I was touched to have been invited to sing for ANZAC Day by the New Zealand Embassy to the Netherlands. The embassy organised the traditional dawn ceremony, with beautiful Maōri elements such as the karanga (a call) as we approached the war cemetery and a waiata (a community song) after the Ambassador’s speech. I sang “Going Home” and led the national anthems.

Perhaps most moving of all were the words of Atatürk from 1934: Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehemets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… you, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

For me, this captures the spirit of remembrance: reconciliation, the acknowledgment of suffering, and, through this, the avoidance of future conflict and war.

CWGC Westduin Cemetery, The Hague, the Netherlands, 25th April 2025.