Story: Oneone – soils

Whanganui mayor Hope Gibbons places soil from Belgium at a memorial to Māori soldiers killed in the First World War, on 25 April 1925. The soil was put in a corner post labelled ‘Belgium’; the other three posts contained soil from other countries where battles took place. As it came from the places where the soldiers died, this soil would have been, in a sense, sacred.