Pūkāea and bagpipes heralded the entry into the FW Gamble Hall today of MAGS staff, students, guests and cadets at the start of a service to remember our 202 fallen Albertians.
As Dekon Tetini played the pūkāea (a long wooden wind instrument), piper Andrew Wilkie escorted guests for this special Year 9 assembly attended by Albertians and service people.
Kingston Ballantyne performed the mihi and Chase Hartely the karakia at this year’s Anzac Assembly, which also saw a performance from our Gloriana choir, singing Hope Lingers On.
Year 13 History students Jamie Wheeler and Tyler Brown spoke about our fallen Albertians, and in particular Albertians John Clarke and Geoffrey Coldham. John Clarke’s poem Sigh Not is read at the service, and Geoffrey Coldham is memorialised at MAGS with academic awards in his name still presented to this day. Both students spoke about how Anzac values of loyalty, sacrifice, integrity and resilience remained admirable and aspirational.
As at every ANZAC Service, the names of fallen Albertians were read aloud, the Ode of Remembrance was read, and a laying of wreaths was performed at our cenotaph during the Last Post and Reveille, played by student Kiri Lovatt, as the school flag was lowered and raised both inside the hall and at the cenotaph, where the names of the fallen Albertians are inscribed in stone.
The assembly was followed by a morning tea for invited guests in the W.O.H. Gibbs Room.
