An item from Kevin Clements about the current war - March 2026
Interesting Articles from Tui Motu
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The Ploughshare & the Sword by Richard Shaw - May 1, 2025
Live as if Every Life Matters by Kevin Clements - August 1, 2025
The Dark Night of World Peace by Kevin Clements - March 1, 2025
Babes of Bethlehem & Gaza by Eugene Doyle - December 1, 2024
Sites of Memory by Allan Davidson - April 26, 2022
Jan Bech
Jan Bech came to Aotearoa-New Zealand from Hamburg/Germany in 1989 as a German C.O.
When his conscription call-up was due he chose instead to register as a conscientious objector.
This required a 20 months community service in Germany instead of 18 months in the army.
Jan wished to do this service in New Zealand, specifically on St Martin Island, now called Quarantine Island/Kamau Taurua in the Otago Harbour.
With the help of his Dunedin relatives, the sponsorship of a German Methodist Youth organisation(Idje) and the support of Stan Rodger, then Labour MP and Minister of Immigration, his wish became reality.
As a freshly qualified carpenter and joiner Jan used his skills in helping to modernise the island cottage and in building exquisite benches in the Island Chapel from recycled timbers of the jetty.
Jan experienced the unique mixture of using his carpentry skills with island hospitality and practical Christianity, which turned his stay on the island into a very special time in his life which, in his own words, changed his life tremendously.
Contributed with the help of Lyndall Hancock's Short History Book on St Martin Island,2008 by Heinke Sommer-Matheson,Otepoti,2026
Archibald Baxter’s Poetry
A collection of some of his works edited by Caitlin Duff: Download here
Poems
If I must dieRefaat Alareer (1979 - 2023)
Lest We Forget
Frances Palmer
for Auckland Museum's 2026 'Lest We Forget' poetry competition
Remembering War
Audrey van Ryn 12 April 2026
for Auckland Museum's 2026 'Lest We Forget' poetry competition
The Soldier and The Poet
28 July 2025
The C.O’s
6 November 2018
Kevin Clements with thanks to Leunig
22 August 2015
The Reading of the Names
11 August 2015
In The Flanders Snow
11 August 2015
The Military Museum
John Moller
a military officer in a NZ Army unit in Vietnam
The Greatest Lie
John Moller
a military officer in a NZ Army unit in Vietnam
Last Post by Carol Ann Duffy (2009)
It Will Make a Fine Hospital
by Andrew Dimitri
(from Winter in Northern Iraq, The Hippocrates Press 2019)
Ring Them Bells
by Marvin Hubbard
Witness
by Marvin Hubbard
È la solita storia: Remembering Bach Mai, Yemen, Ukraine and All the Faceless Dead
by Bob Zisk, New Mexico, 2023