VUWSA is to lay a wreath at the ANZAC Day ceremony to be held at the Cenotaph on Lambton Quay.
This year’s Citizens’ Service of Commemoration and Wreath Laying is to be held by the Wellington City Council, in conjunction with Wellington Returned and Services’ Association and the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul.
VUWSA President Seamus Brady says he will be proud to honour those who served New Zealand in both world wars.
“Thousands of students had their studies and lives interrupted by its horrors,” he says. “At least 435 of our students were killed in action. A third of the Rugby Club’s enlisted members never came home.
“Our student magazine printed obituaries of students killed and candid accounts of what life was like in both in the trenches and during period of leave.”
VUWSA’s stance on ANZAC Day has been a controversial issue in the past. In 2009, VUWSA President Jasmine Freemantle rejected the Council’s invite to lay a wreath.
Freemantle justified the decision by saying that VUWSA had had no official go-ahead from students to observe ANZAC Day, and didn’t want to “arbitrarily” support an event for which there was no VUWSA policy.
Members of the VUWSA executive also feared the gesture would appear to condone war, which was met with much backlash from Vic students.
The wreath-laying ceremony will begin at 10:20am, and will be moved inside the Cathedral of St Paul in case of poor weather.