Museum offers "Empire & Desire insight"

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 394, 9 July 1991, Page 8

Museum offers "Empire & Desire insight"

"Empire & Desire" is the theme for a special display at the Waiouru Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum opened recently. The display includes many photographs of New Zealand life before and during World War One, depicting the mood of the nation - the

"desire" to serve the empire. Further into the display there is various material showing a glimpse of the campaigns such as Gallipolli and Crete, which were both brain-childs of Sir Winston Churchill. Finally their is a display which represents the cost of the

campaigns - a photo wall showing portraits of the thousands of soldiers who died in WWI. The photos were published in a magazine of the time. A "triumphal arch" is featured in the display plus many photographs of the arches which were set up in almost every

town in New Zealand. The arches signify the psychological lead up to the empire's war. Royal visits also feature photo graphically. This "desire" aspect of the history shows the "boy's own annual" view of the empire and fighting for it. The reality follows, with images of Gallipolli, including some stills from recent plays and films on the subject. Incorporated in the display is a Gallipolli trench which visitors can move through to become part of the display. The museum is moving more towards this type of display, where a visitor can move among and have some feeling for the situation rather than looking at a static display from the outside. At the Gallipolli display a visitor can walk through the trench, climb onto the lookout platforms, climb the ladder as if to be "going over the top" and look through periscopes at the massive hillsides of

"The Nek". This way the visitor has a chance to feel a little of what it was like to be a soldier in the trenches. So the display moves through the perception

of Empire, the experience "of war, to the cost in terms of human life. The display is set out so visitors can view it either way and follow it logically. Like peeling back the layers of his-

tory a visitor can see what the war cost, look at the "experience" section and how that came about, then to the "Desire" section and why - what led to the involvement.