Willie Apiata

It isn’t every day you get to hold the Victoria Cross and it’s certainly something special to be in the company of a man who has the life sentence of representing its values. Its mana.

I hadn’t considered what it meant to carry the burden as New Zealand’s sole living recipient of this honour of courage and selflessness. But I’m aware now. He feels the weight of the nation and at the same time is so proud. For his family, his brother’s in arms and for NZ as a whole. This was no nancey man, no political spin, no elitist egoism – This man carries the cross with genuine humility.

My most memorable excerpts from the address were interwoven between a lovely and natural Billy T laugh and the strong family connection – especially with his mother. The young Willie was excited to be accepted into the armed forces but had no means of travel from his remote rural home to the enrolment centre. So he hitchhiked. To his surprise a large, black car pulled over and offered to give him a lift. They asked him where he was going and he told them the army recruitment centre in Tauranga. So they delivered him right to the door – to the amazement of the soldiers on post, who were obviously concerned by the presence of a ‘gang members’ vehicle and this young Maori boy emerging from it – reporting for duty. Willie sat in the back of the car on route between two patched gang members who attempted to recruit him into their ‘team’ of Bros. He declined the offer and history was made in a firefight in Afghanistan some years later. Having been brought up in a small rural town myself who’s Maori population predominantly lived some distance out of town in various settlements, each with their own Pa – I could picture the young Willie and his life in the country. Living off the land. How natural for him to mix and mingle in Afghani villages as he fulfilled his role of meeting the locals and integrating within the tribal communities. Not so natural was his meeting with the Queen.

He and his small group of army buddies (including the soldier whom he saved by carrying him some distance between enemy and friendly fire) were given cucumber sandwiches and taught how to bow when addressing the Queen. Whilst they didn’t miss their lines one of the group forgot to stop bowing. You can imagine the boys lined up in full uniform waiting for the Queen to address each in turn and the one on the end continuing to behave in John Cleese style. As Willie explained, the Bros had to elbow him back into protocol.

Willie is retired from the services and living with his young family in the North Island. He is extremely happy and considers his role now as being a good father to his boys of whom he is extremely attached. He is touring various centres around NZ delivering his message and carrying the awards he so proudly represents. One wonders if the assistance he is receiving to help him through the mental challenges he faces each time the memories return, will be sufficient to lessen the load he carries. A certain desperation exists to share the honours with all NZ, for us to help carry the burden. Ultimately he is on his own, with another mountain to climb until people stop wanting to hear his story. Somehow I don’t think that will occur.

 I guess Sir Edmund Hillary also carried such a burden through his life – and he represented us with similar genuine humility. The mountains of Afghanistan and Nepal keep calling young NZ’s to visit them – our nation is a better place for having such men return to teach us about courage and consideration, leadership without the desire for power. Thank you Willie