Cpl Bill Henry Apiata VC NZSAS

act-new-zealand

Tue Jul 17 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Cpl Bill Henry Apiata VC NZSAS

Tuesday, 17 July 2007, 3:44 pm
Press Release: ACT New Zealand

Today in Parliament, the Minister of Defence moved the motion "that this House note the award of a Victoria Cross for New Zealand to Corporal Bill 'Willy' Apiata, the first such award to a New Zealand soldier in more than 60 years, and the award of the New Zealand Gallantry Decoration and the New Zealand Gallantry medal to three of Corporal Apiata's colleagues in the New Zealand Special Air Service, acknowledge that these medals reflect on the ethos, courage, high standards and training of the 1NZSAS and of the New Zealand Defence Force generally, and pay tribute to those men honoured for their leadership and outstanding bravery."

Although not debated, this motion was supported by the ACT Party and it is certainly worth further comment.

Cpl Apiata's military career began with his enlistment into the New Zealand Army on October 6 1989 as a Territorial Force soldier in the 6th Hauraki Battalion of the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment.

Cpl Apiata volunteered for full-time duty and served from July 2000-April 2001 in East Timor as a member of New Zealand's 3rd Battalion Group. When he returned to New Zealand, in April 2001, he transferred to the Regular Force of the New Zealand Army.

So much is embodied within the award of the Victoria Cross that it would be easy to say too little, for fear of not saying enough. But Cpl Apiata would understand that, because it is actions that speak your words in Ngati Tumatauenga - the Tribe of the Maori God of War and Peace - New Zealand's Army.

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By his actions in Afghanistan in 2004, and also under the intense media interest surrounding his award, Cpl Apiata has epitomised everything that is good about the two warrior cultures that blended to form this nation: courage, humility, humour, and a sense of duty.

Cpl Apiata's actions in Afghanistan silently symbolised the words of poet James Flecker, which can be found on a memorial to the unit fallen in every Special Air Service compound in the world: "We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go Always a little further: it may be Beyond the last blue mountain barred with snow, Across that angry or that glimmering sea."

By his actions, by going always a little further, Cpl Apiata carried a mate home. Both will, no doubt, find themselves staring silently at that memorial and those words many times over the years to come.

By his actions, Cpl Apiata demonstrated that which cannot be described: the warrior ethic. As told by Waiouru Army Marae administrator Eruera Brown: "On July 30 1994, we demonstrated our warrior ethic yet again. As one team, soldiers old and new, retired and serving, we picked up our house, our mantle, and carried it with tears and sweat, and the joy of the mission to its true anchored formation in accordance with the moemoea (vision). The weight of our house on our backs reminded us that it is the soldiers' lot to carry their 'houses' on their backs and move willingly to the nation's call."

A decade after soldiers picked up the wharenui at Waiouru and carried it to its true home - over approximately the same distance - in 2004, Cpl Apiata picked up his brother in arms and carried him likewise, through blood and fire to his true home.

So it is with great immense respect that I, on behalf of the ACT Party and on behalf of all New Zealanders, thank the Apiata whanau for lending the nation their son Willy. He has epitomized - and continues to epitomize - the best of Ngati Tumatauenga, the Landless Tribe, for it is our duty to protect the whole land and all people without compromise.

He Matua, He Toa, He Tuatangata.

Father, Warrior, Hero.

ENDS

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