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Pioneer Battalion descendants carve a waka for Arras

The tall red-brick stepped gable of the Maison des Trois Luppars, with a small turret and stone arcades at street level, under a clear blue sky
The Maison des Trois Luppars on the Grand-Place in Arras, France JackyM59 (wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Descendants of Māori Pioneer Battalion soldiers who fought at Arras in the First World War are carving a waka bound for a museum in France. RNZ reported the project on 16 October under the headline "French museum's waka will honour soldiers' 'courageous feats'".

In a separate report, 1News said Rotorua and Arras have signed a sister-city agreement, more than a century after Māori soldiers and New Zealand tunnellers served beneath the French city.

The ground under Arras is part of that history. During the war, New Zealand tunnellers extended the old chalk quarries there so troops could shelter underground before the Allied offensive of April 1917.

Sources

  1. RNZ – Te Ao Māori
  2. 1News – Te Ao Māori