by Tainui Stephens, and narrated by actor George Henare, this television documentary tells the stories of five men who served with the Māori Battalion during the Second World War.
  • Ngarimu VC (1993) - This documentary tells the story of Te Moananui a Kiwa Ngārimu (VC). It looks at his life and features archival footage and interviews with Ngārimu's friends and family in Ruatoria, and Battalion comrades
  • Tama Tū (2004) – an award-winning short film written and directed by Taika Waititi and produced by Whenua Films. Six Māori Battalion soldiers camped in Italian ruins wait for night to fall. In the silence the bros-in-arms distract themselves with jokes.
  • The Years Back - Charts New Zealand's 6th Infantry Brigade and Maori Battalion as they fight their way through Italy between 1943 and 1945. The documentary traces the advance north after Cassino falls and includes the bloodless capture of Padua and the Kiwi forces facing down Tito's Yugoslav partisans in Trieste.

Books

  • Ian McGibbon (ed.), The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History, Oxford University Press, Auckland, 2000
  • J.F. Cody, 28 (Maori) Battalion, War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1956 (read this work)
  • Monty Soutar, Nga Tama Toa - The Price of Citizenship: C Company 28 (Maori) Battalion 1939-1945, David Bateman, Auckland, 2008
  • Monty Soutar, Whitiki! Whiti! Whiti! E! Maori and the First World War, David Bateman, Auckland, 2019
  • Wira Gardiner, Te Mura o te Ahi: The Story of the Maori Battalion, Reed, Auckland, 1992
  • Wira Gardiner, Ake Ake Kia Kaha E! Forever Brave! B Company 28 (Maori) Battalion 1939―1945, David Bateman, Auckland, 2019

Articles

  • Kolokesa Māhina-Tuai, ‘FIA (Forgotten in action): Pacific Islanders in the New Zealand Armed Forces’, pp 139-159 in Mallon, Māhina-Tuai, Salesa’s Tangata o le moana: New Zealand and the people of the Pacific. Te Papa Press, 2012.
  • Monty Soutar, 'Māori Commanders of the 28 Māori Battalion' pp. 198-208 in Glyn Harper and Joe Hayward's Born to Lead: Portraits of New Zealand Commanders.  Exsile Publishing, 2003. (Analyses leadership at a battalion level and addresses the question of whether there is a unique Māori command style)

  • Monty Soutar, ‘The price of citizenship. Maori involvement in the Italian Campaign’, in Stefano Fusi’s (ed) To the gateways of Florence: New Zealand forces in Tuscany 1944, Oratia Media, Auckland, 2011.

Biographies

  • Arapeta Awatere, Awatere: A Soldier's Story, edited by Hinemoa Ruataupare Awatere, Huia, Wellington, 2003.

  • Patricia Grace, Ned & Katina: A True Love Story, Penguin, Auckland, 2009. (the story of Māori Battalion soldier Ned Nathan, who met and later married a young Cretan woman, Katina)

  • Paul Moon, Victoria Cross at Takrouna: the Haane Manahi story.  Huia, Wellington, 2010.

Other related publications

  • Andrew Burdan, Victory at Point 209, as told by Kawata Teepa.  Huia, Wellington, 2012. [English language version)

  • Andrew Burdan, Ngārimu: te tohu toa. [na Kawata Teepa ngā kōrero mō tēnei o ngā pukapuka]. Huia, Wellington, 2012. [Te reo Māori version]

  • Apirana Ngata, The Price of Citizenship: Ngarimu, VC, Whitcombe & Tombs, Wellington, 1943.

  • Christopher Pugsley, Te Hokowhitu a Tu: The Maori Pioneer Battalion in the First World War, Reed, Auckland, 1995.

  • C.K. Stead, Talking About O'Dwyer, Penguin, Auckland, 1999 (an historical novel based in part on a fictional Pākehā officer serving with the Māori Battalion in Crete)

  • Patricia Grace, Tu, Penguin, Auckland, 2004 (an historical novel inspired by Grace's father's own diary outlining his experiences with the Māori Battalion)

  • Louise Mataia, Odd men from the Pacific:the participation of Pacific Island men in the 28 (Maori) Battalion in the Second World War, Thesis (MA), Otago University, 2007

  • 28th Maori Battalion Association, 28th Maori Battalion (NZ) Association Final Official Luncheon. Booklet, Te Puni Kokiri, Wellington, 2012

  • 28th (Maori) Battalion, Ake, ake, kia kaha e [sound recording]: songs of the New Zealand 28 Māori Battalion.  National Library of New Zealand, Atoll, 2006.

Hoki ki runga